As many know I fried the printed circuit board and decoder in my Proto 2000 SD 7. Luckily I found a new board and installed a Digitrax DN163PS and runs great!
I am, wanting to up grade a few older Athearn’s Blue Box engines. I can do the hard wiring style but a board will make it easier. The Proto # 432-X001R1 is slim. I have a few boards from Athearn Dash 9’s but will not fit in the shells I want to use them in.
I think doubled side tape should ground the board from the motor.
Remember, this is not a question about the decoder, just the board.
When doing older Athearn BB engines, all that’s necassary is to isolate the motor from the frame and wire the decoder in. Why screw around with a board??
The older BB engines…like me, the motor has a spring contact on the bottom touching the frame. You could bend up and ort flatten the spring so it doent touch then solder a wire to the spring connector. Remove the upper spring contact flat metal thingy that runs from truck to motor to trck, your going to hardwire those to the decoder.
For the board, as long as you don’t break any foil currnet paths, your good, or else you will have to bridge the broken paths with wire. Take black insultaing tape on the motor then use doublesided tape, just to be sure.