# Air Wire drop in's



## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

I have a couple of older GP 7-9's. I was going to put the drop in decoders in. I see on A/W's web site that the drop in's
will not work with the older lighting systems. So is it better to cut the board like they show, or order all new lights from 
USA trains?
How can you tell the difference between the lights?

Thanks
Don


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You can find out if they are the 5v ones like I did, they burn real bright for a second and then go out on track power... ;-) 

Put 5 volts to the lights... if they are bright, you know it's the 5v ones... if real dim, they are the 18v ones. 

If I remember right, the older ones used a larger, 2 pin connector, with pin spacing of 1/10 inch, the newer ones used 3 pin connectors with much closer pin spacing and the smaller connector. 

Greg


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

i think i would cut the board. lot of work to change all of the lights and boards and you can still use o to turn them on and off plus the cost of new light boards. the easy way if you have a drop-in 
is to do not mount the board but hook up the board and one or all the lights and turn it on if the lights are real dim or out you need to cut the tracer and add the wire 
there are only two wires going to each light board. also if you do not have the drop-in yet i think i would wait for new ones to come out . 
the other thing is if you have the old smoke units you have the old lights.


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Don,

I have several of the older Geeps with AirWIre Drop-ins. I gutted the original lighting in favor of LED’s… LED’s are inexpensive, consume very little current and offer warm white/yellow glow or other descriptions for LED’s that realistically emulate our lighting effect needs, not to mention LED's are much brighter as headlights too… There’s lots of info on updating locos with LED’s available, or we can help herein.

It’s pretty straightforward to change out the lights IMO. AIrWire offers instructions on how to wire up LED’s with their engine specific drop-in boards (info is listed online at AirWire). So you only need some LED’s, the appropriate resistors and some wire to take full advantage of the drop-in lighting capabilities.

Michael


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

don 
i was just thinking about your ? but Michael does have great answer,but i would still wait for new boards


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## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks guy's, I don't have the boards yet. Everyone seems to be out of them. I'm electronicly challenged so building new led lights is
probably out. 

Don


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## Trains (Jan 2, 2008)

Just checked the lights on my GP's. I put 4.5 - 5 volts to them and they lit up just just fine.

Don


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Definitely an old unit. You cannot get those 5v bulbs any longer... I've tried to buy them, and 3 times they shipped me the 18v ones... at $3.50 each! 

Be careful with them if you are going to use them... you really want a regulated DC supply to them... 

Greg


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

"Thanks guy's, I don't have the boards yet. Everyone seems to be out of them. I'm electronicly challenged so building new led lights is 
probably out. " 

Not everybody is out of stock. Exact fit LED also 

Jonathan/www.rctrains.com 23 years of radio control for large scale


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Jonathan, a little confused. 

1. You have the AW dropin for the GP7 in stock? 
2. Not sure what you mean about the exact fit LED... the idea of the dropin is not to rewire the lights right? Are you saying that if you wanted to rip out the existing lights you have an LED that fits exactly? There's 3 different locations for lights in the nose of a geep if I remember right.. 

Greg


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

Yes, and yes. Actually if you use LED for the number boards too, they will be dim since they are off axis. So , you need to use 2 for number boards,preferably sanding the lens, and one each top and bottom light, total 4. It is fairly straightforward to solder led to the existing lighting board. The led fit perfectly in the headlight holes, are bright white, and work fine at 5v with correct resistor. 
Since the Drop in is optimized for LED lighting effects, the programmed effects such as strobe or mars or Gyra light work pretty well. 
Cab light should also be changed to led with this mod. 

23 years of radio control in large scale- go with a specialist 
jonathan/www.rctrains.com


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Don 
airwire says that the old gp7's needed high voltage and there boards are set up for the newer ones at 4.5 volts and 
you said your bulbs light fine at 4.5-5 volts all you have to do is plug them in to the airwire board. 
i still think you should wait for new boards to come out about same time as the G3


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

Dick 413, you seem to know a lot. Why would you say he should wait for new drop in boards? The new G3 standard decoder is intended to bring the G3 up to the performance of the existing drop ins. The drop ins have more adjustment capability than the G2 design. The existing Drop in are not being redesigned. So he should wait???. For what? 3-4 years when the drop in design is upgraded? 

Of course, what do I know? 

Jonathan/www.rctrains.com 
23 years of large scale radio control, Airwire dealer SINCE THEY STARTED.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Jonathan 
A dealer that i trust told me there where being upgraded i know you are a dealer so if you say that they are not being upgraded i guess it is so 
just like when you said that airwire never made any b unit dropins


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

I stand by the slave unit drop in statement. Even if you may have some production samples, does not mean they could be ordered from general production. They also made Pink controllers- really- I had/sold 2 or 3- but you could not order them from catalog, and they were not a production item. 
jonathan


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