Hello all,
I am wanting to convert an IHC SD24 HO scale locomotive for use on a DCC track. The decoder I am using is a DH123D from digitrax. I have installed DCC chips, but only in Athearns. The IHC is very different. Anyone know how to do this, or can you point me to a diagram? Thanks in advance for your help.
More details needed, including, if possible, pictures of the insides of this locomotive. I have done several IHC steam engines and diesels, but have seen different types of motors and drive systems in them, too, depending on when, where, and by whom it was made.
The first thing that needs to be determined is the type of motor and drive system in your model -- does it have a can motor in the center, one or two flywheels, and both trucks powered; a can motor in the center with no flywheel and only one truck powered; or a pancake motor that is mounted vertically on only one truck and power pickup from the other truck. I've also ran across some that had only a very thin, flimsy, plastic frame and some that are metal.
The motor was already isolated on this one. Kind of. Just had isolate circuits from motor and track pick up on circuit board by grinding them off. then soldered track and motor wires to circuit board. the led,s are wired directly to decoder with resistors.
These locos are geared fast. If I were to do it again I would choose a TCS decoder.
Truck.
The motor is a can motor. There are no flywheels in it. It has two shafts going to each of the trucks, which are, obviously, both powered. I can take a picture if needed. Inside the unit, I see the following:
There are two black wires and two red wires attached to the rear top and bottom of the motor respectively with some sort of light brown resistor or copasitor conneced between them. One pair of the red and black wires (Which we will call positive and negative wire A) go back to the positive and negative pick ups of the rear truck. The other pair of red and black wires (Which we will call positive and negative wire B) go to the front truck negative and positive pickups. Finally, there is a positive and negative wire connected from the front pickup to the headlight. That is all the wiring in it. I am not sure what the light brown thing attached to the back of the motor is, but I suspect it is a resister of some sort. I'm surprised the motor doesn't short out with that thing connected beteen them.
Wow...this looks NOTHING like mine. Mine has a wimpy plastic frame, and there are no flywheels. These pictures, while illistrative, are not clarifying for me. I'm having trouble understanding what you've done here. I apreciate your help though. So I decided to add some pictures. Here is the chip I'm adding and a few pictures of the loco I am adding it to.
A piece of cake. Unsolder the red wires from the motor and solder the decoder's orange wire there. Unsolder the black wires from the motor and solder the decoder's gray wire there. As you're doing this, remove that capacitor that is connected between the motor terminals. It was put there to comply with European radio and television interference standards, and is not required in the U.S.
Solder the decoder's red wire to the red wires you removed from the motor, and the black decoder wire to the ones you removed from the motor.
The decoder's blue and white wires to the headlight. If the headlight bulb is still good, you can leave it like it is, but you'd probably be better off using an LED for the headlight with a 1,000 Ohm resistor in one of the wires. Drill out the lens from the locomotive shell and glue the LED into the headlight opening. The headlght that's in it now is commonly referred to as a "fire in the cab" light -- you'll probably even be able to see the bulb through the windows.
Thank you so much for your help. You rock.