Folks,

Having trouble getting headlight bulbs in G. Have blown 5 or 6 GOW bulbs this weekend and not got any ideas left. Using Micronics 1.5 volt, 40ma GOW bulbs, and have tried a car 12v ballast bulbs as have done for years, have tried resistors, and seem to have the same main issue.

I am model railroading indoors in Gn3 and have 18-19 volts on the track. I am playing with an older Digitrax DH-83 4amp decoder. I tested and seem to get about 16.x volts across the White and Blue wires (headlight and common).

Thought about the 16v bulbs but they are slightly bigger bulb. And several loco headlights use AA and AAA Mag lite reflectors, and the 'bulb hole' is small.

I know many smaller scale folks are using 1.5v bulbs, and have 12-16 volts on the rails. What are you doing to make the bulbs work? And also not 'blow' when hit with the initial voltage when the decoder is selected?

THANKS, Frolin Marek Marek Mountain Railroad San Antonio, Texas www.Frolin.net

-- Frolin Marek (FrolinMarek@att.net), October 07, 2001

Answers

See this link for a good explanation and help.

http://home.neo.rr.com/mrwithdcc/hints.html#lights

Dale Gloer

-- Dale Gloer (dale.gloer@sympatico.ca), October 08, 2001.

us a 470 ohm resistor in series with each bulb. Or try using LEDs. See http://www.trainweb.org/girr/tips/tips7/white_led_tips.html

- gws

-- George Schreyer (gwschreyer@mac.com), October 09, 2001.