I just received a Digitrax DH165Q1 decoder and it requires female pin connectors to install. I have searched the internet, communicated with Tech Support at Digitrax, and Micro Mark, with no success. I still can not find where to get the required 2 and 6 pin female connectors. Guess these connectors are hard to locate. This for an older BLI EMD F7A I am upgrading. Any suggestions where I could acquire the neccessary connectors?
Can you just hardwire the decoder in your BLI F7A? Or can you post a photo of what you are trying to do and where you need to plug the connectors into? I’m not picturing what you’re trying to do.
Tom
The decoder should have come with a 9 pin JST connector with wires connected to solder into your locomotive.
I don’t understand the 2 and 6 pin connectors.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
Aging is not for wimps.
If I read the specs right that is a plug and play for atlas and a few others. The plugs look like the same as Bachmann uses on their steam engines.
Didn’t BLI fit a different system to some older locomotives? Blue system or something like that?
Blueline from 2008 maybe?
If yours is that version then it didn’t come with a QSI decoder originally. But, a motor only decoder should fit into the 8 pin socket once you pull out the “dummy” plug, which isn’t a real dummy plug but a DC only circuit board which must also power the special Blueline sound only board. Odd that Digitrax didn’t just supply the DH165Q1 with the 8 pin adapter cable. Maybe it won’t work in circuit with a Blueline sound board anyway?
https://www.broadway-limited.com/support/manuals/Final%20BlueLine%20Diesel%20Manual%207.17.08.pdf
BLI also used some sort of two board system for some DCC locomotived I had thought.
You might have the wrong decoder for your application:
https://www.digitrax.com/products/mobile-decoders/dh165q1/
The QI reference indicates a plug in replacement decoder for a factory QSI board. Anyway, the DH165Q1 is not a sound decoder. To include sound you also need to buy and plug in Digitrax Soundbug and connect that to your speaker wires.
This decoder is built to plug into a specific BLI type factory board, no wiring required. If what you have had no socket you bought the wrong decoder version, it’s made in a specific format to plug into a specific type of factory board.
The reference to 2 pin and 6 pin maybe to a two pin speaker wire connection and the six pins out of the original 8 pin sockets that acce
After a long search on the Digitrax site I finally found the correct info on the DH165Q1 decoder. The connectors are JST SH series, the 6 pin is a NEM651.
eBay:
2 Pin
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=JST+SH+2pin&_sacat=0&_sop=15
6 Pin
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
Aging is not for wimps.
I looked but couldn’t find.
Here is the explanation of the 2 and 6 pin connectors:
https://www.digitrax.com/tsd/product/DH165Q1/
https://www.digitrax.com/tsd/KB251/dh165q1-installation-instructions/
The factory board in a Blueline BLI locomotive won’t look like this. Digitrax recommends a different decoder for Blueline equipped BLI locomotives that does just plug into the Blueline board:
https://www.digitrax.com/tsd/search/?q=BLI%20Blueline
https://www.digitrax.com/tsd/KB351/broadway-limited-blueline-locomotives/
Actuslly, Digitrax just confirms that BLI recommends a particular decoder. Digitrax suggests more than one of their decoders will work.
The factory boards in other brands are removed and the DH165 Q1 replaces it, hence the reference to factory plugs which need to be fitted unplugged from the factory board and pugged onto the decoder board. No wiring harness is required.
For the BLI with a Blueline factory board there will be no two or six pin wiring plugs to move. The decoder fits in place of the DC control board after removing that from the 8 pin NMRA socket where a decoder normally fits. Literally plug and play.
BLI then switched to using their own proprietary decoders in the their Paragon series. The DH165Q1 presumably isn’t designed for that application.
Copy and paste this link for a directly on topic discussion:
Let’s make that clickable:
THIS ^^^ is the best solution.
I’ve installed at least a dozen various sound decoders in BLI F7 locomotives.
As mentioned, the best route is to strip off any proprietary BLI connectors and start with the bare wires.
IMG_7093_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
Figuring out the light board might take a little sleuthing.
This is but one example:
IMG_7105_BLI_LED by Edmund, on Flickr
This shows an “AT” style board being fitted to a B unit:
IMG_7099_fix by Edmund, on Flickr
The board removed happens to be a “Blue-Line” BLI decoder (note the 8 pin dummy plug in the middle of the board).
By directly hardwiring the decoder you can choose from dozens of options from various manufacturers of decoders.
Good Luck, Ed
Yes, thanks. It’s a bit weird that nothing I try works for internal links. You’d think the forum software would make that easy.
Did the original poster identify the board he’s trying to add a decoder to?
The information on this forum indicates that dual decoder systems are obsolete now, and maybe never were a good idea.
If I were wiring in a new dual mode sound decoder I’d probably wire in a female socket of some kind. Same amount of labour, no risk of overheating any part of the decoder and easy change to a different decoder if I chose to.
If this were my locomotive I’d just buy an 8 pin motor only decoder and plug it in, if I could find one.
Great pictures and tutorial Ed.
I am going to need to eventually remove a couple of BLI decoders all together and hard-wire the motor to the pick-ups for DC operation.
It looks do-able from your pictures.
-Kevin
Did the OP find a solution to the problem?