tip: - signal box lights controlled with...

Tip: - Signal Box Lights Controlled With TrainController Date: 21-06-2017

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rossstew/rms/marklin.html 1

Hi All,

I have had this Vollmer 45739 signal box, fully assembled by someone else and it has sat on my layout

for over a year just screaming out to be detailed with lights as shown above.

Each time I looked at the assembled model I kept thinking that the control desks would look great if the

printed lights actually worked then I started to imagine it would look better if the lights functioned on/off

with different patterns as if they were really controlling the signals and points on the layout. The text

below describes how I developed my ideas and the final outcome can be viewed in the video below.

Please note you will find YouTube video links to illustrate the features of this text below.

Signal box lights demonstration Time 4:00

The experiment to see what is possible

Because of the scale of the lights on the

control desks I decided to try a fibre optic

option but real fibre optic material would be

too stiff to insert into the assembled model

and to make matters worse I couldn’t find a

small quantity of real fibre optic so I

ventured out to a fishing shop and bought the

product shown right. The key words where

‘ultra clear’, ‘0.40mm’ and ‘supple trace’.

You may think the model railway hobby is

expensive but the fishing line cost me $26.00

and at this moment I had no idea if it would

work.

http://www.vollmer-online.de/de/artikel/art_info.php?model=45739

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqul3az2ZE0



Testing the Fishing Line as a Fibre Optic

The next step was to find out if the fishing line worked as fibre optic material.

I cut a 150mm length of fishing line and melted one end with my soldering iron to create a small blob at

the end to prevent the line being pulled through the 0.40mm hole I drilled with a pin vice into the middle

control desk (orange arrow)

I held the other end of the fishing

line onto the top of a 3mm warm

white LED and only got a dull

orange glow as shown.

I experimented further by

shortening the fishing line and the

light intensity increased. The best

lengths were below 100mm for

reasonable light intensity.

Once I could see the potential of

this detail lighting working it

spurred me on to try and add some

colour to the lights.



Adding Colour to the Fibre Optic

Tamiya clear acrylic paints were used as shown above.

I cut a total of 70 fibres to a length of 80 mm making

sure I used a very sharp blade to get a clean cut

across the fibre.

For each control desk I required 6 orange, 8 red and

9 blue fibres.

I stirred the paint colours and dipped the end of the

fibre into the required paint colour by approximately

0.5mm.

Each fibre was carefully placed over a raised drying

area to make sure the painted tip would not stick to anything and allowed to dry overnight.

Once the paint was dry I stored the fibres together in some heat shrink tube as shown above.

Connecting the Fibres to the LED Test Using a warm white 3mm LED I cut a 10mm

length of 5mm dia. heat shrink tube and

shrunk it over the LED first then I inserted a

2mm dia. drill (blunt end) to touch the top of

the LED and shrunk the remaining length of

heat shrink around the drill as shown.

With a selection of 8 fibres I shrunk 5mm x

1.5mm dia. heat shrink around the fibres

being very careful not to melt the fibres. The heat shrink sleeve should be firm on the fibres as this will

enable it to be plugged into the top of the LED. The light output to each of the fibres was nice and bright

and even.



Testing the Lights on One Control Desk

I drilled all the required 0.40mm holes and inserted the coloured test fibres into the holes and threaded

each fibre through the tight 0.40mm holes and out through a 3.5mm dia. hole under the control desk. With

the paint on the end of the fibre it prevented the fibre from being pulled through the hole on the control

desk.

I gathered all the fibre ends and made a heat shrink sleeve as explained on page 3. I trimmed the ends of

the fibres to be even then plugged it into my test LED and the results can be seen below.

A side view shows the

results and also highlights

that the underside of the

desk will require a light

baffle made from thin

black card.

To get the fibres through

the large hole below the

desk I had to remove the

Preiser figures (page 2) so

I had more access to the

fibre using a small bent

wire to help thread the

fibre through the bottom

hole.

With the testing complete I was very keen to continue with the project.



LED Light Arrangement

Note the anode and cathode orientation for all the LED’s

The yellow wires to each 1k 1206 resistor can be wired

together and goes to the common of the m83.

Each brown wire goes direct to a m83 output port.

Note the foil under each resistor has been cut with a 3mm drill

also the Vero board should be 0.1” smaller to make it as

compact as

possible.

m83 Connections

Please note the 1k 1206 resistors across

the foils. The resistors prevent the LED’s

glowing when they are switched off.

Only one yellow wire from the LED’s is

required as all the midle connections on

the m83 for each port are common.

Bottom 3.5mm Hole Position

I drilled the 3.5mm holes from the bottom of the control room at the approximent marked locations. The

important thing is the control desk size determines the distant between holes and the locations must be

equidistant.

The arrangement of the LED lighting assemblies with the optic fibre is very tight so the above step is very

important.

= =



Threading the Optic Fibres

Once all the fibres are threaded through the bottom hole I divided the fibres into 3 groups and inserted a

heat shrink tube onto each group (left photo)

Next the heat shrink tube is adjusted with the middle group being shorter than the two outside fibre

groups (right photo) I cut the fibres by inserting a paddle pop stick under each fibre group and cut the

fibres altogether with a sharp knife about 1mm away from the end of the heat shrink tube.

Optic Fibre Colour Group Arrangement

The optic fibres are inserted into the holes by colour groups. I matched the coloured dots on the control

desk with the coloured fibres, the only exception was the orange lights.

Control Desk 1

I kept all orange fibres in the same colour group. You will notice control desk 3 orange lights illuminate

together.

I kept all red fibres in the same colour group switching on m83 red channel.

I kept all blue fibres in the same colour group switching on m83 green channel.



Optic Fibre Colour Group Arrangement (continued)

Control Desk 2

I kept all orange fibres in the same colour group.

This is a random mix of red and blue switching on m83 red channel.

This is a random mix of red and blue switching on m83 green channel.

Control Desk 3

I kept all orange fibres in the same colour group. You will notice control desk 1 orange lights illuminate

together.

This is a random mix of red and blue switching on m83 red channel.

This is a random mix of red and blue switching on m83 green channel.

Switching Function Demonstration Video Time 1:08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgLhD2ePyk



Installing the LED Light PCB

Using tweezers I inserted the middle

fibre optic group into the LED heat

shrink socket then I did the outside

fibre groups.

With the fibre optics secure into each

LED socket the PCB was laid flat and

held in place with hot melt glue.

The wires used were from ESU.

Wiring the LED PCB

Each LED PCB was wired in the same way and the wires were threaded through 2x 2.5mm holes into the

main signal tower column (red arrow) Care should be taken to keep the wires as low profile as possible.

Light Baffle

I formed a light baffle from thin black card and held it in place with a few dots of hot melt glue which can

be remove if any fixes and adjustments are required at a later date.



Control Desks Light Baffle

Before I added any figures I cut two light baffles for the front and rear of the control desks using thin

black card. The baffles were held in place with Selleys ALLFIX glue. This was a difficult task with the

model fully assembled.

Adding Preiser Figures

I added 3 sitting operators at the control desks with 2 standing people and the last figure is the supervisor

sitting at his desk having a cup of tea. All the figures were held in place with Selleys ALLFIX glue which

is flexible, strong and clear but can be removed if required.

Final Wiring for the Model

I used hot melt glue to glue

a small Vero board

interconnection panel as

shown. Robust wires are

used on the left which route

to an m83 decoder under the

layout.

The ESU wires on the right

are grouped by m83

function (bottom to top).

m83 Channel 1

1Red = orange lights Control Desk 2

1Yell = All LED negative power which is common on the m83

1Grn = orange lights Control Desks 1 & 3

m83 Channel 2 Red/Grn lights Control Desk 1



Refer to pages 6-7 for light arrangements.

1

2

3

4



Configuration of the Outputs for DCC address 117-120, m83 switch address ‘2, 3, 4, 5, 10’

To be safe use the programming track to configure the following options.

CV Meaning Value

Range

Value

Set

Comment Function

112 POM Switching Function Turnout 1 0-142 130 Switches the ‘red’ output for Turnout 1 Flash

113 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100% Alt/Sim

114 POM Period 0-255 40 Time interval between the pauses; 1=0,05 sec. 1R+1G

115 POM Switching Function Turnout 1 0-142 131 Switches the ‘green’ output for Turnout 1 Flash


117 POM Period 0-255 40 Time interval between the pauses; 1=0,05 sec. 1R_1G

118 POM Switching Function Turnout 2 0-142 129 Switches the ‘red’ output for Turnout 2 Dimmer

119 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100%

120 POM Period 0-255 255 Time interval between the pauses; 1=0,05 sec. 2R

121 POM Switching Function Turnout 2 0-142 129 Switches the ‘green’ output for Turnout 2 Dimmer

122 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100%

123 POM Period 0-255 255 Time interval between the pauses; 1=0,05 sec. 2G


125 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100%



128 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100%



131 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100%



134 POM Pulse Width 0-255 255 255 = 100%


Possible Switching Functions Value Function Name Comment

Touch- Switch

0 128 Everything off

1 129 Dimmer

2 130 Blinking light 1

3 131 Blinking light 2 Parallel blinking light to blinking light 1

4 132 Flash 1 Flashing light

5 133 Flash 2 Double flashing light

6 134 Random task/flickering light Random sequence of pause/pulse

7 ---

8 136 Zoom Soft turning on/off

9 137 Mars Specific blinking light

10 138 Gyra Specific blinking light

11 ---

12 ---

13 141 Tubes Simulates fluorescent tube lights

14 142 Low energy lamp Simulates energy-saving lamps

15 ---

16 --- Max. switching “Period” indicates the Max. Switching time

17 --- Min. switching “Period” indicates the Min. Switching time

18* --- Min. Switching with end switch Switching time is “period” or until the end position is reached

* Factory Setting



Controlling the m83 Special Functions with TrainController

In the switchboard named m83 Lights set as a Tabbed Document in TrainController I inserted the

following.

Flags that monitor key points on my layout

The top row pushbuttons are labelled with the digital address.

The bottom on-off switches are used to switch the pushbuttons

above and also act as a visual indicator for what is on or off.

Labels below the switches describe the special functions.

Pushbutton Properties



On-Off Switch Properties

You will notice CV114 and CV117 are

set to a period value of 40 and the

Function switch is set to 130 and 131

respectively. With the period set to a

value of 40 the total time interval is 2

second. (40x0.05=2)

The highlighted Delays left allow me to

have Simultaneous Blinking with the

Delay set at 1 second or Alternate

Blinking with a Delay set at 2 seconds.

Two functions for the price of one.

On-Off switches ms117r and ms117g are

a special case as the Conditions are set to

allow only one switch to operate at a

time. The operations of channel-1 red

and green ports are used together for a

combined lighting effect. Below is an

extract of the Configuration of the

Outputs table and Possible Switching

Functions tables from page 10.

CV Meaning Value

Range

Value

Set

Comment Function

112 POM Switching Function Turnout 2 0-142 130 Switches the ‘red’ output for Turnout 2 Flash


114 POM Period 0-255 40 Time interval between the pauses; 1=0,05 sec. 1R + 1G

115 POM Switching Function Turnout 2 0-142 131 Switches the ‘green’ output for Turnout 2 Flash


117 POM Period 0-255 40 Time interval between the pauses; 1=0,05 sec. 1R + 1G

Value Function Name Comment

Touch- Switch

2 130 Blinking light 1

3 131 Blinking light 2 Parallel blinking light to blinking light 1



On-Off Switch Properties Continued

It should be noted that all On-Off Switches make use of the Off and On Operating States



Flagman Monitoring Blocks and Points

F1 & F2 monitor Blocks and control the orange flashing lights.

F3...F8 monitor key points as shown and select the red or green

m83 ports to change lights on the control desks.

F1 F2 F3 F4

F5 F6 F7 F8



Power On Check m30 Macro

Power on check Indicator

For each m83 module used with

lighting functions I add a power

on check macro for the module to

check when the layout power is

turned off then on to reset the

lights to the state of the on/off

switches.



General Tips and Observations

The Vollmer company tooling has been bought by Viessmann Modelltechnik GmbH and all the Vollmer

model numbers have a prefix of 4 added so the Vollmer number 5739 = Viessmann number 45739

Because this model was fully assembled when I received it, adding lights as shown was very difficult.

The project took over a week to plan and complete but I think the end results were worth the effort.

I would recommend this LED lighting and fibre optic upgrade be done as the kit is being constructed

because access will be much easier.

If your feel that you don’t understand programming the Märklin m83 decoder, ECoS requirements and

monitoring the layout power then you need to read this Article

Bonus video illustrating this article follows.

Switching Functions Demonstration Day and Night Video Time 4:50

As always enjoy your model trains.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~rossstew/rms/pdf/m83_Special_functions_used%20with%20traincontroller.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO8oYV1ueFA

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