DCC assistance

Can anyone help?

I have a couple of Heljan O gauge locos with XL sound chips fitted and they work fine (no split gears ... yet!), its just that I can't abide the rear lamps being on all the time, especially when hauling trains ... it's just wrong!

Is it possible to do something with the programming so that I can switch off the red lights when not needed or do I have to fiddle around with the wiring? I was thinking with the second option maybe wiring the lights to aux 3/4 with a suitable resistor, but its the next step (with either option) that stumps me.

I have Sprog/JMRI set up but cannot fathom the US based manual (must be my age) or the ESU one (which appears to be a translation from German and which I do not find easy to follow) and was looking for a simple, step by step set, of instructions so that I can use the function keys on my Gaugemaster or NCE handset to switch the lights on/off as required.

So, if anyone in WT land can help this dunce, using words of one syllable (or less ), it would be greatly appreciated.

Peter

Hi Peter,
You cannot turn off the red lights if the decoder has been connected to the lights in the usual way.
You are correct in guessing that you will need to rewire the outputs to the red lamps to two separate aux outputs that you have free (probably Aux 1 & Aux 2) and then map those outputs to an F-button you happen to have free - the mapping will allow your chosen function button to trigger Aux N in forward and Aux N+1 in reverse.
Function mapping is explained in section in 12 of the decoder manual, but it is written by geeks for geeks. Unless you are prepared to invest a lot of time and effort forget trying to understand that bit of the Loksound manual.

The easy way to do it is with your Sprog and the Decoder Pro application of JMRI - do make sure you have version 4.6 or later of JMRI.
Open Decoder Pro. Select the loco you want in Service Mode (on a Programming track). Open the 'Function Map' tab of the decoder in Decoder Pro and it's pretty intuitive how the mapping works. However, before you fiddle with it, do read the Function map paragraph in the "Read Me - IMPORTANT tab"
I have set up a couple of Loksounds such that F12 in forward mode switches Aux 1 and F12 in reverse mode switches Aux 2.

It's all easier to do that to write.

Hope it helps,
John K