Original page created on 14/03/2021.
Lighting
Since the first modifications, and while waiting for the new series of RIB announced by Hornby-Jouef (we are in 2021), I decided to resume the lighting of the train with more professional circuits.
Headlights
In the driver’s coach, the red lights are simply painted. This is not acceptable for a recent model (but this one is almost 30 years old now), so drilling to diameter 2 mm, filling with Kristal Klear, in several times to speed up the drying.
Here is the schematic and the circuit board. The height of the latter is calculated so that it can rest on the bottom of the chassis, which allows the LEDs to be aligned with the light ducts.
The LEDs are SMDs in 0603 packages, mounted inverted. A black plastic mask is glued on the circuit, in order to avoid light leakage between the different lamps. The mask is drilled over the PCB so that the LEDs are positioned at the correct distance from each other.
Lighting strip
In theory, two different strips are needed, one for the driver’s coach, with cab lighting and connections for a function decoder, and one for the others. For reasons of economy, I have designed a circuit that can be adapted to both cases by simply shortening it.
Here you can see the end on the driver’s cab side.
The shortening is done along the vertical line visible above. Note the decoder connection pads, which are sorted for a Lenz LF101XF model — the one I’m going to use.
I plan to connect the white lights to output A, the reds to B, the compartment lights to C and the cab lights to D.
A newer equivalent would be the Lenz Standard+ V2, but of course the wire order will not be the same.
The DEC0 mark on the PCB corresponds to the decoder ground, which is not output on either model. The do-it-yourself connection is indicated by a red dot on the diagrams.
The decoder is glued on top of the strip, between two LEDs.
Anti-flicker capacitor
As the pilot coach supplies power to all four coaches, a fairly large capacity is required. But there is not much room in this coach. I have found a solution that is less sophisticated than a “power pack”, but satisfactory, even if a little expensive. It is a “supercapacitor”. Its capacity is 6 800 µF (actually, more like 5 600…) for a voltage of 15 V. Here are its dimensions:
This component fits perfectly under the cab. You just need to provide a Zener diode of about 13 or 14 V to avoid an overvoltage at its terminals (the +VCC voltage of my decoder is 15.3 V). There is no need for a printed circuit: wires will be soldered directly to the leads. Note that this component is not polarized, and that the two leads located on the same side are electrically connected.
The capacitor is glued (Blu-tack) both on the headlight circuit and under the cab. The wires are routed through a 0.5 mm polystyrene plate glued to the back of the cab.
Views of the illuminated pilot coach
AVX BestCap supercapacitor
Ref. BZ05FB682ZSB
Price : £11.47
at TME