Dcc newbee. decoder question

[Sleep like a kitten (SLK)]

if I use the  SDH164D 1 Amp HO Scale Mobile Decoder,  I know it's for sound but, when I read the info. it sounds like it controls sound as well as engine control. (direction,lights,etc)??????

Please help me understand........

[cacole]

Directly from the Digitrax web site:

http://www.digitrax.com/static/apps/products/sound-decoders/sdh164d/documents/SDH164D.pdf 

Yes, the decoder is for sound as well as motor and light control.  No one today makes a "sound only" decoder except the Digitrax Sound Bug.

[selector]

Until a couple of years ago, Broadway Limited Imports had what they called Blueline, a strictly DC set of locomotives with a DC sound decoder.  It was DCC-reeady, meaning one could normally easily add a motive decoder, but it meant two decoders under one locomotive shell.

Decoders as long as I have been in the hobby, not long, were always about controlling locomotive movement and lighting...first.  Sound was an individual customers' choice and an additional feature because it involved adding the more complex circuitry and memory, amplifier, and a speaker system...more $.  However, as far as I know, if you want sound, it comes as a packaged deal in one decoder, and all that varies of essence are the sound files, quality of components and assembly, and the performance ratings for the decoder in terms of how much amperage it can handle safely for extended periods under a warm shell shared with a motor, and how good the motor-controlling software is.

My point is that I question the 1 amp rating for this decoder.  As far as I know, all my decoders have a 2 amp rating.  One amp seems dangerously stingy for an HO locomotive that must haul itself up a 2.5% grade and several cars, even on a small layout where the length of the train will be small, and where the decoder must also manage the sound requirement desired by the owner.

Crandell

[jrbernier]

  That 1 amp rating is 'continuous', bot the 'peak' rating.  Most HO decoders are rated for 1 amp continuous and 1.5-2 amp peak(at least Digitrax ones).  The Digitrax N & Z decodes family may times has a .7 amp continuous rating.  I have 3 Kato SD40-2's with that sound decoder, and have never had a problem.  Most new engines only draw .25-.5 amps, and with n/s wheels there is enough wheel slip to prevent motor overheating.

  At our club, one guy uses nothing but DZ125 decoders in his Stewart F units and P2K E units.  And he pulls very long trains up the 2% grades on the layout.

Jim

[selector]

Thanks, Jim.  That clears it up for me.

Crandell

[rrinker]

 I don;t think any of my locos draws even close to 1 amp, when stalled - holding the motor armature and preventing it from turning. No loco that is actually moving, or spinning its wheels, would draw even less. Which is yet another reason to never use traction tires - if the wheels spin, you have too big a train and need a helper - or it's a very poorly balanced loco - or the hill is too steep. Take a look at some of the reviews - even some of the big monsters with 2 motors don't draw 1 amp stalled, which means a 1 amp continuous, 1.25 or 1.5 amp peak decoder is plenty powerful enough. The time to start worrying is with older locos - pre tan can Athearn, just about anything with an open frame motor - although per test results in old MR's, some of those supposed power hog open frame motors weren;t really such power hogs. What mostly seemed to be power hogs were the Japanese knockoffs of the Pitmann motors - the actual Pittman motors were maybe high current by today's standards but still within the capabilities of most any HO decoder, maybe peaking around 1 amp stalled.

                     --Randy