Okay,
stupid question time, but I have a bachmann spectrum loco. How do I know if it is dcc ready? Should I open it up? If I do what would I look for? Thanks for your help!
Derrick,
With the newer locomotives, it’s usually a given and printed on the side of the box. It would also be mentioned in the owners manual that comes with the locomotive. For older locomotives, you’ll need to open the shell and check for an NMRA 8-pin socket.
Tom
It should say on the box.
If you open the engine up, it should have a DCC socket. Usually, you have to remove the light board.
You can also go to the Bachman site and “Ask the Bachman.”
DCC ready means different things to different manufacturers. Generally it means that there is a NMRA socket into which a decoder with a plug can be inserted. However, it may not be a simple as that. Bachmann is notorious for having to remove or cut the leg on a capacitor that may be somewhere on the light board. Even with the plug, you may still need to clip the capacitor. Sometimes DCC ready means that there are places to solder the decoder wires in. The Proto 1000 F3 units require soldering in of the decoder and the cutting of some tracks on the circuit board. Anyway, the documentation that came with the loco should tell you what to do. Failing that, look at a web site like www.tcsdcc.com they have a lot of installation pictures and your loco may be included with instructions as to what to do.
Ditto on the soldering on some. I have a P2K PA1 that’s DCC ready. The pins are there, but the existing circuit board is soldered to them.
Is it a steamer or a diesel. The Bachmann steamers are much easier to predict.
As the others have said it should say on the box or on the web-site. Likewise some vendors say DCC ready if they have a plug. Others say DCC ready if the motor is isolated from the frame and it is easy to break the connection between the incoming track power and the motor. So that is what one would look for. Are there two wires that can be intercepted between the wheels and the motor. If there is only one wire or worse no wires, it means the locomotive is using the frame to transmit power. Those are the hardest ones to convert to DCC.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves, there is no concensus on what “DCC Ready” means, outside of it having an 8-pin or 9-pin socket. I’ve learned to ignore it - you can put DCC into anything, some are just harder than others. But it’s HORRIBLE for newcomers to DCC, and very misleading.
VERY FEW locos are truly DCC Ready in that you can take the decoder out of the package, opent he shell, plug it in, and go. And some of those are only so with a specific decoder, not the lower cost generic types. Ex of this is many newer P2K locos. And even some of those have completely broken this by adding additional light bulbs for things like ditch lights or number board lights. The ones that ARE plug ad play, the only decoder that works with zero modifications is the Digitrax DH163L0. Any other decoder and you need to replace the light bulbs with 14-16 volt bulbs. Some odler P2K’s that have circuit boards with plugs - well, after examining them I found it easier to discard the board and solder the decoder wires rather than attempt to use the screwy circuit board.
Since you can put DCC into anything (ok well maybe not some Z scale…but some of the TINY N scale turn of the century locos my friend has made might amaze - the tender contains both the motor AND decoder, and it’s a VERY small tender), I really wish there would be some effort in the industry to at least truthfully list the ‘DCC Ready’ status. Maybe removing the label from locos that aren’t will scare newcomers - but then so does blowing your first decoder install because there was a ‘trick’ to installing that particular decoder.
–Randy
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No such thing, only stupid answers.
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Which one I have nine and not one was REALY DCC ready. All had the yellow cap that had to be removed.
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Surgery is required, you must open the patient and look inside. you are looking for a male plug plugged into a PC board. It has 8 pins, 2 rows of four. If you find that you will see the dreaded yellow cap, looks like a half moon and is yellow, it MUST go. I used a DZ123P from Digitrax in all my spectrums except the "“J” class which I used a DH123P. That tranlates to a “D” decoder “Z” z scale “H” is HO scale “123” is the series and “P” is plug NMRA 8 pin.
A Z-scale decoder? Man, you are talking tiny. Plenty of room inside an HO shell for one of them.
rrinker,
I would argue that very MANY new locomotives are simple to plug and play with DCC decoders. My newer Rivarossi, Kato, P2K locomotives all run fine on the first attempt to install a decoder (all DCC ready). As for older locomotives, that is truly a gamble…
Brian
But…if you are a first timer to DCC like me and haven’t ever really opened one up to see what’s inside, it can be very daunting.
I am going to get an NCE Power Cab once my layout is done, and then the nervous part…getting decoders in my engines. Even the DCC Ready ones. The sad part about getting into this hobby is the amount of ‘know-how’ needed and money involved. And when you are in a region that doesn’t have any clubs, shows, etc…it is hard to get that knowledge without an increased chance of ruining something.
Unless there is a generic “How-To” on installing decoders (with pictures!), I see a very expensive ordeal in my future.
Anytime it is difficult to get a train running (i.e. opening a train up and removing caps, removing and soldering wires, etc.), I believe the manufacturers are missing out on a basic focus regarding their customer demographic.
It concerns me that the threads above indicate that these types of issues narrows a market base vs. trys to enlarge it.
Hopefully I’m wrong and there is a place for the average joe to get this knowledge without having to travel for hours to meet with someone who has that ‘know-how’. Maybe I haven’t found that place yet. Otherwise…this can be very daunting for the newcomer. 
Mike/Nightshade
P.S. Sorry for the tirade. It’s just been boiling up of late. I’m very excited to get this layout down and begin the adventure with my son, but my nervousness about screwing it up is ‘harshing my mellow’… as they say in L.A., hehe.
Most the the manufacturers have pictures on their web sites for various installs. There are also pictures all over the internet from people who have done some. I have some pictures of installs I’ve done, just not that particular loco. TCS has lots of install pictures on their web site - and keep in ind that while naturally the Digitax site shows the use of a Digitrax decoder and the TCS site shows only TCS decoders, you don’t have to use that exact decoder to duplictae the effort. Some installs are space constrained, so you couldn’t use something like a Digitrax DH163 where the pictures show a TCS M1, it just won’t fit. But if you use a similar or smaller size Digitrax decoder the install would be exactly the same.
–Randy
I tend to agree with Randy on this one. Although it’s getting better, the label DCC ready does not always mean plug and play. Another example would be the Athearn RTR units. They have the 9 pine Digitrax plug so they are plug and play for Digitrax decoders. The circuit board also has the standard 8 pin holes but no female socket attached. I would think having hoth wouldn’t cost much and make the units much more DCC ready. The earlier Genesis units were “DCC ready” but you had to change the light bulbs.
Jeffery, you’d be surprised how little room some HO locos have. I’ve used Z scale decoders in some simply because it makes for an easier installation.
Many decoders have the 9-pin linear socket and plug. It IS an NMRA standard. The NCE D13SRJ decoders I use has it, as do many TCS decoders like the T1 - they would all plug right in to an Athearn RTR.
–Randy