The Rail Conductor AniLight DCC decoder has a random feature (mode 10) which can bring your city lights to life! The enclosed video shows 15 lights being operated by one AniLight decoder. Normally, all building windows might not be animated but this does put the random mode on display. The speed of auto-toggles (set by CV 521), is fast so the video doesn't take too much website memory. CV 521 was set to 35 (255 is the slowest), 128 is the factory default.
At the start of the video, DCC power is turned on. This causes the storefront lights to come on and stay on - they are simply wired to the +5V and GND terminals with a single resistor. All 15 of the other lights are grouped to terminal 0 and configured for "auto-on" causing about half of the windows to come on at DCC power up. All of the random on/off toggles occur without user action. This continues until DCC is powered off; no user action would be needed but a single OFF was toggled to terminal 0 32 seconds into the video to show how all the grouped terminals go OFF randomly over time. When terminal 0 is toggled back on (e.g. around sunset), the reverse occurs: windows randomly come on, one at a time.
Below are all the DCC commands to configure all 15 terminals on decoder address 421.
<w ..> commands are loco commands,
<a ..> commands are accessory toggles.
Most all these are only entered once and then are remembered between power cycles.
First configure all 15 terminals (525 through 539) for random (10), auto on (+128) and a bit dimmer (+96) = 234. (See User Guide appendix A on the home page for these option details.)
<w 421 525 234>
<w 421 526 234>
<w 421 527 234>
<w 421 528 234>
<w 421 529 234>
<w 421 530 234>
<w 421 531 234>
<w 421 532 234>
<w 421 533 234>
<w 421 534 234>
<w 421 535 234>
<w 421 536 234>
<w 421 537 234>
<w 421 538 234>
<w 421 539 234>
<w 421 540 234>
Next, group all 15 terminals to come on with terminal 0:
<w 421 542 0>
<w 421 543 0>
<w 421 544 0>
<w 421 545 0>
<w 421 546 0>
<w 421 547 0> <w 421 548 0> <w 421 549 0> <w 421 550 0> <w 421 551 0> <w 421 552 0>
<w 421 553 0>
<w 421 554 0>
<w 421 555 0>
All of the above configurations are stored in AniLight memory never having to be entered again. Then to toggle:
OFF: <a 421 0 0>
ON: <a 421 0 1>
Or just let them stay on with the DCC auto-on option and no commands are needed.
Consult the AniLight User Guide on the home page under the AniLight product description.
Come to think of it, there's one terminal still unused. Perhaps the 1st floor storefront lights should be fluorescent! Or some streetlights added on the sidewalk! The building front shown is actually N scale. The LEDs are more "daylight white" then would normally be in a structure of this era, but this was built for booth display at a model railroad convention. The lights need to be visible when the convention room is fully illuminated.
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