Digitization of BB 36001 from Jouef - part 4

 

And voila!

Digitization of BB 36001 from Jouef - part 3

 

I left off where the two micro LEDs for the cabin lighting were not working.

Cabin Lighting

As it turns out, I had two issues:

• One of the micro LED was dead
• The other was not connected correctly - the longer wire is the anode or + or red cable, whereas the shorter wire is the cathode or - or black wire

Once I figured that out, it worked very nicely on each side:

I had to tweak the decoder CVs a lit bit:

• Cabin light is now only controlled by F21 and the driving direction
• For each of AUX3 and AUX4, I changed on delay, off delay, fade in/out, and timeout

I then glued the micro LEDs in the cabins - I used Zap-A-Gap CA glue:

Cabin Painting

Since there's cabin light, we need to make the inside look more realistic. First, some pictures of the real cabin:

http://uxtobirza.free.fr/trains/voir_loco.php?Classe=BB%2036000

https://www.flickr.com/photos/teetee1986/28987578498

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0899.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0936.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0938.jpg

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BB36000_-_IMG_0963.jpg

Let's see what we can do ...

Digitization of BB 36001 from Jouef - part 2

 

Let's continue ...

Digitizating

I'm using those two products from Miniatures Passion:

• MPPE 469 - a new PCB board
• MPPE BB36000 658 - a ESU LokSound

The manual is here:

I carefully labeled every wire since it would not have been easy to find out which one is which. Once the labeling was done, it was very straight forward and it worked on the first try!

Cabin Lighting

As per the manual, it is possible to use the AUX outputs for cabin lighting, or other accessories. Similar to what I did for the RIO NPDC, I will be using the micro-LEDs:

 

Looking at the decoder, it seems that AUX3 and AUX4 are already configured for that use under function F21:

Unfortunately, that didn't work ... More work needed!

Digitization of BB 36001 from Jouef - part 1

The BB 36001 from Jouef (ref HJ2027) is a bit special for me. It was the only Astride with the Carmillon logo and I saw it - although maybe not this number - passing through Ascq!

Prototypical engine

Here are a couple of pictures of the real engine:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobiwannn/8205993633/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/133956498@N04/24701753750/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulg40100/51319101390/

Unboxing

Here is the model:

Opening

It is very easy to open the model: there are no screws, just pull gently on the sides and the chassis will come down fairly easily.

As seen on the pictures above, the white and red lights are made of CMS LEDs with light guides. Unfortunately, one of the guides is damaged, so I have to assess how to put it back nicely. Worst case scenario, since it is the guide for a red LED, I would put a conductor in the opposite cabin, since red lights are not on when pulling fret.

Digitizating

As we can see above, it is possible to install a 8-pin decoder, but those tend to have limited functions. I'm installing a sound decoder and a new PCB board from Miniatures Passion:

BB 516646

 

This is an 16500 engine I wanted to convert to DCC sound for a while now; to go with the Lima RIO units.

The decoder is from Miniature Passion:

I programmed the decoder on my test bench:

I then brought the engine onto the layout to register it on the ECoS through RailCom, but somehow it didn't pick it up as a DCC decoder, but rather a M4. I have no idea why!!

ESU lighting for passenger cars

 After my previous post, I did a bit more research and came across those two videos:

I found the neon effect, the red taillights, and the control of sections to be very valuable. The lighting kit has its own decoder, so compared to the previous solution, this allows for much more features.

List of components

ESU has several items for interior lighting:

• ESU 50708 - Digital LED lighting strip "warm-white"
• ESU 50709 - Digital LED lighting strip "yellow"

• ESU 50710 - PowerPack for LED lighting strip
• ESU 50707 - Power wheel pickup for LED lighting strip

• ESU 50705 - red taillights
• ESU 50704 - "warm-white" cabin light

By default, the ESU 50708 and 50709 come with red taillights, so ESU 50705 could be interesting for fret wagons. Both ESU 50708 and 50709 have an AUX output, which means that that decoder could control the driver cabin light with ESU 50704.

Power wheel pickup

ESU 50707 seems to work quite well, but there are alternative solutions. Probably, the easiest one is from Miniature Passion with kits specific for each type of cars:

• MP906 & MP906-2 for LS Models Corail cars
• MP902 for Roco UIC and Vitrains VB2N

Another option is explained in this video.

Digital LED lighting strip

The English documentation is here. I found the documentation a bit complex, and using the LokProgrammer makes it actually very easy. Here's what I've done to have the "Neon" effect"

I did the same adjustment to each group of LEDs and uploaded the settings into the decoder.

Here's a summary of the functions to call:

• F0 F0 turns on the red rear light (direction of travel)
• F1 switches the external load (AUX1)
• F2 switches all the LEDs together
• F3 switches the LEDs 1-3 (group A)
• F4 switches the LEDs 4-5 (group B)
• F5 switches the LEDs 6-7 (group C)
• F6 switches the LEDs 8-9 (group D)
• F7 switches the LEDs 10-11 (group E)

Here's the neon effect on my LED strip:

The next step is to decide between yellow and warm-white and then to mount those into my passenger cars:

• Lima & Jouef RIO Nord-Pas-de-Calais
• Trix & Märklin TEE
• Vitrains VB2N Nord-Pas-de-Calais
• LS Models Corail +
• Lima & Os.Kar M4 and M4m
• Electrotren TEE Talgo
• Models World MW1802
• LS Models Corail + Carmillon
• LS Models I11, I10, and I6
• Models World MW1702
• LS Models DB Sleeping cars
• LS Models M6

Digitization of a BB 67000 - Part 2 - Lighting kit

This is the second part of the digitization focusing on getting better lighting for the engine (see here for part 1).

Wiring the lighting module

There are 3 wires to solder: blue (BL), red (RO), and white (BC). The instructions are rather clear on the wiring.

It does not say on the instructions, but the wires must be soldered as shown above. The connectors are pointing up, so the wires would otherwise have to be folded. 

Now, I put the decoder in place and we are ready for some testing.

Testing the lighting module

The white lights for one direction:

And the red lights for the other direction:

In a video:

Now, testing both sides:

And the video:

Installing the lighting module

This is when I realized this body needs a 3-light module and not a 2-light module. I switched to another body from BB 67382 (Lima reference 208576).

Below, on the left side, this is a 3-light engine. On the right side, this is a 2-light engine.

One thing not mentioned in the instructions is that as you remove the light guide, it will leave an empty space inside the body and will not look nice when looking towards the front of the engine. I, therefore, decided to cut the 4 small pieces of light guide on each side and glue them in place. They should be flush with the body.

I then used Super Glue to glue the light circuit board with the 3D-printed brace:

The next step is actually a bit tricky; I followed the suggestion from the instructions to use double-face tape to position the lighting module on the body of the engine. I've tried some clear and very thin tape, but it would not be sufficient contact between the module and the body. I opted for a much thicker tape that is used for frames. Look below for the white tape:

A quick test to make sure everything works:

Now, when I tried to put the body and the chassis back together, I had to force quite a bit. This is because of the thickness of the white tape and ultimately I had to use a flat screwdriver as a lever:

And that is it!

The outcome

Here's the final result: