I have just received an HO Atlas ‘classic’ RSD-4/5 locomotive in the post. It had been ordered for some time as it was not issued until December 06. I purchased a DCC decoder with an 8 pin NMRA from the local hobby shop and proceeded to pop the shell off to install the decoder. DUH!! no 8 pin socket on the PC board! Who the H… makes model locos without DCC sockets these days? Obviously Atlas does. What an annoyance. OK, it is a really nice model in every respect otherwise, but it looks like I am going to have to convert it to DCC the hard way. Silly me for assuming that it would be DCC ready like the last very excellent Atlas ‘classic’ loco I purchased.
All my Atlas Classics are now all turned into “Master” series. I just removed the board and replaced it with Atlas dual mode decoder.
They all run identical, never had any troubles with them in years.
Digitrax, Lenz and NCE all make a drop-in decoder for the Atlas Classic locos. Use the one with the 8-pin plug on something else.
You might have done a little more research. If the product doesn’t say DCC ready then it isn’t and it doesn’t on the box for the those units (I have 2 myself). Did you ask the dealer you bought them from? I think you only have yourself to blame.
I picked up an Atlas Classic RS3 from the LHS a month or so ago. I had them take the shell off to check the board and then picked up an NCE DA-SR replacement decoder. It completely replaces the control board. The LEDs already had resistors in-line so it was just a matter or removing the existing board and soldering them to the new decoder. Except for a DUH [#oops] moment when I had the wires for the LED’s backwards - it works very well.
I find the Atlas, Kato, Stewart type drive to be the easiest and best DCC conversion there is. Remove that plastic “circuit” board and replace it with one of the many DCC decoders designed specifically for this applications. There is not enough space from the top of the motor to the top of the shell for those nasty 8 pin “sockets”. If they had any socket it would be the 9 pin side board mount. I am glad they don’t put a socket in them. I would probably cut it out and throw it away anyway.
Yes it really was my fault for not checking whether it was DCC ready or not. I assumed it was. (Someone once told me, never ‘assume’, it makes an ‘ass’ out of ‘u’ and ‘me’. Very true).
I think you are probably correct Texas Zepher about the space for a socket. My last Atlas Classic was a RS11 which has a much higher hood than the RSD 4/5.
So thanks for the replies. I will try to get a decoder board that replaces the existing one.
Cheers.
I think that was Benny Hill.
The whole 8-pin socket thing is probably my biggest pet peeve in the hobby today. There’s no real meaning to the words “DCC Ready” so I don’t even bother checking. Too many locos with 8-pin sockets do NOT simply accept a decoder that plugs in - not without additional work or sub-par operation. Light bulbs need to be repalced in some. In some, the lights work without replacement but end up too dim, or there is no independent control over the lights. Once in a rare while the actually work fine, at least with specific decoders (my P2K GP7’s for example, as long as you use the Digitrax DH163L0 decoder). Most of the time I bypass or repalce the factory circuit boards. I can use $12 decoders plus $3 worth of LEDs and resistors instead of a $25 specialty decoder.
–Randy