Seems weird doing a photo essay of my first non-plug-in decoder for folks with decades more experience than I have, but since a couple people asked for it…
Above Picture: As far as non-plug and pray installations go this one was pretty straight forward. The engine appears to be isolated from the frame as the blue wire leads from the pole and attached to the engine case.
Photo Above: Slight problems arise when the decoder is placed in its proposed location. The back of the decoder rubs against the flywheel and it is resting on top of the drive gears
Photo Above: There is a little over 1/16 of an inch of extra insulation that can be shaved off. This provides enough clearance.
Photo Above: To protect the decoder form the drive gears (and vice versa,) I folded a piece of styrene to cover the gear. To make the bends I slightly scored the plastic. Because the bends were quite weak, I reinforced them with scotch tape. I then painted the plastic black.
Photo Above: This model does not have lights and I have no current plans to install any. I did leave enough lead that in case I get a wild hair, I could install them. I taped the stubs to the decoder. Before I de-soldered the leads I put a dab of red paint on the side where the red was attached. At this point just for laughs and giggles, I tested the pole to the frame and there was no continuity.
Tip: I took all the cut-off wires and kept them. They come in handy if you just happen to have a Proto 2K S1 that you want to put a decoder in and you don’t want to look all over the garage and your workbench and your computer tool kit and your old radio speakers and clip one of
Gee that looks familiar - oh yeah same drive as my Boxcab Diesel. I’m tempted to say just pull the flywheel and associated parts, it’s pretty useless as flywheels go (a cast piece of pot metal? With a very small diameter? And that plastic tube drive I think causes more bind than any help you get from that flywheel). Slow - yes. They just need some help to get the drive to run quieter. Very powerful though.
Nice job with the little plastic mount - looks good!
Good tip on saving the extra wire - beats having to buy a bundle of it. Of course, my collection is quite heavy on the violet and green, and light on the white, blue, and yellow.
Take out the flywheel–now you tell me. [(-D] It would have made for a better install, but not a better essay.
On another subject Randy, what CV setting would you use to optimize this little sucker. I like the slow speed, but I don’t like having to crank it to 50 on the DT 400 to get him moving.
Thanks, Chip, for thinking of us neophytes while you were doing this. I really appreciate your making the extra effort to interrupt your flow and grab the camera at each step. Now, all I need is a cup of courage, and I just might tackle the Mike that my inlaws picked up for me in Alaska.
Selector…if you do take a whack(?) at putting DCC in the Mike, let us know. That’s an IHC engine, right?? Mayhap your experiences would help me and others with our IHC steam???
Chip, thanks for showing those of us who haven’t done this before that perhaps it is not a hard as we think. The guys at my club tell me that I have to determine my engines “stall speed” and current draw ,etc. etc. just to figure out which type of decoder to buy…huh?? Statements like that make me just think that DC isn’t so bad…Then going to the Digitrax site and trying to figure out which decoder would work…much less trying to decide if I want a sound decoder ( the speaker MIGHT fit in the big tender for my 4-6-4 Hudson…) but I don’t think I can afford that right now.
Thanks Chip for your photos and essay. Great work!
John, I will definitely do a report with photos when I tackle it. However, I am not going to do it until the fall. Too much on my plate right now. We had a late and wet spring up here, and are only into the third decent week. My hands are covered in white Alkyd primer as I type. Wife is outside in the heat painting steps down to the beach. We know there’s a beach down there, but never can get to it!!!
I got a SoundTrax in my son’e 2-8-0, so I doubt you’tt have a problem with your Hudson. But just in case call Tony at Tony’s Train Exchange and ask. Ask all those questions.
Since you say “crank to 50” I assume til your DT400 reads 50… ok, sometimes this works good then - set the Start Volts (CV02) to 50 as a first test - that should still give you some slack space at the bottom end, because the DT400 readout only goes 0-100, that’s 0-100% of 128 speed steps, so 50% is actually 64. That’s the only one you will probably need to adjust, the speed will go up linerarly from the start point. With VERY fine control, since you STILL have 128 steps from the bottom.
Chip, I would suggest getting the cable that links your command station to your PC. Look on Digitrax.com or email them or something. And then download the JMRI DecoderPro software. It will save you HOURS of time screwing around with CVs. The software allows you to set start, mid, and max voltage or adjust each speed step individually to make it run just like you want it. Also it allows you to save your programming setup for each engine so it can quickly be reset. This will be very helpful, I see you are using a DH123 and they seem to forget things more than any other decoder I have worked with. And trust me on this one, Ive worked with LOTS of decoders. Not only on all of my own engines but I also run a little buissiness installing them for people. Ive probably done at least 150 installs in all. Anyway, get the PC-Loconet cable and download decoderpro. You wont be sorry.
I want to give you a BIG thank you for posting these very interesting pictures. [:D] I have no experience at all when it comes to decoders and installation. Thanks…
Chip, as the newest (Probably) person in the hobby I appreciate the tutorial and especially the photos. I was in my LHS the other day looking over a Athern Genesis NS SD-70 mac in dc and I asked how easy was it to convert it to dcc. The guy, always helpful, pulled out the digitrax decoder and was showing me some very small points on the decoder where you had to solder wires. I told him ,with a smile on my face, that he had never seen how I can butcher soldering TRACK and I wasn’t ready to solder on a decoder. I wish I did feel competent to do that. Heck, it was only about a hundred for the engine and I guess the decoder at that shop was maybe $20 to $25. Thats some expensive experimenting and for me, thats what it would be.
Thanks!
Jarrell
It’s not just a cable. Digitrax needs an interface device fromthe computer to the Loconet. The best device is the Locobuffer. The MS100 works, and you probably can pick one up cheap now that the Locobuffer is commercially available, but it’s an inferior product at best, and has issues with some brands of USB to serial adapters, if your computer doesn’t have a serial port, because of the oddball non-standrad baud rate required. Locobuffer has none of these issues, plus BUFFERS the commands so you don’t loose any information if the computer is busy.
*** Bronson at RR-CirKits sells a fully assembled Locobuffr, the Locobuffer-II, it’s also available through DCC retailers like Tony’s and Litchfield. Hans Deloof in Belgium sells a circuit board to make your own - I have the Mouser parts list. Mine cost me about $25 in parts to build, but I was able to get a free sample of the most expensive two chips which saved me about $15 at Mouser’s price.
I recommend Mouser over Digikey and Jameco because unlike the other two, Mouser does not have a minimum order, nor do they have a surcharge for orders under that minimum.
You don’t have to solder anything to the decoder. There are wires leading out for that. Soldering those wires to anything is WAY easier than track. Track takes a while to heat up and melt the solder. heating these thin wires. especially if you tin them first takes just a couple seconds. I got a hobby tool that has two alligator clamps and a magnifying glass. You use the clips to be your extra hands. Then it’s just a matter of heating the joing and touching the solder to it. Just a couple seconds and pretty simple.
Just a couple months ago I was scared shirtless about soldering. I started on track, probably for the same reason you did. But this stuff is easier.
