Lighting the Maersk

[Hrw-Amen]

Sorry, but I cannot find any reference to this in the search.

I was wondering if anyone has managed to find a way to add power function lights to the Maersk train, at least in the correct place where they are on the model in the first place. It does not seem to cover this in the instructions on how to power it?

Any links would be useful.

Thanks.

[JopieK]

Google is your friend:

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/649/10219-maersk-train-light-modification-looking-for-ideas

[WesternOutlaw]

I think it's been discussed here as well but I can't seem to find it either.

[Kryne]

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=53438&st=105

post 107 has a nice way to do it, and i think there are some others on page 7

[MCNwakeboard]

Google is your friend:

http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/649/10219-maersk-train-light-modification-looking-for-ideas

Let me know if you need more pictures or details from the model referenced here.

[Hrw-Amen]

Let me know if you need more pictures or details from the model referenced here.

Yes, i thought of that but wanted to keep the cheese bricks. I was thinking though of widdening the front plate to four as discussed. Maybe I'll have a play about with it a bit. But if there are photos of the front plate and how that has been done as a four wide section it may save me some time. But I'll probably still fiddle with it anyway.

[Pet-Lego]

Yes, i thought of that but wanted to keep the cheese bricks.

I wanted the same, but had to drill a hole in a black 2x3 plate for this.

Follow this link for pictures

[JamesP]

I wanted the same, but had to drill a hole in a black 2x3 plate for this.

Once you start hacking @ brick, that leads to crazyness...

Like, 7 LED's on seperate channels of DCC, and a 4 cylinder "engine" driven by a 9V gear motor in the Maersk loco, with 2 DCC chips to control it all. 3mm LED's will fit in the rod sized holes, but there are still places I had to glue/drill lego to make this all work.

LED's are arranged as 2x ditch lights (fwd only), 2x headlights (fwd), 2x headlights (rear), 1x cab light. All wired to .1" connectors, to allow the whole lot to be disassembled. If I had another 9V motor to hack & slash at, I would have 2 9V motors powering, but at present I only have 1.

James Powell

[kyphur]

If I had another 9V motor to hack & slash at, I would have 2 9V motors powering, but at present I only have 1.

WHy limit yourself? I take it the 9v Motor is pulling power from 9v tracks, if that's the case then why not share the power with a PF Train Motor?

[JamesP]

WHy limit yourself? I take it the 9v Motor is pulling power from 9v tracks, if that's the case then why not share the power with a PF Train Motor?

Some all of my track is fairly dirty, and I prefer to run with multi pick ups rather than just a single set. Hence, my prefrence is to run with 2 motors to aid in power pick up. I considered taking a PF motor and using it to free up a motor, but I am short on motors which I am willing to refit to the way that I have wired that particular train.

James

[JopieK]

DCC sucks for LEGO. LEGO is not heavy enough. I did quite some tests and they did not go too well (a colleague made brass replacement wheels)...

And besides that, DCC is a very heavy protocol, with Arduino (or even just a normal Atmel or PIC microcontroller) you can implement all thing you want.

Johan

[JamesP]

I fail to understand how you figure Lego isn't heavy enough for DCC- it works fine in N gauge (1:160th scale), so why wouldn't it work for 1:48ish? The protocol is a very durable way of transmitting the signal, that's not what is getting lost. I'm just loosing power/contact completely with the motor, which would affect any track supply equally. The IR systems avoid that, at the price of a battery pack & IR reciever (window @ the top). 6 of one, half a dozen of another as to which is worse. I understand TLC's stance, because battery toys can be sold to younger children than mains powered ones. But, for the purposes I do, 9V is usually easier to deal with. 6 car (&3 engine) Santa Fe would positively eat batteries if run on PF. Same with a lot of the longer trains I run.

Protocol wise, I run a quite large OO scale (1:76th) layout under/interlaced with the Lego. Lego has the advantage of being "2" wire in comparison to the OO scale layout, which has in excess of 100 detection blocks, and around 50 turnouts which are DCC/computer controlled. I find the DCC to be OK to deal with, but my day job is as a controls technician, so hey ho, what do I know?

James

[Hrw-Amen]

I have had a fiddle with my Maersk and have come up with a way to have lights from PF and keep the sloping cheese bricks. No drilling, but I have had to make it 4 studs wide and put the lights side by side rather than top to bottom. This is not a brilliant photo, but when I get time to set up some track to run it on over the holidays I'll try and take some better ones. Still you can get the idea of what I have done.

Before anyone complains, yes I have tiled the whole train as I did not like the look of all those studs sticking up in odd places. I know not everyone will agree, but that is what I prefer.