Please Help

T

Thirdrail68

Registered
Can someone help please.

I posted a problem I have with a new Piko Railbus but I have had no replies. Must be someone who has one of these models who could spare sometime to advise.

It's a new railbus and I have just installed the piko DCC decoder and sound module. The problem I have is with the lights and cannot fathom it out and I'm thinking that the trailing car is faulty. Before I converted to DCC, travelling forward the headlights and rear reds on the powered car illuminate. The trailing car has no lights working. When travelling in reverse the trailer car headlights illuminate, no red and the powered car has headlights and red illuminated. I have connected the jumper leads as per instructions.

Now I have converted to DCC all the above happens but this time when travelling in reverse with trailing car leading the trailing car headlights are on as are the powered car headlights and now the Reds are mixed with the White headlights at the rear of the powered car. Really odd

For something so simple ie connecting two jumper leads is beginning to be a thorn in my side.

Can anyone advise me on what it could be

Thank you

Steve
 
Even before your conversion it seems to me that the lights were not working correctly. I have never seen the railbus. Are the two units wired together? Why no lights on the trailer, except in reverse?
 
I think the problem is very few people will have the Piko version, and even fewer will have fitted the decoder/sound module..

I had problems with the LGB version, but this would not help you.
 
Do you get "mixed" red and white lights at both ends of the powered car? If so, that could indicate the lights are still powered by the track and not via the decoder.
I had to repair the connecting cables for a mate's Piko railbus some time ago, but I've never investigated the innards.
 
Not wanting to put my head above water. Is there actually wiring and red bulbs in the trailer unit. I had a feeling it's add on parts, like interior lighting. The anaolgue is fully wired in powered vehicle and the trailer via cables lights the headlights in what is effect reverse, the red would show on the powered end. Can I check mine at Wickham on Saturday.
Reading your post have you connected a Piko decoder is it a plug and play. lights front and lights back are easily put round the wrong way and i think yellow is the universal negative for both forward and reverse lights.
 
jimmytrains_0 said:
... i think yellow is the universal negative for both forward and reverse lights.
Click to expand...
NMRA standard DCC colours would be white for front light, yellow for rear light and blue for common positive. OTOH I've no idea if Piko follow that standard (I don't think LGB do!)
 
Thank you all.
Ntpntpntp - when I run powered car alone on DCC all lights fine. White headlights, rear reds. When trailer car connected, in reverse is when I get red/white mixed at end of power car. The instructions are clear, plug and play piko decoder, all wires are connected via a diagram. The two jumper cables then connect light power from power car to trailer.

Jimmy trains - all I have done is wire the decoder as per instructions. The interior lights are an add on but front/rear are standard. Thing is the rear red lights didn't work on trailer car on DC.
 
Not being familiar with the railbus, is it possible to hook up the trailer car either way round? ie. does it have the jumper sockets at both ends so you can daisy chain 2 trailer cars? Just wondering if maybe the trailer car is the wrong way round and somehow it's feeding back to the power car lighting?
 
You can switch round yes but the couplers are on the ends that are meant to couple together. If I'm not mistaken I did try this and still no red lights on trailer
 
OK, just theorising. I seem to have a vague memory/thought that my mate's railbus had some sort of arrow on the underneath indicating which way round to hook up the trailer, but I'm probably just hallucinating!

If the powered car lights are all fine until you plug in the trailer, that would indicate a problem with the trailer car.
 
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It's so annoying.

Yep trailing car is a complete mystery. I normally am able to work things out but this has got me stumped and don't know how to rectify.
Such a shame, lovely model and bloody expensive
 
So... on analogue DC do/should the trailer car lights work on their own? I'm thinking if the trail car has pickups wired to the lighting, there'd be diodes in the circuit to make things directional. Under DCC these would no longer work - if anything I'd expect head and tail lights to be on all the time.

It's difficult to work out the wiring from the exploded diagrams I've found so far. I can't fathom whether the jumpers carry track power, lighting connections or both?

[edit]
Hmm... having read around a bit more, it seems the trailer car doesn't have track pickups? So the jumpers are purely for the lights.
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Possibly stating the bleeding obvious - Have you tried asking the seller of the card you have installed or e-mailing Piko with your query/problem ? Germans usually do English. Max.
 
From what I read, the main car with DCC is perfectly fine alone, plug in the trailer and the lighting gets mixed up. It appears to me that the trailer was never designed or tested to work under DCC control. You will probably have to figure out the wiring to the trailer and the wiring inside the trailer.

Clearly there is an interconnection between lights that is giving you an issue.

Greg
 
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