Lighting Trouble w/Emerald Night

[Jahab]

Complete rookie on trains. I recently got Emerald Night (to circle my Christmas tree this season), but, as all things train are simply too dear, I purchased everything I needed to get some movement save the IR remote. I held out for the AAA battery box and finally connected the whole rig (except for the remote). When I turn on my battery box (yes, same channel as receiver) I expect the lights to come on up front. Alas, the only light that appears is the green light from the battery box. Should the lights only work in unison with the IR remote or should I rip everything apart and begin anew?

Thank you for your help. This train is kind of ugly with the PF additions...

[AndyC]

If the lights are connected via the IR reciever (as in the instructions) then they will only come on when the appropriate signal comes from the remote control.

[Snapshot]

The lights are connected to the receiver, not the battery so will only come on when told to by the remote control.

Edited November 13, 2011 by Snapshot

[kyphur]

If you want the lights to be on whenever the battery box is on then you need to attach a PF Lights directly to the battery box.

You can do this by stacking the connection on top of the IR Receiver's connector or using a PF Extension Cable connected directly to the battery box and both the IR Receiver & PF Lights connected to the Extension.

either 8886:

(at BrickLink, at LEGO)

or 8871:

(at BrickLink, at LEGO)

[Snapshot]

If you want the lights to be on whenever the battery box is on then you need to attach a PF Lights directly to the battery box.

Unfortunately, this won't work - I just tried it to confirm my suspicions. The lights are controlled by the IR receiver so use the inner pair of wires, just like the motors. The AAA battery only supplies power on the outer pair, for use by the receiver. It does work with the LiPo battery but you have to use the built-in speed controller to provide power to the inner pair; just turning the battery on is not enough.

[kyphur]

Unfortunately, this won't work - I just tried it to confirm my suspicions. The lights are controlled by the IR receiver so use the inner pair of wires, just like the motors. The AAA battery only supplies power on the outer pair, for use by the receiver. It does work with the LiPo battery but you have to use the built-in speed controller to provide power to the inner pair; just turning the battery on is not enough.

Ah, well I use LiPos in most of my trains so I never encountered this issue. I did know that the LiPo Speed Controller will adjust the brightness of the lights though.

Nice to know that you need a LiPo if you want to have Lights always on when the Battery Box is on.

[WesternOutlaw]

Welcome to Train Tech Jahab. I suggest you introduce yourself as this is your first post on EB. You can tell us a little bit about yourself in the Train Tech Registry or in EB's community forum.

I've changed the title of this post to make it a little more meaningful. Good luck with your lighting issue.

[domboy]

The lights are connected to the receiver, not the battery so will only come on when told to by the remote control.

I actually think it's really cool that the lights can be controlled independently from the motor.

I can't rag on anyone for being cheap as I'm cheap too and bought the AAA box instead of the rechargeable battery, but after buying everything except the remote one will have spent about $45 already, another $13 for the remote to make it all work seems worth it to me. Besides the AAA box plus remote is still cheaper than the rechargeable box... I think....

[kyphur]

For me it isn't about being cheap or not. If I only use 1 Channel per train then I have the option to independently control up to 8 trains whereas if I use a channel just to turn on the lights then I can only have up to 4.

My layout will easily allow for more than 4 trains to run simultaneously:

3 In my town: 1 CTA (City Transit Authority, think L or subway within city limits), 1 RTA (Regional Transit Authority, think Train from the suburbs into the big city) and finally a Local Freight Loop.

1 on the Perimeter Loop: Which will represent a Cross Country Line. It would be nice to have a second loop attached here (and I just might with a double crossover above my tunnel (next to the bridge giving me a smaller (3 or 4 table) elevated loop which would then raise my total isolated loop lines to 5.

Now of course I'll need at least 1 Shunter on duty in the switching yard and ferrying rolling stock to the Freight Yard so now I'm up to 6.

My Turntable is currently connected to an IR Receiver and uses the smaller IR Remoter for control so there's 7 Frequency/Channel combinations used up.

Eventually I'd like to wire my Switches (Points) but that would be hard-wiring not IR Remote (unless TLG gives us addressable WiFi or BT at a reasonable price). At that point my Turntable might get converted to hard-wire but TLG lacks a momentary switch (that I'm aware of).

Finally I would really like a Remote Cargo Crane to transfer containers between Ship/Train/Truck.

So as you can see those 8 little frequency/channels can get crowded really quickly!