DCC intsallation

Anonymous · January 27, 2006, 3:53pm

rrinker · January 27, 2006, 10:27pm

OK is now a good time to tell you about the TCS A1X, the Digitrax DH163K0, and the NCE DASR?

Nice work though, even if you did do it the hard way [:D]

–Randy

Anonymous · January 28, 2006, 5:42am

\Please enlighten me with your comment. I would appreciate ant help. new to this and learning. Thanks!!!

nfmisso · January 28, 2006, 10:51am

With the TCS A1X, the Digitrax DH163K0, and the NCE DASR decoders (and possibly others), your conversion would have been much much easier.

Following your photos; after the 2nd photo, you install one of the above by reversing the procedure that you used to remove the factory board. And you are done.

rrinker · January 28, 2006, 12:47pm

Take a look at my web site, I have a picture or two of an installation in an Atlas/Kato RSD-4 (or maybe an RSD-5). The decoders I mentioned replace the stock grey plastic board - they even have two holes so the decoder clips right on to the supports. The easiest of the bunch (and naturally most expensive) is the DH163K0. It has pins similar to the long copper wires to connect the truck leads to without soldering, and ‘staples’ to loop the motor strips around. You can do it all without soldering (other than installing TWO lights - you can use the old single bulb but of course then there are no directiona lights). Me, I don’t like physical only connections. The DH163A0 is the same decoder minus the pins and is a couple bucks cheaper. The DASR and A1X are like this as well. It is still shaped to fit int he same place, but there are no pins - I cut off the connectors and soldered the wires to each end of the decoder. The motor connections are both on the same side of the decoder - these also fit Athearn Genesis and Stewart F-units with the Stewart drive - so I cut the flat straps short and soldered short pieces of wire to feed the motor. Added a pair of LEDs with 1K resistors on each and cut the light bars short, since the end is the headlight lens, I didn’t want to completely remove them. I used some shrink tube to attach the LED to the end of the cut-off light bar and it works pretty well. Might be easier to use MV lenses and fasten the LEDs right behind the opening though.
One of these days I will get more lights at the bench so my pictures come out better. The work light I have is plenty bright to see tiny parts, but not enough for my camera to get a good quality picture.

–Randy

Anonymous · January 28, 2006, 1:46pm

Thanks Guys it is always nice to get advise on how to improve things. I might be a bit backwards, but when I finish it almost always comes out working. Only failed a couple of times. I enjoy the forum for this. I Just started into DCC about 2 weeks ago and have 5 successfull conversions. All work great. One of my newer engine a p2k gp38-2 runs so smooth,it also will crawl at an unbelievable slow rate like I’v never experiance.

Anonymous · January 28, 2006, 5:34pm

Bump