I'm planning on getting a few for my Athearn and Proto 2000 locos because they are an inexpensive decoder. How do they perform? Are they smooth and quiet or are they loud? Any information will help.
Thanks.
-Khang Lu, University of Minnesota Railroad Club
They are quiet, but they don't have BEMF. For about the same price you can get the TCS T1 which has MUCH better motor drive.
For newer Athearns with the 9 pin plugs, there is the T1A which comes with no harness which you don't need for those locos. For ones without the plugs, the regular T1 has wires to solder on. For most Proto 2000 locos you will need to change the light bulbs (LEDs with a 1K or so resistor on each one preferable to bulbs), and again use the T1 and splice the wires together (discarding the Proto 2000 factory board.
If you want cheap cheap but still good - NCE D13SRJ. You can buy a 10 pack of them for $120. $12 each.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Which decoder will just simply plug in any 9 pin plug? I would like to just "plug and play." And also, which decoder will work with incandescent bulbs and which can't? Most of my locomotives (newer Athearn and older Proto 2000) have incandescent bulbs but some do have LEDs. If the box on a Proto has an NMRA DCC symbol, does it mean it has a DCC plug?
What scale do you model in, and how old are your locomotives? How well do they run on DC?
When I pulled my teenage-years trains out of boxes after 40 years of slumber, I tried putting decoders in a few of them. I used DH123 decoders. They worked, but very poorly, and I ended up gutting most of the engines and running them as dummies.
Really old engines may not be worth even the cost of a cheap decoder to upgrade.
On the other hand, have you considered sound? Some of us love it, and others don't care for it. Before equipping a fleet, you should visit a show, club or train shop where you can listen to a few sound engines in action. I was sold on it, and I've retrofitted most of my engines with sound, leaving me with some leftover non-sound decoders in my spare parts box.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Note that the DN135 series decoders have a 'mini' JST 9 pin connector. Most other 'HO' decoders from Digitrax have a standard JST 9 pin connector. I use the DN135 in my Life-Like SD7/9 fleet of engines. I remove the original light board and 'hard wire' to the bare decoder harness leads. I also replace the lamps with Evens Products LED's. The Life-Like/Walthers SD7/9's have the 8 pin NMRA socket mount very high at the forward end of the light board. Some 8 pin NMRA harness coneectors will not allow the shell to seat correctly. The Digitrax DH163L0 and DH165L0 are one of the decoders that will not allow the shell to seat correctly.
As David mentioned, the DN135 has BEMF and is current technology. The DH123/125 series decoders are the low end 'fleet' decoders. The mentioned NCE & TCS decoders are very good(and I have a few). I have standardized on the DN135 as my non-sound 'fleet' decoder as it has a very small package and is inexpensive. It also has a 3rd function output as well.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
For P2K, only Digitrax has a real plug and play decoder where you can keep the existing light bulbs. The DH165L0.
This does not work in all P2K locos. It won;t fit in the S1 switchers, plus those locos need a wiring fix, they are NOT DCC Ready out of th ebox, regardlessof what it says. And it won;t work int he E units and PA's, they have different board arrangements and need an 8 pin decoder with a harness. And the GP38's with number boards, you either need to disconnect the number board lights or hard wire a decoder.
Ok, I think i'll go with the T1A for all my Athearn locomotives, they are all pretty new. What would work with my Proto 2000: GP30 (Soo Line) (BlueBox type), My SD60M (Soo Line)(Also Bluebox type but a little newer), GP30 (Canadian Pacific)(same type as SOO GP30), WALTHERS Proto GP9 (LED lights). Also my Kato SD38-2 (EJ&E), SD40-2 (DM&E Custom used to be a C&NW), SD40-2 Snoot (CP), and SD90/43MAC. The Kato units all have LED lights. ALL these locomotives are HO Scale. All my locomotives are lubricated and run VERY well.
The TCS web site has lot of installation pictures so you cna get some idea of what you need to do.
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/HO_Search/search.html
Unless I was in a hurry, I'd probably just continue my current practice, which is to use a TCS T1 and hard wire them. Where they don't fit, I use the MC2. Older Katos, the ones with the plastic board and the single light bulb in the middle, are probably easier to use the Atlas/Kato format decoders like the A4X, which snaps on to the plastic tabs that mounted the factory board. I then solder LEDs and resistors, and solder on the track pickup wires at each corner. The light bars get cut down to retain the lenses and the first mounting post.
The T1 and MC2 are basic 2 function decoders - I model first eneration diesels and the road I model did not go in for flashing roof beacons or extra lights of any sort, so these are always adequate. If you need more, like ditch lights or a rooftop beacon, you'll need a decoder with more than 2 functions.
I'm cheap, which is why I just hard wire most of my decoders, but it also saves you from having to deal with goofy factory light boards that may or may not be wired correctly. Having all the same family of decoders (all of the TCS ones program the same) makes it easier to configure them. And, just in case there is a problem, the T and MC series have wire harnesses that unplug from the decoder - so it is still possible to remove a decoder for repair or replacement despite the wire connections all being soldered.