JackKynaston Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Hello guys, I have been using DC for all my life, and Have only recently invested in DCC as I wanted to try sound. I recently bought a Hornby King class, and was looking for coaches to go with it. I was preferably looking at coaches with interior lighting, however that's when it dawned on me that these coaches were wired for DC use. My question is, if I was to purchase a rake of coaches, would I have to tweak the wiring/ convert them to take AC to be able to run them with my DCC locomotives? For example, R4144 has interior lighting and is something I was looking at to purchase. Any help would be amazing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rog RJ Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 No need for any concerns, they will be perfectly ok on DCC, bearing in mind the track is live all the time, so the lights will be on at all times unless you have a dead section where you can park them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ntpntpntp Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 Generally speaking they will work fine. Because you're running the lights continuously at full voltage some people change 12V bulbs for 15V or so. If they're LEDs then there'll already be a rectifier in the circuit within the coach, to cope with DC running in either direction. So no problem with the "pseudo AC" of the DCC power. With LEDS you may see a little flicker especially if filmed on a video camera if there isn't a smoothing capacitor in the circuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted June 16 Share Posted June 16 DCC is not AC and these coaches have all the necessary components to use DCC or DC to light the lights. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 If your coaches have leds then they must have a rectifier in them of sorts otherwise the lights wouldn't work when going backwards, although I did pick up some lighted carriages where the previous owner forgot to do that. As to the lighting I agree with everyone else they will work permanently, although they might be a bit brighter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesXRN Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 DC/DCC never occured to me when I put a rake of lit Pullmans on my track. The lights worked on DCC so I'm pleased that I didn't fry them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fishmanoz Posted June 18 Share Posted June 18 For DCC, the same magic that powers the decoder is also used to power the lights - also known as a bridge rectifier, a smoothing capacitor and if necessary a current limiting resistor. And when the smoothing capacitor in the decoder is very large by way of adding an extra, it is called a stay alive. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JackKynaston Posted 8 hours ago Author Share Posted 8 hours ago Thank you all for the copious amount of information on the subject, I very much appreciate it 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now