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Offline Robert Davies  
#1 Posted : 20 February 2014 01:06:44(UTC)
Robert Davies

United Kingdom   
Joined: 20/11/2010(UTC)
Posts: 426
Location: Worcestershire, UK
I realise that this is something of a minority interest, but I have just completed the conversion of 7 Viessmann 4013 and 2 Viessmann 4016 colour-light signals to pure-white LED's and I thought that I would share my experiences in case anyone else wants to do the same.

These are departure signals and in addition to being able to display 2 Red's, 1 Green, and 1 Green/1 Yellow aspects, they also have 2 small white lights for shunting. As supplied, the 'white' LED's are in fact warm white, which is not prototypical, but a kit is available from Conrad (details below) to convert them to pure white.

The kit advises that it is best used if the signal is bought in kit form (and I will agree with that), but if you have the ready-made signals, as most people will, it is still possible to carry out the conversion and that is what I will describe.

Picture 1 shows the effect of the conversion, and I think you will agree that the end result is a real improvement in realism.

Picture 2 shows the kit – Conrad Electronic item no. 244905-89 (Euro 5.49). It comprises a small printed circuit board with surface-mount LED’s, which replaces the one on the signal, and a replacement ballast resistor.

Tools required are a soldering iron (at least 25W), a sharp knife, a small screw driver, a pin and wire strippers. In addition to the Conrad kit, superglue and a small pot of black paint are useful.

The steps involved in the conversion are as follows:
1. Cut off the ballast resistor on the lead to the white signal aspect and replace it with the one in the kit, keeping the white identification sleeving in place.
2. Remove the access platform from the rear of the signal post. (It is only a push fit and it gets in the way of later operations.)
3. Tease out the wires from the back of the signal head (they are covered with a sort of black gunge) and using the sharp knife (or fine wire cutters), cut off all the wires to the signal head as close to the rear of the head as possible.
4. Using the sharp knife (and being careful not to injure yourself), prise the main circuit board in the signal head out from the plastic front. This frees the board on which you do the PCB swap.
5. Carefully free the wires to the signal head that run down the signal post. The wire is very fine and easy to break or strip but you need to have the wires free as it makes the subsequent re-attachment process much easier.
6. Using the soldering iron, remove as much of the black gunge from the rear of circuit board as possible. Unless you do this, replacing the LED PCB and re-soldering the wires is very difficult.
7. Apply the soldering iron to the rear of the main circuit board at the point where the LED PCB is positioned (on the front) and using the small screwdriver prise the old LED PCB off the main circuit board. It is only held on with two soldered connecting pins and comes off fairly easily if enough heat is applied (hence the need for a 25w soldering iron). Using the soldering iron, clean out the LED PCB mounting holes with the pin. Picture 3 shows the front of the main board with the old LED PCB removed.
8. Solder the replacement LED PCB in place and trim the mounting pins to length. The board only fits properly if installed the correct way round so getting the polarity right is not an issue. Picture 4 shows the front of the main board with the new LED PCB fitted.
9. Picture 5 shows the rear of the main circuit board with the soldering points for the various wires marked. Strip the ends of each of the wires in turn and re-solder as shown. Having the wires free (step 5) means that you can easily find out which wire is which and it also gives you a lot more room to work. Be careful not to apply too much solder as it is easy to bridge the various tracks on the main board together.
10. Having re-soldered the wires, carry out a test to ensure that all the LED’s work correctly, and correct any problems.
11. Carefully pull the wires back through the signal post from the bottom until the main board lines up with the head and clip it into place.
12. Test that everything still works.
13. Apply a small amount of black paint to the rear of the signal head to cover up the new soldering you have done, and refit the access platform (and anything else that may have fallen off) using superglue if necessary.

Job done!

The actual modification is identical on both the 4013 and 4016 signal, but it is a lot more fiddly on the 4016 because of the extra wires to the Vorsignal head.

I am very pleased with the end result and it is a shame that there is no kit available for the Veissmann 4017 and 4018 shunting signals. Finally, I am afraid that I do not know if this modification will work on the Viessmann 47xx multiplex signals.
Robert Davies attached the following image(s):
4013_4016 Picture 1.jpg
4013_4016 Picture 2.jpg
4013_4016 Picture 3.jpg
4013_4016 Picture 4.jpg
4013_4016 Picture 5.jpg
Robert
Era III - IV
2 x Central Station 2 v.2 (60214 + 60215)
Hardware versions 3.6 / 4.33
Software version 4.2.1 (0)
thanks 5 users liked this useful post by Robert Davies
Offline DaleSchultz  
#2 Posted : 05 March 2014 20:46:35(UTC)
DaleSchultz

United States   
Joined: 10/02/2006(UTC)
Posts: 3,997
good job and shame on Viessmann - I was pretty annoyed that their 4018 signals all use yellow instead of white LEDs
http://layout.mixmox.com/1/Viessmann-4018

I dont think they are warm white I think they are friggen yellow.
Dale
Intellibox + own software, K-Track
My current layout: https://cabin-layout.mixmox.com
Arrival and Departure signs: https://remotesign.mixmox.com
Offline Goofy  
#3 Posted : 08 March 2014 08:01:15(UTC)
Goofy


Joined: 12/08/2006(UTC)
Posts: 8,993
On the later signals Viessmann did changed out yellow to white LED.
I pressume yours signals is the old one models.
H0
DCC = Digital Command Control
Offline Robert Davies  
#4 Posted : 09 March 2014 00:18:20(UTC)
Robert Davies

United Kingdom   
Joined: 20/11/2010(UTC)
Posts: 426
Location: Worcestershire, UK
Goofy wrote:
On the later signals Viessmann did changed out yellow to white LED.
I pressume yours signals is the old one models.


They were bought new in 2013, and if you look at the picture on the Viessmann website
http://www.viessmann-modell.com...es/popup_images/4013.jpg
they still don't look very white to me.
Robert
Era III - IV
2 x Central Station 2 v.2 (60214 + 60215)
Hardware versions 3.6 / 4.33
Software version 4.2.1 (0)
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