I’m new to DCC and bought a Mantua switcher. Does “DCC ready” mean that the proper resistance has been taken care of for the loco light and tender light, or do I have to take the housings off to check? Where I plug in the Digitrax decoder I have, appears to be straight forward. Thanks for your responses!
Hal
The term “DCC ready” usually means that the locomotive is equipped with the standard connector to install a DCC decoder, but has a shorting plug on it so that it runs (from the factory) on standard DC. It should be just a matter of opening the engine, removing the shorting plug, and plugging in the decoder.
When you install the decoder, you should be able to see how the headlight and taillight are connected, and if they have the proper directional switching. This should be done with diodes, not resistors.
I don’t know about Mantua, but I know that on the Proto 2000 locomotives you have to either change out the 1.5v bulbs with 12v bulbs or put in resistors to cut the amount of power the decoder sends to the bulbs.
…although one would hope that the nice folks who sell 'em also include a warning in the accompanying literature about this issue. Fortunately, if they don’t and you blow the bulbs, they can be replaced easily and cheaply…even LED’d, although that will mean resistors.
For my money, the best thing you can do to those incandescent headlights is remove them and put in LEDs. The incandescents just don’t put out enough light to be worthy of the name “headlight.” They will eventually burn out anyway and you’ll have to replace them, whereas LEDs are likely to outlive the engine, and probably the engineer as well.
I’ve got a P2K S1, which I believe was marked “DCC Ready” on the box. Fortunately, I bought it from a great LHS, who insisted on taking it apart and showing me how the headlights were mounted with a common frame ground, and the whole thing wasn’t really “DCC Ready” at all. Not a lot of work to fix it, of course, but with a little bad luck it would have meant a fried decoder had I not been warned.
DCC Ready menas whatever a manufacturer wants it to mean. There are very few locos that are truly what I would consider DCC Ready. In my mind, DCC Ready would mean you remove the shell, plug in the decoder of your choice, put the shell back on, and go. Anything that requires more work, like changing bulbs, adding resistors, etc. Is DCC Almost-Ready. Unfortunately there seem to be no industry guidelines as tot he use of the DCC Ready term, so you’re on your own.
Typically, if the lightbulbs connected in parallel to the motor, they are at least 12 volt bulbs - but even those should get replaced because when using DC, they seldom are at full voltage, but with DCC, they will be at full power the entire time the light is turned on, and they tend to run too hot and can melt plastic. Depending on your DCC system they might also get a bit more than 12 volts, shortening their life.
At the same time, just because the bulb connects to some complex looking circuit board doesn’t mean it won’t be DCC Ready. Some designs keep a resistor in the circuit when you plug in a decoder to the socket, and will work fine with no additional work.
–Randy
Digitrax decoders for P2Ks don’t require resistors.
The MRC “snap-in” decoders have three lighting options. The instructions show you how to wire 12 volt, 1.5 volt and led’s. No exactly DCC ready but it covers all the bases.
Tilden