I purchased a KATO C44 at a recent swap meet; a little older but Runs Great; Going to Convert to DCC and I am taking out the Old Board.
Concerned about shorting/Isolating as I only have done Athearns; The Motor seems very well encased and would be very hard to get at to isolate anything; can anyone tell me if this is Isolated
It has The Prongs from the Top and One from the Bottom but I am unable to tell if it’s touching any metal on the bottom?
thanks, Cary
Kato motors are fully isolated from the frame. Installing DCC should be a breeze compared to your Athearns.
Since you’re taking the board out, I’m guessing it’s one of the old ones that’s nothing more than two light bulbs and a couple diodes? I think Kato diesels have been DCC ready since they started using LEDs.
Thanks for the Quick reply; I was positive it was just a Light Board but…on the back of the board it does have an 8 prong all metal piece but they seemed to have put in a Block so no one could put in an 8 pin decoder (make sense)? Kind of a half square that Blocks 1,2,8 & 4,5,6 Never seen anything like this before
I forgot to mention that I unscrewed the bottom screws from the motor; should I be putting Nylons here? That’s my other Huge Concern?
Thanks Again, Cary
The screws are fine and any digitrax decoder will work for that loco. I have five of them and they were easy to convert to Dcc. Jim.
If you pull the “block” out you will find its a dummy plug in an NMRA 8 pin socket just plug a decoder straight in.
Yup, that plug is simply a jumper for DC operation. All you have to do is pull it out and plug the decoder in. All DCC ready engines have a jumper that you remove for a DCC decoder.
Sorry; I should Clarify myself with that Block; It’s not a Jumper Plug but 3 pieces Manufacturer Soldered on each side right through the Holes; It is part # 37612. But Anyway I did get it working and Sounds Great; Send a Vid in a Day or Two and the Part.
thanks again, Cary