I recent bought a Class 37 loco which runs very well. I have now fitted a Digitrax DZ1251N decoder. Everything seems O.K. but the lights only work in forward direction I have no lights when the loco is in reverse. Am I suppose to reprogram the decoder if so can anyone tell me how. My controller is the Digitrax DCS 50.

You could check if the small PCB is at the correct position and try to adjust the three copper springs which connect to the loco body if its on.

can the bulbs blow on these models? could be that 

Hi,

Am I right in assuming this is a new Farish Class 37 with the 6 pin socket?

When you say the lights only work in the forward direction, do you mean you have a white light at the front and red lights at the back when moving forward and no lights (red or white) when in reverse? Or do you mean in reverse you get only red lights OR white lights at one end?

If you are getting no lights at all in reverse (either red or white) I would guess this is maybe a programming issue. It is conceivable, however that the red lights on the front and the white lights on the rear have both stopped working.

Therefore, in either case you could try removing the body shell and turning it round. What happens then?

When you remove the body shell you can see the PCBs at each end with three metal plates that the three metal 'fingers' on the chassis press against. You could try cleaning all surfaces

You could also try turning the body shell around and trying it on the other way to see what happens.

I had a white light fail at one end of one of a new Class 37. I diagnosed it as being the PCB by removing it from the body shell and testing it against the chassis directly. The fix was to buy a new body shell from BR Lines as I couldn't get hold of the PCB itself.

I guess I could have gone to Farish direct, but the body shell was only about £15 and it was the split head code box type which I had originally wanted in the first place... But which had sold out at my local model shop...

Quote from: michael on November 28, 2011, 08:29:26 PM
can the bulbs blow on these models? could be that 

I've had 2 class 37's blow their white LED's at one end.Both times it happened when they lost electrical pickup momentarily,all the lights flashed then no more white light in the direction it was travelling.
White LED's seem very sensitive to reverse voltage so I can only assume this was the cause.
Both loco's had bachmann decoders.
Not had an issue with the yellow LED's on them.

Hmmm... Interesting. Mine went when running on DC power. I never noticed the phenomena you describe but that doesn't mean much...

Has just happened on this damned 37 (6 pin new-ish Farish of mine, model 371-452). I've tried turning the body around on the chassis and the white lights at the affected end still don't work. PCB tabs are all in the correct position etc.

371-452 was mine also... A faulty batch of PCBs?

Could well be the case, that or the white LEDs they used are more prone to blowing (as suggested by a user on another forum who says white LED headlamps in slot cars often blow) Wonder if GF had lots of returns of 371452 and so they've opted to go with the current model with the more reliable yellow white headlamps. Seems a shame as the domino head code box looks so good!

Hello, this is my first time as a member on this page.  With reference to the white LEDs blowing on the class 37, I have over a considerable number of hours been able to produce a circuit diagram of the Printed circuit board. When I get my head around the method to place a picture or PDF on this page I will do so as its a handy way to check with a meter where the problem is. I have found that working with white leds on other projects usually requires a 2.2k resistor and on the printed circuit board (PCB) R1 and R2 are 1.2k.
I am looking for a way to fit two LM317 surface mount, quite small adjustable regulators to the PCB. The reasoning behind this is the the regulator can be adjusted between 1.2 volts and 12 volts using only two resistors. As the leds work around 2 volts approx, the regulator can be adjusted to this voltage and should give a steady constant 2 volts even though the voltage from the train controller is from 2 to 12 volts. Again I will try to include this info on a circuit diagram if all works well.

I hardly understood a word of that  but welcome to the forum

A friends just bought a New Class 37 Red Stripe.

Running it in on DC, REAR lights work correctly in both directions.

However the FRONT flights (headlight & markers) only come on if you turn the controller upto 50% or more.

Anyone else had this problem?

Ray

I've noticed this too - the new 37s take a bit of forward juice to get the lights illuminating - the loco is moving at around double a scale walking pace before the lights begin to illuminate.

I wonder if they've changed the resistances such that when running at speed the lights are dimmer (they are a nice brightness at speed - earlier batches were a bit bright).

Cheers,
Alan

From your comment Paul This non tech is guessing that the lights will/should come on earlier when converted and run DCC, am I right?

Ray

Quote from: Dr Al on December 21, 2014, 07:43:05 PM
I've noticed this too - the new 37s take a bit of forward juice to get the lights illuminating - the loco is moving at around double a scale walking pace before the lights begin to illuminate.

Alan thanks for that, I guesse he will keep the loco now.

Ray