Resistor for Athearn Board


G

grumpybob

Lake Shore Lines
One of the members of our group has a number of GP60M and B series engines from Athearn. They keep blowing the bulbs as apparently the current resistors on the light boards are not providing enough resistance to keep from blowing the 1.5volt bulbs that are on the boards. Currently there is 14 volts on the rails as we are running an NCE system. Short of trying to reduce the power to the track, anyone have any idea what additional resistors can be added to the bulbs to keep this from happening?

Bob A.
 
Are they blowing right away, or do they burn a bit before the 'pow!'?

Usually, they say that around 950ohms works, as a start.....

Kennedy
 
Odd. I think it is Digitrax, that makes a decoder with built in resistor to use the 1.5v Athearn bulbs, I wonder if that might work better then the current set up?
 
Kennedy,

Yes, they do run for a while before they blow. I will try around the 950 ohm resistor.




Josh,


Yes, Digitrax does. What we were trying to do is use the light boards that come with the Athearn units, that way it would be just plug and play. I normally pull the boards, and put 16 volt bulbs in. We were just trying to save a little work.

Sometimes it just doesn't pay to do things quickly.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey, I understand! I'm lazy the same way, though I've not yet tested an install with 1.5v bulbs... I need a DCC system...
 
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