I am looking at a couple of Proto 2000’s diesels on E-bay and am wondering if they all are dcc ready or only certain production runs and if so which production runs?
Thanks in advance Tim
The older P2K engines are not DCC ready. The newer ones are.
Qualifier: MOSTLY DCC ready.
Just because they have a socket, doesn’t mean you can just plug in a decoder. The GP7’s, new GP9’s, and some of the steamers have allt he wires goign to a tiny board which plugs into a larger board with diodes on it. These are DCC simple if you use the Digitrax DH163L0 decoder. Any other decoder requires changing the light bulbs. There are reports of shorts on the little board, but I have 3 GP7’s from two different runs and none of those had that problem. The GP32 has the same arrangment - except they wired the class lights across the motor. They have to be disconnected and a resistor installed when connecting them to a different function. I also have done an SD45 from a recent run and it was an easy one with the DH163L0 as well.
A lot of older units have a circuit board with an 8 pin socket and a jumper plug installed. You can mostly just plug in a decoder, but on the ones I’ve done so far, I’ve found the circuit board to be insanely designed and it was a LOT easier to just remove it and hard wire the decoder. It’s not as hard as it sounds, and it’s easy to trace the wiring in the P2K locos. Most of the time they even use the correct colors.
The S-1 switcher has an 8 pin socket, but it most definitely is NOT DC ready, one side of the motor is grounded to the chassis. See my web site (actually the link on Decoder Installs to my Webshots page) for a photo series on installing a decoder in that one - the motor must be insulated and a new orange wire soldered on to provide a connection to the motor without involving the frame.
I have a bunch of E7’s and E8’s to do, but without Mars lights. The board is getting removed from these as well, and Golden White LEDs substituted for the bulbs. I’d do the same for ones with Mars lights - any decent decoder does a far better Mars light effect than the circuit on Life-Like’s board.
You didn’t specify which particular models you bought - let us know and I can get more specific.
Randy, thanks for the insight. The loco in question is a gp60 2nd release of 2003.
[:D]Tim
If it doesn’t have any extra ditch lights or anything, the Digitrax DH163L0 will plug right in to the SD60 and you will be all set. It will take more time to remove the shell than to actually install the decoder. The SD60 is one of the ones with the wires attached to a small board with a socket and the directional diodes on another board that you remove when installing the decoder.
–Randy