DCC Hardwiring Confusion...

[Souty Train Guy]

Hi all,

I was wondering about hardwiring a Bachmann Class 170 (171) to DCC and came accross instructions on their website. However, the wiring diagram for wiring the lighting was different than normal:

Normally, I wire up the red and white directional lighting to the relevant functions, and then use the blue wire as positive. ie. White wire to headlight, red wire to rear lights, blue wire as common positive.

 

However, the bachmann article describes how you simply connect the original lighting circuit to the white and yellow wires, without using a blue wire, and using the original analogue arrangement. ie. white wire to one polarity of lights, red wire to the other polarity of lights

Would both work?

[Chrissaf]

Some diesel locos (particularly Bachmann) have a full PCB (Printed Circuit Board) that provides the interface for the lighting circuits that enable DC Analogue support. Now from the text you have written I am assuming that this model is not a 'DCC Ready' loco with a decoder socket, as you haven't specifically stated this important bit of information. Thus if the loco was factory fitted with lights to run as a DC Analogue loco, then the PCB will contain a rectifier circuit that generates the 'positive return' (equivalent to the decoder blue wire function) directly on the PCB itself.

.

As to whether you could use either wiring method, I could only answer that if I had access to the full modification instructions to review and your physical loco in front of me to run my multi-meter diagnostic tests on. So personally, in the absence of that capability I would go with the instructions that BM have provided.