Silberlinge 4160 – Digital Directional Lighting with ESU LokPilot

Welcome Guest! To enable all features please Login or Register.

Notification

Error

Silberlinge 4160 – Digital Directional Lighting with ESU LokPilot

Options

View

Previous Topic Next Topic

Jfve		#1 Posted : 27 October 2025 19:00:58(UTC) Retweet
Joined: 29/09/2023(UTC) Posts: 7 Location: Zuid-Holland, Noordwijk		Dear all, I would like to convert my Silberlinge 4160 control car to digital operation so that the LEDs (white/yellow and red) automatically change according to the direction of travel, synchronized with the locomotive’s direction. To achieve this, I purchased an ESU 59620 DCC function decoder. Since I’m not very experienced with this kind of conversion, I have a few questions: Which wires should be connected to the circuit board that contains the LEDs? . Is it necessary to add resistors in this circuit? If so, what resistance (in Ohms) should I use? I assumed that the existing board controlling the LEDs would be sufficient but...:) Are there any other things I should pay attention to? Thank you very much for any advice. Best regards, Jan

1 user liked this useful post by Jfve		marklinist5999
User Profile View All Posts by User View Thanks


	Wish to join the discussion?! Login to your marklin-users.net community \| Forum account or Register a new forum account. Or Connect via Facebook

marklinist5999		#2 Posted : 27 October 2025 20:04:11(UTC) Retweet
Joined: 10/02/2021(UTC) Posts: 4,054 Location: Michigan, Troy		They are LEDs to begin with from the factory and the resistors are there. Determine which wires connect to only the pickup shoe and ground from the axle mechanical reversing copper strip switch. Desoolder them from the shoe and the axle copper terminal. Follow the ESU terminal chart guide and solder the center stud power feed wire to the power feed terminal or wire on the decoder. Then the ground wire or terminal on the decoder to the grounding wire from the led board on the coach. You can also splice in interior lighting and tail marker LEDs which include resistors. I've done that with Marklin LED kits and no decoder. If the decoder can be set to the same address as the locomotive, automatic fwd and reverse lights may work, but only with that locomotive. Otherwise, you will have to assign the decoder an address and toggle the fwd and reverse lights with the controller. Mfx and M4 decoders also work this way. In order to dim the brightness inside the cab when driving in reverse, I used a thin piece of cardstock colored black and set it on the upper side of the led board


User Profile View All Posts by User View Thanks

Jfve		#3 Posted : 30 October 2025 20:35:34(UTC) Retweet
Joined: 29/09/2023(UTC) Posts: 7 Location: Zuid-Holland, Noordwijk		Originally Posted by: marklinist5999 They are LEDs to begin with from the factory and the resistors are there. Determine which wires connect to only the pickup shoe and ground from the axle mechanical reversing copper strip switch. Desoolder them from the shoe and the axle copper terminal. Follow the ESU terminal chart guide and solder the center stud power feed wire to the power feed terminal or wire on the decoder. Then the ground wire or terminal on the decoder to the grounding wire from the led board on the coach. You can also splice in interior lighting and tail marker LEDs which include resistors. I've done that with Marklin LED kits and no decoder. If the decoder can be set to the same address as the locomotive, automatic fwd and reverse lights may work, but only with that locomotive. Otherwise, you will have to assign the decoder an address and toggle the fwd and reverse lights with the controller. Mfx and M4 decoders also work this way. In order to dim the brightness inside the cab when driving in reverse, I used a thin piece of cardstock colored black and set it on the upper side of the led board Hi there, thank you very much for your response! I've looked into it and have a few more questions, and I hope you can help me out a bit further. As I understand it, you wrote to unsolder the wires from the pickup shoe and the ground (from the axle/copper strip). Did you mean to unsolder those specific wires from the LED board and then connect those two wires directly to the decoder? My assumption (as a beginner) is that these two wires (from the pickup shoe and the axle) will provide the power and ground for the decoder itself. When I check the decoder information, I see that Black and Red wires are typically used for the track/wheel power (Ground and Power). LED Function Wires Now comes the tricky part. There are three remaining wires from the LED board: Red, Brown, and Black. I found that: When the Red cable is connected to the Black cable, the red light (taillight/marker) illuminates. When the Brown cable is connected to the Black cable, the yellow light (headlight) turns on. In this case, I would assume the Red function cable should be connected to a decoder function output like Aux1 (or F1), and the Brown function cable should be connected to a different output like Aux6 (or F2). But then, what be done with the black cable? Do you have suggestion? Thanks in advance, best regards, Jan van Eeden Noordwijk, The Netherlands.

1 user liked this useful post by Jfve		marklinist5999
User Profile View All Posts by User View Thanks

marklinist5999		#4 Posted : 31 October 2025 11:17:27(UTC) Retweet
Joined: 10/02/2021(UTC) Posts: 4,054 Location: Michigan, Troy		I meant to only unsolder the wires off of the pickup shoe and the axle copper terminal ground. You want to keep the wires on the LED board intact if possible. Do you have a heat sink to protect the decoder from heat? I am unsure which power terminal to connect to the pickup shoe. Your initial post says you have a 59620 decoder.


User Profile View All Posts by User View Thanks

Users browsing this topic
Guest (2)

Forum Jump

You cannot post new topics in this forum.
You cannot reply to topics in this forum.
You cannot delete your posts in this forum.
You cannot edit your posts in this forum.
You cannot create polls in this forum.
You cannot vote in polls in this forum.