My DC power supply/controller just went “belly up”… My layout is wired for DC with several “power blocks” - short sections of track that I can turn on/off (for parking locomotives). I think you get the picture. When I first built the layout in '09, I bought the Digitrax “Empire Builder” set. The guy at the hobby shop also sold me an Atlas unit + a “Z” code decoder, which he simply plugged in. I was able to use one throttle knob to run the decoder unit without ever “programming an address”. For reasons - too boring and complex to go into here- - I ended up going with DC. Since then, I have purchased several locomotives - each so-called, “DCC Ready”. My most recent purchase was a pair of Athearn “Genesis” F-units. Nice units. Each looks fairly simply to convert to DCC: “Replace the Jumper Board with a 8 or 9-pin Decoder”. Seems simple and straightforward enough - “Plug-and-play”
I come here to the “forum” to get information re: exactly which Digitrax 8/9-pin decoders should I purchase? Micro-Mark Trains lists several “Digitrax Mobile Decoders” – each of which includes a “harness”. Sorry, but I am clueless. I would like to purchase simple “Plug-and-Play” 8/9-pin mobile decoders. Can you guys help? Please?
The beauty of the DCC standard is that you can use any brand decoder with any brand system. I have a Digitrax Zephyr but not a one Digitrax decoder in any of my locos. I use TCS. Definitely bookmark the TCS web site, they have installation pictures for a huge variety of locos in various scales, and the info applies regardless of which brand decoders you use.
If cost is important, you can buy 10 packs of the NCE D13SRJ decoders for under $120, less than $12 each, and they are high quality decoders
When you start adding decoders to more locos, you will have to at least assign an address. Decoders default to address 3, so when you only had one, it’s no big deal. But if you put 3 locos on the track, all addressed as 3, they will all start moving. Setting the address is pretty simple and straightforward, then you will have independent control over each loco.
While Micro Mart may have stuff that is hard to get elsewhere I would not want to pay the prices they ask for simple P&P decoders. Especially the Digitrax brand they offer. My advice is to buy DCC related items from a reputable DCC dealer such as Tony’s, Lichfield Station or Traintek LLC. Each of these will stand behind every sale. I have been buying from Gary at Traintek LLC for over ten years. A simple call or e-mail gets the answer in a flash.
Digitrax is popular in systems and such but when it comes to decoders you will be surprised at what the other manufactures such as Lenz, TCS, Loksound, and NCE that will outperform them every time. I own over seventy decoders and have installed well over a hundred for others and I can count on one hand how many Digitrax decoders I installed.
TCS makes fine decoders which I use in DCC ready units from Atlas, Athearn and Bachmann. Go to the TCS web-site: http://www.tcsdcc.com/ under installation pictures, to Athearn and it will recommend and show you how to install the appropriate decoder for Athearn Genesis “F” units.
I must say, these two statements confused me because the earlier releases of the Athearn Genesis F7 (circa 2004) did not include a Plug and Play HO board.
Back in 2004 when I bought a couple of pairs of Athearn Genesis F7AB consists that were DCC Ready, the HO board (G63840) was pretty simple and stripped down. There was no plug and play adapter wired to the board.
I was unaware of the fact that Athearn has discontinued this board in favor of a more complex HO board (G63868) that includes the plug and play adapter.
So, for those of us who have the older F7 Genesis units, to use plug and play decoders, you would also need to replace the older HO board with the newer HO board. Otherwise, you just replace the older HO board with a hard wired decoder like the NCE DA-SR or the Digitrax DH165A0.
Dunno when they changed them, but the install pics for a Genesis F7 on the TCS site show the board with both a 9 pin and 8 pin plug, and the install for the F2 mentions it had a plug but the sample shows an A4X because they wanted to seperate out the lights and have a Mars light on the front and the A4X has resistors for the silly 1.5V light bulbs Athearn still insists on using.
Plugging a ‘regular’ decoder into the 9 pin, the on-board resistor handles the lights - my RS3 has been this way since I got it, I just popped on a T1 on the 9 pin connector. When I change it out for a Loksound, the factory board is going, as are the light bulbs that poke out through the shell. SMD LEDs are the way to go, to preserve maximum space for the speaker, with some lenses added to the light openings.