I got my new TCS decoder today and opened up the F9 - Ut-OH. ALL wires except one are BLACK except 1.
I have the right and left truck pick-up wires isolated (all black) I have the motor positive (RED) and negative isolated a red and a black. I have the front headlight and marker light and the rear light isolated 2 black each.
The problem of course is that the TCS instructions refer to. Colored wires that solder to specific spots on the board.
Not sure how to proceed. [:^)]
Gary,
You really can’t hurt anything by experimenting. Hook up the motor and truck wires first to their soldering pads on the TCS board. Once you have those determined correctly then add the lights. You can also replace the Athearn wires with flexible color wire.
Tom
How do I know where they go? The TCS board is not marked Motor + and - nor are the R & L truck wire locations as far as i can see.
I’m trying to search arround to see if I can find a diagram I can transpose to this scenario.
BTW this is the first real decoder install I’m doing. I did a bachmann but that was just plugging in a 8 pin to the existing board.
Gary,
While it is tres neat to have all the wires go to exactly the right place, for the wires you’re talking about: Motor +/- and R & L truck leads, it doesn’t matter.
Hook either one to either one, if ya get my drift.
Really.
When you program the decoder, do it “the usual way”. If the loco runs “backward”, there’s an easy CV fix.
Piece de cake.
Actually, it’s kinda the same for the lights, except that, if they don’t light up, you switch the leads. After being sure you have all necessary resistors in!
Ed
My reply (above) might be slightly ahead of itself. You most certainly DO need to know where wires go on the board. As in: which two pads are the motor. and which two pads are the trucks. and so on.
If you can’t puzzle it out, you might give the TCS folks a call.
You can’t be the first.
Ed
Oh, wow. The TCS instructions actually don’t lable those outside color. I guess they just expect you to be familiar with the NMRA color scheme. Seems a bit of an oversight, really.
Anyway:
Red- Right Rail
Black- Left Rail
Grey - Motor -
Orange- Motor +
Blue- Common 12V+ for the lights/functions
White- Headlight
Yellow - Backlight
The other light/function wires go to the various function pads on the board.
Speakers wires are labled on the diagram
The Athearn WOW boards are set up for both LEDs and Bulbs.
I’m assuming you have a standard Athearn, and as such it’s using bulbs. In that case, you do not want to use the Blue but instead use the Tan 1.5V common. Also half the function pads are for bulbs, and the other are for LEDs, be sure to use the right ones.
Gary,
Did your particular TCS Wow! decoder come with a manual? Is so, it should have a labeled diagram that shows you the various soldering pads on the PCB. If not, download a manaul from the TCS website.
As long as you know where on the PCB to solder the motor, truck, and light wires then you can experiment. If you get them backwards you can unsolder and resolder them again the correct way.
Tom
Does this help??
https://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Athearn/F9A%20WK/F9A_WK.htm
FWIW, Digitrax sells 32 gauge wire in a bundle that matches the standard DCC decoder colors. I bought it and when doing a conversion I’ll go ahead and switch out non standard colors to their “correct” colors. It’s a good bit more work upfront, but makes things much easier to understand if I ever have to open up the loco again.
Yes but I have 4 wires coming from the trucks 2 from front and 2 from back. I’m assuming that that the 2 from the same side (one from front and one from back) are the right or left rail and vise versa. But which is which? Also I the photo in the link you sent only has one set coming from the front truck. Do I only use that or do I pit the two from each side together and solder?
Tom, yes there is a manual but I can’t tell from the diagram where the truck wires go. I think I have the lights figured out and the motor. Not sure yet about the trucks.
I guess I’m not really wiring the decoder (that’s the green thing) I’m wiring this red thing. I think teh motor goes where it says 12V just to the leftovers fo the 24 pin socket. Not sure where the truck wires go.
This diagram should help…
https://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Literature/Motherboards/GEN-MB1.pdf
Good Luck, Ed
Thanks Ed
Is this the kit you have? http://tcsdcc.com/Zen/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1104
In standard color code, red and black come from the trucks and orange and black from the motor. Speakers are 2 purple wires. The front and rear lights have a common blue and white front, yellow rear. I am not up to speed as to whether the Genesis has LED’s or not.
What I see on the WOW website has lots of pretty pictures but is otherwise unclear, at least to me as to where motor and truck leads are attached
Edit I did not find the diagram Ed just posted. They call the red thing the motherboard and the other the sound decoder
Edit 2 Poked around some more and did find it under motherboards
The installation instruction sheet that comes with the kit clearly shows where the wires connect. The track pickups are the extreme corner pads. If the ‘waist’ of the board is to your left, the top left and top right pads are for the red wire, the bottom left and bottom right are black.
http://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Literature/Decoders/WOWSound/WDK-ATH-9_Web.pdf
–Randy
Thanks Randy, the instruction sheet I got was not like that. It’s B&W and is not as clearly labeled.
I appreciate everyone’s help. The next install should go much smoother. [8-|]
For my first decoder install, I practiced with a basic decoder and an engine that was probably worth less than the $20 decoder.
And don’t worry. Even if you fry the decoder, TCS has you covered for the first year. (Digitrax has the same policy as well).
https://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Customer_Info/Warranty/warranty.html
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
SUCCESS !
Thanks to all for teh help.
One unexpected result, it seems that the Keep Alive capacitors mean that the loco does not stop at speed stem 0. I have not programmed any momentum but it acts like it has a full freight train behind it and takes a long time to stop.
[*-)] Hoping there is a setting for that
Didn’t know the decoder comes with momentum out of the box. Just need to adjust CV’s 3 & 4 [:D]
Things like the prime mover revving and the ability to use the brake function require at least some momentum to be set. Kind of tough to use the brake button if the loco stops as soon as you turn the throttle to zero. I tend to skip that and keep the deceleration (CV4) low, but I like a decent bit of acceleration momentum on CV3, at least with Loksound, because just by changing how fast I increase the throttle I can simulate a light engne, small train, or big heavy train.
Hmm, did you get that kit new? TCS must have run out of color toner. Every TCS decoder I’ve ever gotten (and all my motor only locos have TCS decoders in them, so quite a few in all) have a simpel instruction sheet that looks exactly like a direct printout of the PDF on their web site, not just a black & white rendition of a color document.
–Randy