Diesel Version 5:Changing Light Effects
TCS decoders support all the same lighting effects across our entire product-line, however starting in V5 of the WOWSound the lighting effects have received a major upgrade! All lighting effects are now fully customizable and custom lighting effects can now be created!! Additionally there is no longer a limit on how many of each effect can be used! For example now all outputs can be a firebox flicker (with different flicker patterns) or all single pulse strobes (with different strobe frequencies) etc. TCS is really excited to release this feature and proud to be the first manufacturer that supports custom light modles
The easiest way to assign lighting effects to a light output is through the lighting options (menu 2) of Audio Assist™
Lighting effects can also be setup using CV programming. Read on for more details
Contents
Light output CV's
| Output | Wire color (for wired decoders) | CV Number | Default Value | Default Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F0 Forward | White | 49 | 0 | Constant Bright Forward Only |
| F0 Reverse | Yellow | 50 | 16 | Constant Bright Reverse Only |
| 1 | Green | 51 | 32 | Constant Bright |
| 2 | Purple | 52 | 32 | Constant Bright |
| 3 | Brown | 53 | 32 | Constant Bright |
| 4 | Pink | 54 | 32 | Constant Bright |
| 5 | Pink/Purple | 55 | 32 | Constant Bright |
| 6 | Green/Brown | 56 | 32 | Constant Bright |
Preloaded Lighting Effects
The preloaded effects can be customized by adjusting their Light Preset
(Note - the reverse value is the forward value +16, and for both directions add 16 again)
| Lighting Effect | Forward Operation only | Reverse Operation only | Both Directions | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Mars | 13 | 29 | 45 | The Auto Mars light will blink in a Mars light pattern ("sideways number 8" or infinite ∞ pattern) when in a certain speed range (controlled by Mars Light Min Speed and Mars Light Max Speed and be on constant outside of that range. See a Mars Light demonstration here. |
| Brake Lights | 14 | 30 | 46 | The brake lights are on constantly at a dim level and come on full bright when the brakes are turned on or when the engine decelerates. This is great for trolley cars! Trolley Light Demonstration |
| Constant Bright | 0 | 16 | 32 | The Constant Bright feature is your standard light feature, comes on when you tell it to and doesn't do anything else until you tell it to turn off |
| Constant Dim | 12 | 28 | 44 | Constant Dim can be used to turn down the brightness of lights without having to add in additional resistance to drop the voltage/brightness (note - all LED's must have a resistor in series with them, most WOWMotherboards have resistors built in) |
| Custom Light 1 | 70 | 86 | 102 | This can be anything you want it to be! See {link to section elsewhere on the page) for more info |
| Custom Light 2 | 71 | 87 | 103 | |
| Ditch Light Side 1 | 10 | 26 | 42 | Ditch lights are used on many prototype diesel and electric locomotives with one on each side of the coupler (some have them on front and back as well) Some railroads require that Ditch lights blink and the horn be blown at road crossings. (See Quick Presets for a fast way to set that up). Whether the ditch lights fade in and out as they blink, alternate on and off, and how fast they blink, can all be customized in the ditch light effect module [@TODO link here to where that is] Use the "side 1" effect for one side of the ditch light and "side 2" for the other so the decoder knows which lights it needs to alternate. |
| Ditch Light side 2 | 11 | 27 | 43 | |
| Double Pulse Strobe | 5 | 21 | 37 | Double Pulse Strobes are used as warning devices, usually mounted on top of a locomotive |
| Firebox Flicker | 1 | 17 | 33 | The firebox flicker effect is great for simulating the fire in a steam engines firebox |
| Flashing Light | 3 | 19 | 35 | Flashing lights (sometimes used as F.R.E.D.'s) can be used either on a locomotive, as a end of train device, or in many applications on a train layout. |
| Gyra Light | 7 | 23 | 39 | Gyra lights were used as a warning device on locomotives and have a distinct movement pattern |
| Mars Light | 2 | 18 | 34 | Same lighting effect as the "Auto Mars" (@TODO link to that) but the mars effect is always on. |
| Rotary Beacon New Style | 69 | 85 | 101 | Some newer locomotives have Rotary Beacons that don't physically rotate the light, but rather rotate which light is illuminated. This lack of physical moving parts saves on maintenance costs. Here is an example of a New Style Rotary Beacon |
| Rotary Beacon Old Style | 6 | 22 | 38 | Older Rotary Beacons has would physically rotate the a reflector in a circle around a light giving a unique lighting effect |
| Rule 17 | 8 | 24 | 40 | Rule 17 (or as it is known in modern train guidelines: Rule 5.9.1-5.9.4) specifies operational instances where one or both lights should dim to avoid blinding workers or interfering with another trains operation. Some of the most common times this is used are: when a train is stopped at a station its lights should be dimmed, when a train stops on the mainline in an unsignaled region,
and when passing a train on an adjacent track. To that end we have included several Rule 17 style lighting effects which can be used independently or collectively to achieve prototypical results. |
| Single Pulse Strobe | 4 | 20 | 36 | Single Pulse Strobes are mounted on top of locomotives and used as a warning device. |
Customizing Lighting Effects
Each "Light Module" is composed of 10 "Sub Sections" or "Steps" it must run through. Each step has 3 characteristics, "Start Brightness", "End Brightness", and "Change Rate".
Not all of the steps need to be used, unused steps should have their parts set to "0"
Example:
If you wanted to create a light that fades from off to on full bright in 1 second then fade back to off in 3 seconds you could setup the following:
| Step | Start Brightness (%) | End Brightness (%) | Change Rate (mS) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Step 1 | 0% | 100% | 1000 | Fade from off to full on in 1 second |
| Step 2 | 100% | 0% | 3000 | Fade from on to off over 3 seconds |
| Step 3-10 | 0% | 0% | 0% | No additional steps, go back to step one |
Special Cases
Sometimes special code is run, step 10 of a light module is used to signify special lighting conditions. For example the "Auto Mars" feature uses the last step to determine the brightness when the Mars pattern is turned off. For Brake Lights step 10 determines the brightness of the light when the brake is off and step 1 determines the brightness of when the brakes are on. This capability will be explained in more detail later as it is still being expanded.
Creating Fade In/Out effects
Stages 8 and 9 are used for the "Start" and "End" stages when a lamp is turned on and off respectively.
This is useful for having a lamp fade in as a steam engine generator spools up, or an incandescent bulb on an early era diesel quickly fade in as it turns on.
If no Start and End effect is desired leave the duration of those stages set to "0" and the lamp will turn on starting at stage 1 without having a special Start or End stage.
Light Modules and Light Presets
There are two different sets of CV's used to customize the lighting effects. There are the "modules" and the "presets". The Modules are the working copy, what is being used by the lighting code to control the light output. The Presets are a template that is loaded into the Module when the light output is configured (with CV49-CV56)
This separation is what allows for each light output to be the same feature but be out of sync or vary from one another.
For example, you can write a value of 44 (dim in both directions) into CV's 51 and 52 so that output 1 and output 2 are both set to dim. Then you can go and program the indexed Light Module CV's for output 1 and 2 so that output 1 is at 50% dim and output 2 is at 25% dim.
- or -
You could program the indexed Light Preset CV for the dim module to 75%, then write a value of 44 into CV51 and CV52 and now both light output 1 and 2 will be set to 75% dim.
- Click here to see the lighting module CVs -
- Click here to see the lighting Preset CVs - (Presets or "prototypes" that get loaded into the working modules, ie programming CV49=32 loads preset for "constant bright" into the white wire lighting module)
