On Bachmann DCC onboard locos (steam or diesel & non-sound) are the decoders PnP or are they hard wired? Are the onboard decoders easy to replace? If I’m not mistaken steam loco decoders are located in the tender.
the goat
I can only speak for the Spectrum HO Richmond 4-4-0 DCC but no sound. Inside the tender is a pc board mounted about .25 inch (7mm) above the floor which has a 8 pin plug in decoder plugged into the pc board. The tender floor has speaker holes in it. The tender wheels pick up on one side only, i.e., one truck the right rail and the other truck the left rail. I converted mine to pick up using eight wheels. All four drivers pickup from the track.
The engine has a two pin and a four pin connector mounted in the frame of the engine. Two plugs with wires from the tender plug into the connectors. These six wires are soldered to the pc board.
I wanted sound so I removed the pc board and decoder and installed a SoundTraxx DSD-100LC light steam decoder and speaker. Nothing fancy but I can live with it.
rich
The decoders are hard-wired. They are a snap to replace if you have some soldering skill. In fact, they’re so easy to wire that I take them out of the Bachmann locos and put them into my P2K’s and Athearn BB’s. I then wire the Bachmann direct and use it on standard DC.
depends on the model,
the standard line diesels are hard wired one piece boards,
the steam (GS4 ATSF 4-8-4) have plugs, as do all the Spectrum.
My GP-35 had a decoder circuit board with two directional lights built in.(front and back LED’s) It’s EZ enough to replace with another decoder. But then you have to rig up mounts and wiring for new lights. My board was screwed in with 6 wires soldered to it. 4 from the trucks, 2 to the motor.
I have a couple of the SD45’s. I know the decoders are pretty basic and do not allow you to change many CV’s, but mine run fine so I never took them apart. [%-)]
I have 2 SD 45s. I’m gonna rip out all of the Bachman electronics and install TCS A4X decoders, (after I isolate the motors) -good idea or no?
Sounds good to me. As long as the motor is isolated there should be no problem.
Very good idea, the TCS decoder is light years beyond the el-cheapo one Bachmann uses.
–Randy
I ran one of these on Friday at the club and it went great. I lashed it to an Atlas C 30-7. Once I weather it a lot ( lol ) it’ll look decent too. (It doesn’t look that bad)
Good day. I just replaced the decoder in my Bachman Gp-35 with one from NCE. It runs great now, I don’t have “the sound on board” feature anymore. LOL Here is the link, the decoder is specifically designed for DCC equipped Bachmann diesels. Take care.
Scott