I’m sure this has been discussed before somewhere, but I can’t find it, so I’m going to ask anyway. What do y’all think is the best way to isolate Athearn motors from the frame when installing DCC decoders?
I’m about to install a Digitrax decoder in my “Imaginary” B&O DD-40, and need to know how y’all do it.
Also, for lights, do y’all recommend bulbs or LED’s?
Rotor
Isolating the athearn motor is simple. When you take it out of the frame you see that on the bottom there is a brass clip much like the one on top. However this one has two little “fingers” coming off it that contact the frame. Bend the “fingers” back and forth until they break off and then put a narrow piece of electrical tape on the spot where they would contact the frame. As far as lights, LEDs are always the way to go. They last longer, use less electricity and create no heat. You cannot use the light provided in the engine. Just cut off the metal mount right at the frame and dont contact it with any wires. In installing the lights you have three options.
You can just glue the lights in where they are going and thats it. If you do this you get the radioactive-cab look like you get in the stock engine.
Wrap the bulbs in black tape before glueing them in place. This way you get the light directed only where you want it.
You can build little light boxes around the bulbs. This serves the same purpose as the tape, but its really overkill if you ask me.
Good luck
Thanks! I guess that will be easy enough to do!
As for the " radioactive cab look ", I have been using black heat shrink tubing, or small automotive vacuum hose to prevent the light from " bleeding " to places I don’t want it to!
Rotor
The radioactive cab is a real pain - I’m looking at copying an idea from my E R Models FP7s though. These have a piece of brass tube as a light guide, which also works as a heat sink. It looks as though it would be easy enough to glue a section of this tube into the loco and then place the bulb inside, especially if you wanted to use the original bulb (with a resistor - the brass won’t lose that much heat!). Just an alternate idea, hope it’s useful!
The brass tube is a good idea Brit, though I might think about using aluminum tubing instead. Same effect, but better heat sink prooperties. It’s also lighter, and way easy to cut to length by rolling it under the blade of a hobby knife. You could glue it in place with silicone sealer, and it would help insulate it from the body of the train.
That is one I had not thought of!
Rotor