02-20-2023
Adventures Installing DCC Decoders
Since my new hip is still healing, I am limited in my movements for another couple of weeks. Sitting and installing decoders gives me my model railroading fix (or frustration).
A few things I have learned over this past couple of weeks installing decoders in locomotives. I am installing basic decoders and typically do not require any more than three function outputs for lighting.
1. No one source of information is entirely correct. Use multiple sources.
I use the Digitrax Decoder Selector, the TCS website decoder selector and installation instructions, the NCE website, the NCE decoder Selection Tool, The DCC Guy videos (Larry Puckett) and multiple web searches.
2. The decoder indicated on the manufacturers' websites may not be the correct one for the run of your specific locomotive. The website may show a decoder with an 8-pin plug but when you pull the shell off the loco there is no 8-pin socket. Two twenty-year-old Life Like Proto 2000 E8's did not have the 8-pin socket but newer models have the socket.
3. If there is a an 8-pin socket pin number 1 may not be indicated so you will need to trace the internal wiring to identify the pin numbers.
4. You may need to make changes to wiring that is not indicated in the installation instructions. I had to remove two capacitors from the existing lighting board of an older Bachmann Spectrum 4-8-2. The decoder could be read on the program track but would not operate on the main. I did some digging and found this information on the TCS website. I have other Bachmann steamers that this may apply to.
5. You must determine the voltage requirements of existing light bulbs or LED's if you want to reuse them. Could be a 12V - 14V bulb requiring full track voltage, a 1.5V bulb or an LED requiring limiting resistors.
After watching one headlight flame out in a momentary blaze of glory I went off to Micro Center to buy some resistors.
6. Have a DC power pack handy or DC powered track to determine if the loco is running ok before you start the installation. I found several old ones needing lube or gear replacement.
Aside from the one light bulb flame out no other smoke, sparks or fire....... so far.
Above is the older Backmann Spectrum 4-8-2. The 8-pin socket is located in the tender and the pins are not numbered. In the very lower right of the existing circuit board are the two capacitors I had to remove. Very dainty wires and connectors mate the tender to the loco. I had to remove the shell from the loco to measure the headlight voltage.
Above is another old timer. A Life Like Proto 2000 SW 9 / 1200. I installed an almost drop in NCE SW9SR decoder. The instructions from NCE are quite detailed. The front light must be replaced by an LED and the decoder has a current limiting resistor build in. The rear light bulb can be reused if you rewire it to the specified locations on the decoder. Note the wires with the heat shrink tubing for the rear light.
And another older Life Like Proto 2000. This one is an E6. Note the two headlight openings. Top is a mars light. Life Like used a dual filament bulb and electronics in the existing light board to simulate the mars light flashing. The existing light board has an 8-pin socket. So far, I have found three ways to wire the mars light. This is where I will follow The DCC Guy video. He just cut all the wires off the existing light board and removed the board. Install the decoder, LED's with resistors and wire the mars light to Functions 1 (green wire). Then set the CV's for it to flash.
