Greg
You have proceeded to answer questions that I never asked, don't need to know and don't want to know the answers to. If you want to know the answers to the questions you have yourself posed may I suggest you open a new thread and ask them for yourself. The most useful answer to the question I originally asked was not given in this thread, but actually sent to me privately in a PM, without any fuss or fanfare.
David
You really don't get it. Please at least read the entire post.
1. you want control of the smoke unit, stated by you
2. the original smoke unit was NOT connected to the decoder, but you requested how to wire it to the new decoder
3. connecting the smoke unit to the decoder involves making SURE that the smoke unit does not draw too much current.
4. we are researching what the capability of the decoder is, and my research came up with 300 milliamperes capability on function outputs.
So, I was working hard to make sure you did not blow up your decoder, and also others are trying to get to the bottom of why there are 2 different specifications. I spent a lot of time to try to find any clues or proof of versions, changes, etc.
(by the way, I have pictures of the old and the new decoder and the driving transistors for the function outputs look identical)
So you have a whole group of people trying to help you, and you admitted you don't know anything about it,
BUT
instead of being appreciative, you apparently believe you know enough to tell people that we are asking useless questions.
You admit you
don't know anything at all, but you now
know enough to tell us we are asking useless questions. (repeated in hopes of getting through)
Personally, whan I ask for help, the last thing I would do is tell my helper he does not know what he is talking about.
If I did, you can be sure he won't help me again!
Greg