I have a number of quality HO Diesel Loco’s, I am seriously looking at the Digitrax Super Chief just because of options available.
My question is "Is there a decoder that I can retrofit my existing locos with, as they are not “DCC Ready”, (ie. plug & play) but the decoder will handle all the functions such as sound, lights, as well as normal operation of the loco??
I guess I’m looking for an all in one decoder w/ sound. (Soundtrax??)
And secondly what is the hub bub about with the “new” decoders that require the higher amp draw?
Yes, a decoder can be hard wired into your engine. All you need is some basic soldering skills. The soundtraxx will be your best bet, they have a DCC and sound decoder for $45. All sound decoders draw more amps than normal decoders in order to power the sound system. Hope I have answered your questions.[:D]
Along with Joe’s comment, you also have to keep in where your speaker and baffle is going to go. On a few locomotives, you may be hard pressed to get even a 1" OD speaker under the shell…
And it’s not ‘amps’ more, it’s fractions of an amp more. Rememebr that the motor portion of the decoder ony draws what hte motor and lights (plus a tiny bit for the decoder electronics) draws - the ratings you see for decoders like 1 amp, 1.5 amp, etc, are the MAXIMUM motor current they can handle. I loco with a good quality motor like Stewart and Kato (in HO) draw less than a quarter amp! Adding a sound system bumps you up by a quarter to half amp MORE to runt he sounds and drive the speaker.
I’ve also found that people seem to go overboard on their amp rating - more is better, right? Well, so long as you divide it into power districts with circuit breaker. A 5 amp booster is enough to melt N scale parts - a 10 amp unit could easily melt HO and larger. With the mere 2.5 amps output of my Zephyr I managed to run 8 locos at the same time, a mix of Proto2000, Stewart, and Bachmann Spectrum units - and still didn’t trip the overload protection. I would have tried more, but 8 was as many as I could manage without them crashing into one another. There are two current ratings for a dc motor - runnign current, and stall current. Stall current is higher - this is how much current the motor draws when it cannot spin. This doesn;t happen very often in a locomotive, unless you hold the wheels, or it has traction tires and you put too much train behind it. Look at the reviews in Model Railroader, they often list slipping and stalled current. Your locos should always be able to slip their wheels if the train is too heavy or the grade too steep. So under typical operating conditions, the current draw of each loco will be well below the maximum.
Bottom line, with the 5 amp power of the Super Chief, you should be able to easily run half a dozen or more locos, even with sound. Non-sound, a dozen or more, unless they are all old high current Athearns.
All of them should be compatible since they are really two seperate circuits. You will just need to adjust chuff or prime mover rate on the sound decoder depending on what kind of motor decoder and motor you have in the locomotive.
[And secondly what is the hub bub about with the “new” decoders that require the higher amp draw?]
I guess what I am refering to here is the Atlas “QSI Quantum Series”. Can someone explain this system, other than perhaps it’s the latest and greatest in DCC from Atlas.
Can someone who has some of these sound decoders answer a question for all of us? Which functions do these use? Yes, functions can be “re-coded” to some extent, but where does Soundtraxx put the various sounds? How many different functions are required? Some DCC systems, particularly older ones, are limited in the number of functions they can command.
I have sound decoders from QSI, Soundtraxx and MRC. Unfortunately, most sounds are not standardized to a certain function (sometimes even on different models from the same mfr.). And most sound decoders use 12, 13 or more functions, so you’re correct that many systems won’t let you access them all.
The good news is that (generally speaking) they put the more common sounds on the lower functions. So with most systems you’ll be able to ring the bell, blow the horn/whistle, etc. Depending on how prototypical you wi***o be, the higher-up (generally less ‘common’) sounds/functions may not be that missed (I know they aren’t by me). Examples of this would be brake squeal, coupler ‘clank’, or the conductor calling “all aboard”.
Right. You have both decoders wired to the track pickups. The sound decoder doesnt have anything to do with the motor and lights, and the motor decoder has nothing to do with the speaker and sound system. Its a little tricky to program an engine with 2 decoders, usually you have to lock one of them. The locking procedure depends on the manufacturer so read your decoder manual.
Thanks for clearing up something that has been unclear to me for quite sometime. Maybe I missed something - but I don’t recall ever reading anything about that. This makes purchasing decisions somewhat easier for me. Thanks!