Digikeijs DR4103 Common Cathode - Common Anode adaptors.
Recently whilst wiring “Lockerbie”, we came across a slight snag with our choice of signals and how it affected the way we wired them up to our Accessory Decoder of choice, the “Digikeijs DR4018”.
You may never have heard of the phrases “Common Anode and Common Cathode” before, or you've heard of them but never needed to understand them until now. So here is a quick run-through of what we done to sort our issue out.
The basic Principle of both common Anode and Common Anode can be seen in this picture.
Common Anode is where the positive (+) is applied to the ground pin of the LED and the negatives (-) are the return flow through resistors completing the circuit.
Common Cathode is the opposite, but seems to be the most widely used type in model railway signals.
Using Digikeijs DR4018 Accessory Decoder to control signals required a few of the adaptors to allow our signals to work properly. The layout is mainly controlled through iTrain, a computer control automation software, hence the use of Accessory Decoders and not a standard control panel.
As you can see in the picture, the outputs from the accessory decoder go neatly into the adaptor boards. They make the wiring so much simpler. On the output of the adaptors is the wiring for the signals. The colour of wiring used in the picture above is irrelevant, it just made for ease of any fault finding.
The complete board wiring with all the adaptors and modules fitted. Ready to get set up for testing the track feedback detection, the point motors and the signals.
All powered up, and tested through all the aspects of the signal. No more head scratching as to why they didn't work!