I just received an older Atlas GP7 with a Kato drive, and upon opening it found a very different looking wiring design. A lot of you have probably seen this before, but I haven’t and am looking for some advice. I want to install DCC in here, and probably Tsunami sound to be exact. Would one of Soundtraxx’s AT-1000 replacement board decoders work in here just fine? And how do I know if the motor is isolated properly?
I’m also not 100% sure how to go about installing directional lights in this with the light pipe design it has. Thanks for any tips you all may have!
I can’t comment on the sound factor as I did a motor decoder only (Digitrax DH165KO). Just remove the entire plastic wiring board and replace. For the lights, however, I cut the light pipes off about 1/2" +/- from the headlights / number boards and placed a LED right in behind it. Works really well.
Also, the motor is properly ISOLATED from the frame.
The Atlast/Kato form factor decoders, both sound and non-sound, will have terminals at each end for the lights. What I did on a similar loco was cut back the light pipes to just before the first mounting peg - if you look you will see there are pins ont he pipe that engage holes in the shell. I used LEDs in mine, and attached the LEDs to the now cut light pipes with shrink tubing.Directional lighting - done. I used a dab of elmer’s glue to hold the pipes in place - i tholds good enough so they don;t fall down yet can be easily pulled away if you need to remove them for any reason.
I was hoping this would be the case. Would you say that is the #1 choice in comparision to QSI, ESU, etc? Thanks everyone for the confirmation.
Is there any standard way to figure out which wire is what when hard wiring a decoder? Everything I have dealt with before had a plug and obviously was a little simpler to do.
The wiring of a locomotive is an NMRA standard. Basically, you have the Red wire going to the Right pickups and the Black wire going to the Left pickups. 2 wires to the motor, and you are done. Now, there is no standard which wire goes to which motor lead as they are flipped often. Best to do the install to the point of the motor and then test for direction on your programming track.
Beyond that, you are dealing with lighting and with that you have choices to make.
Randy that is funny. I’ve tried the same thing for Kato locomotives. Cut off the light pipes. Glue the LED to the end and then heat shrink it. I’ve completed one so far for blinking ditchlights and am getting ready to do two more. I did learn one hard lesson. Don’t use too much heat on the heat shrink. It can melt the light pipes. Ask me how I know…
I figured head would be a problem so I cut them with a hand saw, not a Dremel. I had thoughts of gettign some super find emery paper from the autobody section of the auto parts store and polishing the cut ends for better light transfer but it was bright enough with the fresh cut end so I left it alone. Using the heat shrink kept the light from leaking out and creating a Athearn Blue Box bonfire in the cab look.
