Dapol have said they are sending out their new class 86 loco's in the next few days.. :claphappy:
anyone interested?
cheers
Mark
Having read the reviews, im waiting in anticipation and will wait for the release and have a look when they arrive in my local shop
Hi,
Im interested in the CS livery....and waiting for.
Cheers.
Marco
Eeek, if it's true then that hot place a long way down must be frozen over.
I've only been after a BR blue one since I started N gauge 5 or so years ago...
Have they changed them to Next18 decoders? I recall reading that somewhere. It's certainly taken a very long time for some new liveries. They're nice models though.
Looks like it, certainly what Neil at Dapol said - https://digest.dapol.co.uk/forum/n-gauge-models/electric/class-86/7600-class-86-1st-decorated-samples?p=8524#post8524
Interesting. They obviously see merit in it. Presumably not going to be any more "sound friendly" though, just a new PCB.
According to Hatton's Website they have a Next18 socket.
As my old ones all how lighting issues, I like to see what they have done internally with the Next18 socket and whether there are any extra features supported, specifically if they have done a better job on the lights.
Regards,
John P
I'd be interested to know if anyone has figured out the lighting on this new batch of NeXt18 86s!
So for DC operation, there are dip switches so that you can (semi-permanently) turn off front & rear lights. I didn't try tweaking any of that, I left it as default and in each direction front and rear lights worked fine according to direction of travel. There's 1 dip switch on the PCB and the other is a part of the NeXt18 blanking plug.
I have now added a Zimo MX618N18 decoder (4 function decoder). This is supposed to give me independent control of the rear red lights and there is a note that "you will need to consult the decoder manual to correctly configure the decoder for operation of the locomotive lighting". There is also a table which tells me:
Front light (FLf) = Front white lamps
Rear light (FLr) = Front red lamps
AUX1 = Rear white lamps
AUX2 = Rear red lamps
I'm finding the lights a little bit quirky.
So if I plug in the decoder then front lights work in 1 direction, rear lights fine, rear lights can be switched on and off with F2. Front lights work fine with F0. That seems fine. So I'm running in direction 1 with F0 and F2 on and this gives me front and rear lights as expected.
If I change direction then the (now) front lights remain red, the (now) rear lights have changed to red. I can turn on the front lights using F1 and turn off the (now) forward red lights using F2.
In other words, changing direction of the loco changes the lights at one end automatically but for the other end you have to force it by using F1 and F2.
I have no idea whether the problem is with the remaining dip switch or whether it's a CV config issue. There are a couple of examples in the Zimo manual involving changing CVs 33, 34, 35, 126, 127 & 128. I've tried both examples but they don't seem to change it and I'm getting totally lost with it all.
:confusedsign:
Has anyone successfully configured the lights so that they work consistently?
Thanks
Nigel H
First of all the lights are working exactly as they should based on the Dapol info and the default Zimo settings.
i.e. End 1 controlled by F0 with automatic directional switching from Front to Tail lights, Front Lights at end 2 controlled by F1, and rear lights at end 2 controlled by F2.
The idea is to give you independent control of the lights at both ends rather than have them on at all times at both ends, as when hauling a train the loco should not have any lights on at the back, it should only have front and rear lights when running light engine.
If you want to control the end 2 lights with a single Function button, such as F1 then you need to change the Function mapping in the Zimo decoder, you can map F1 to both AUX1 and AUX2 by setting CV35 to 10 (ten), but then you'll also need to change CV127 to 2 to get the white lights to only come on when the loco is running backwards, and also set CV128 to 1 to get the red lights to only come on when the loco is running forwards.
You should NOT want to map all the lights to F0 as that gives unprototypical lighting when running with rolling stock attached, i.e. you want to have independent control of the lights at each end of the loco.
Hope this helps (and that I got the CV settings right :D)
John P
Thanks for that you answered a few questions
Thanks John P,
I appreciate the detailed response and what you describe is exactly what I want to achieve (except that I might one day have a sound decoder fitted so would ideally like to get used to using F2 to control the red lights (switch off/on according to direction) and reserve F1 for sound on/off.
Trying out your CVs didn't work in one direction (seemed to unmap the yellow/white lights in one direction). But your answer was enormously helpful in that I now understand that it's about function remapping and that that's the way to go. So I'll do some more experimenting...
Many thanks
Nigel
Oops!!!
CV35 should be 12 not 10 to get F1 mapped
Change CV36 to 12 to map F2, but if you use F1 for sound you'll need to unmap it from AUX1.
Also the Zimo manual refers to Function outputs when it is talking about AUX outputs.
Regards,
John P
Thanks John,
It's working pretty much as I'd like it now!
Three is a new DCC thread on programming Dapol Next-18 cHips
https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=45451.0 (https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=45451.0)