Mounting the decoder is there a better way

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

using a piece of double sided tape
is that the best way
hot glue
a bracket seems like a better idea

what do you do

2

Where are you mounting your decoder? Loco? stationary?

Ken.

3

I like to use 2 sided foam tape, either to a flat surface or to the top of the motor. I also have been known to glue a styrene strip about 1/2 inch wide to the top of a can motor, and mount the decoder on top with tape. Never had one come loose yet!

Here’s a BL2 with the decoder taped to the plastic board that holds the crew in place.

4

i used double sided tape , but not the foam type . just because that’s what i had around . time will tell if it was a good idea

5

Budliner, IMO the mounting of the decoder will very accoding to the installation. The size of the decoder, the conection method (plug in harness, hand wire etc) plus the available space in the model will all have an impact on the method of mounting.

I have used double sided foam tape to the motor. I have used styrene platforms. I have used Kaptron tape to hold the decoder in place. I have also used nothing but the harness. A TCS MC-2 decoder is so small that when it is attatched using a short harness it does not really need any mounting.

So in answer to your question, there is no fixed answer.

6

And then you have installs like the New Athearn RTR that have a little tray that accepted the NCE D15SR decoder like it was purpose made for it. Thatwas pretty easy to deal with!

Chris

7

I usually use a strip of kapton tape to hold mine in place. On locos with no real ‘space’ like the Walthers Trainline FA, what I did was cut off a section of the factory circuit board, keepign the end witht he screw hole at the rear and just enough to cover the area over the rear gear tower. I screwed that on using the original screw, and taped the decoder to the board scrap. Otherwise, it would fall into the gear tower area.
Most others, like P2K, have the weight covering the top of the gear and motor so there is plenty of space to tape the decoder down. And on Kato-drive units, I use decoders meant for them, which fasten directly to the clips that used to hold the original grey plastic ‘board’.

–Randy

8

thanks for the input guy’s I ask as my soundtraxx is just floating around in the brass e-8a and just seem’s flimsy I like the idea of the styreen mount plate maby with some kind of felcro or strip tie looks like I will have to mount in on top of the sagami can motor as all the weight’s have been removed from this engine, is that standard practice to remove the weight when converted to dcc with a can motor

K

9

In my opinion (which is certainly the minority) I would like to see every engine where it is practical have the decoder mounted in the fuel tank. it would require about two cents more wire for the manufactirers to hook up headlights and they should all have a plug. Pop the cover off the bottom like a remote control and pop in the decoder. need to replace it? A real easy one minute job instead of dismantling an engine. Got one mounted on top of the motor? They should easily be able to mount the motor upside down to accomodate the decoder. Won’t that make the engine top heavy? Nope. The masses used in models and the speeds won’t cause them to flip over. It is one thing in a car or truck to add weight that is 3-10 feet higher. it is almost inconsequential to raise it by 1/4 to 1/2".

10

I’ve used a real mix - blu-tack works rather well though, it’s repositionable, insulating, and seems reasonably heatproof - at least, if the internal temperature of the loco is causing blu-tack to melt then the decoder moving should be the least of your worries!