I have some thing's to sell from an estate for a friend. Some engines have had dcc & sound decoder's istalled in them (non factory). Not shure of brand or age of decoder. These are Ho scale.
I want to find out if they are dual mode or not. If I was to put it on a dc powered track to see if it work's, would that hurt the decoder if it is not dual mode?
Any suggestion's on trying to figure it out.
Thank's
Larry
It won't hurt them on DC, but there's also a possibility they won't run on DC either. Atlas decoders had a jumper plug you needed to reposition to run in DC or DCC. If it's in the DCC position, it might not run on DC.
Most decoders also had a DC enable / disable setting that most DCC users disable. Again, if this setting is configured, they may or may not run on DC.
So, if they don't run on DC, don't assume they are no good. Might be worth your time to find someone at a local hobby shop or local home layout that could test them on DCC for you.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Do NOT put a Soundtraxx 'pre-Tsunami' decoder on a DC track - You will destroy it! If you do not have a DCC test track, have someone who is familiar with DCC or a LHS with the setup 'test' these locomotives. I would expect that they can do this for a reasonable charge.
Sometimes you can see the manufacturer's model number info on the decoder, sometimes not. If the LHS has JMRI Decoder Pro, they can run an 'identify' and get you down to a manufacturer and range of models without opening up the engine. If they are newer engines, I would suspect they have 'dual-mode' decoders, but even then - it is possible that they have the 'analog conversion' CV disabled and they will not run on DC.
I sold a bunch of engines last summer and I tested/lubed each engine and reset the CV back to allow DC operation. I 'thought' I had all the bases covered. The show had a 'test track' with both DC and DCC available The DCC 'setup' was a Bachmann EZ DCC controller. Of course it could not read/operate any 4 digit addresses! I had two engines that I had to refund money on as I could not prove that they worked DCC(they ran fine on DC). Next time I will set any DCC engine to the factory defaults(address 3)
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
And just because they don't go on DC doesn't mean they aren't dual mode. That feature can be turned off with programming - as most all of my locos are set.
On a DCC system you can read CV8 and CV7 to get a manufacturer ID (CV8) and version (CV7) which you can use to find out who made it and what features it has.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thank's guy's. I will see what I can come up with.
Here is a helpful document to find the manufacturer of a decoder:
http://00200530.pdl.pscdn.net/002/00530/MRH04/DCC%20Shortcuts%20Card.pdf
or here:
http://www.nmra.org/standards/DCC/mfgnumbers.html
WS