I’m lookiing to purchase “motor and light function” only decoders for 3 Athearn locomotives that I don’t want to spend more on to add sound with. These are strickly for consist locos behind my other engines that do have sound and the works (I have to watch the budget). Anyway, the 4 decoder brands I am looking at are Train Control Systems (TCS), Digitrax, NCE, and Soundtraxx. Again, just standard decoders for motor and light functions only. Any suggestions on your favorites for this job? JRP “Great Southwest and Pacific RR”
How many light functions?
If you are using the Tsunami, SoundTraxx has new motor/light decoders that are easy to consist with the Tsunami.
I use the Digitrax DZ125, 1 amp decoder with two light functions that is quite nice. There is a four light version Digitrax but do not remember the part number.
Litchfield Station has a good selection.
http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/home.php
Rich
Are they Athearn DCC ready with DCC sockets in them already? If so, you can use the Train Control Systems TCS-1 or 1A. The one without the wiring harness is cheapest. You should be able to mail order them for about $15 each, give or take. Those would have 2 light functions and they have BEMF.
If they are blue box Athearn, with no DCC plug, you’ll probably need the Digitrax AT dedocders made for those loco’s.
Or just solder wires to the clips and make your own AT harness for free.
Or you can buy the AT harness from DIgitrax but use the better TCS decoder. The other end of the harness from all the AThearn clips is a 9 pin plug that fits any 9 pin decoder.
When using the AT harness - skip the conenctor to the light post. They are usually loosely riveted to the chassis and make for a poor connection. Better is to drill a hole and screw in a brass screw, then solder to the screw head.
Someoen needs to do one compeltely correct and send it to TCS. I was lookign at their various non-PnP Athearn installs and they are all over the place. This one does the motor and chassis connections right: http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Athearn/SD40-2_Snoot/Athearn_SD40-2_Snoot.htm
swap the motor clips so the one with the tabs are on top, for extra protection against the motor shorting to the chassis. Drill a screw in the frame and sodler to that. But then they leave the whoel top clip in place and solder the red wire to that. NO NO NO. Remove the clip and solder a wire between the two truck tabs, and solder the red wire to that. Getting rid of that top tab is one of the primary tune-up items for Athearn Blue Box locos even if you aren’t converting to DCC. Other examples on the TCS web site do the top wire, but then solder the black wire to the headlight bracket. Ugggh!
If you want a great decoder at a low price - the NCE D13SRJ is $12 if you buy a 10 pack. Great running, and they can do lighting effects with LEDs (so can TCS, Digitrax not so much). You can’t find a lower cost decoder, and some of those (Bachmann) that sell for more are definitely inferior to the NCE. It’s a big outlay, $120 up front, but then it’s only $12 per loco to convert.
&n
I love the NCE decoders. I find the manual to be excellent and they are very easy to program. Then again, that is the only non-sound/bachmann decoder I have…[:-^]
sfb
John.
TCS is my go to decoder for non sound units. I program CV10 to disable BEMF at around speed step 5 and add a bunch of momentum to get them to run good with my sound units.
Pete
BTW the TCS decoders BEMF definitely does NOT make cruise control. I was test runnign all my cars for the club show, it’s FAR to big a train for my home layout, it goes about 1/3 the way around the room. There’s an (unintentional) grade and when more then half the train was headed downhill, it sped up unless I backed off the throttle. And then goign up the other side, needed more throttle to maintain speed or it slowed down. That’s at the default settings, I didn’t alter anything but the address, added a little momentum, and adjusted the functions for LEDs.
–Randy