Any suggestions for the best non-sound decoder for a Proto 2000 E7A?
Rich
Alton Junction
They have a huge amount of space inside, so a big, cheap one is fine, no need for special tiny ones or anything in there. If it has a Mars light, repalce it and use the Mars light feature on the decoder, it looks much better. If replacing the lights with LEDs, use TCS or NCE, not Digitrax. If keeping incandescent bulbs, the Digitrax will work as well.
You can either runt he decoder wires up towards the front and put the decoder in the cavity above the motor, or remove the useless factory board at the back and put the decoder in there.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker They have a huge amount of space inside, so a big, cheap one is fine, no need for special tiny ones or anything in there. If it has a Mars light, repalce it and use the Mars light feature on the decoder, it looks much better. If replacing the lights with LEDs, use TCS or NCE, not Digitrax. If keeping incandescent bulbs, the Digitrax will work as well. You can either runt he decoder wires up towards the front and put the decoder in the cavity above the motor, or remove the useless factory board at the back and put the decoder in there. --Randy
Randy, thanks for that info, very helpful.
Tell me more about that Mars light. The P2K does have one, an incandescent I assume since I haven't received it yet. Are you saying to replace it with an LED?
The power draw on these units isn't high so any descent decoder with an extra function or two should be able to do the job. I ran a pair of P2K E7's with Digitrax DZ125 decoders for a couple of years with no problems. I've since moved those decoders into a pair of Varney F3B's with Frankenstein drives joined with an Athearn clone Frankenstein F7A also with a DZ125 at the head end of a thirty unit train of NMRA weighted cars. It's a heavy train and they pull it like nobody's business. I've only burned out two DZ125's in four years.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
The stock Mars light on those locos is a special double filament incadescent bulb, and there is a bunch of circuitry on the board that alternates between them to provide the figure 8 effect. I rememebr when they first came out, they were kind of neat, but compared to what a decoder can do with lighting effects, it's a poor second. The default way of plugging a decoder in involves movinf a wire on the 8 pin plug to control the stock Mars light. Or connecting the decoder to one of the two filaments (the bulb has 3 wires), or replacing the bulb with a plain one or LED. Since I repalce any incadescent bulbs with LEDs, if I did one of these I would repalce botht he headlight and Mars light with LEDs and use a TCS decoder. The only one I've ever done was a model without the Mars light, so I just repalced the headlight bulb with an LED. I left the stock board in place but removed all the plastic clips and soldered the wires to the decoder. If there was a space issue I would have removed the stock board - for sound that's the best bet, as you can fit a rather large speaker and enclosure on the back shelf there.
Thanks, Randy.
How you install it will depend on how old it is. Older E units had to be 'hardwired' in, the newer ones have a decoder receptacle and two enclosures for 1" speakers. If you have one of the newer ones, the cost of a Digitrax sound decoder, that you can download with an E-unit sound, isn't much more than a non-sound one.