A friend of mine says he has HO F7 locos that he is interested in making DCC-ready, and that these locos have "pancake" motors. Will pancake motors work with the 16 kHz PWM that is frequently used by decoders to control motors?
Dnn't see why not. It's the coreless motors you have to watch out for, they have no heavy mass to dissipate heat. Even those (coreless) are ok on the high frequency drive, it the old lower frequncy PWM.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Locomotive equipped with pancake motor is usually plagued with mechanical issues and component deterioration, which adding DCC cannot overcome.
RR Baron
They are often disparaged, the Tyco, Life Like, and bachmann ones legitimately, all very rough and noisy and at least int he case of Bachmann, have a service life best measured in minutes. (yes I know there are some outliers, before someone posts "But I have a Bachmann GS-4 that I've had for 30 years and it still runs great")
The Rivarossi ones though - at least the 70's updated ones - I have numerous locos with them and they are all smooth and quiet, even the little 4-4-0s with the tender drive. I haven't put a decoder in any of them - none of them will run properly on Code 83 track without turning down the flanges. The only oone that was even a bit noisy was the 2-4-0 Bowker. Inyo and Reno, especially the Reno, were always great runners, if a bit iffy on the power pickup - which is why I often used the Reno as a test loco on my old DC layouts. I also have a streamlined Hudson and a Docksider. The Hudson was always my best loco in those days. Noisy would be either the Tyco F units, which growled all the time, or the little Flyer HO industrial loco, whirrr-whirrr-whirrrr as it ran, but we are talking about a mid to late 50's piece with a heavy diecast body.
I saw a discussion about maybe seven years ago in the Bachmann forums about this issue and decided to pick up the challenge. Cheap enough. Saw many opinions but no facts.
I bought a HO Bachmann Plymouth 0-6-0 with pancake motor. I isolated the motor contacts and installed a Digitrx DZ125 decoder. The decoder is a little larger than a USA dime and about twenty dollars. It is a decent decoder good for one amp. I used the original light bulbs. DC current at 12 VDC was about 650 ma as I recall.
It worked quite well but the pickups where the issue. A thin flexible metal strip on each side between the frame halves and inside of the three sets of drivers. Not very good. I improved the pickups but the three pole motor and metal gears are a little loud.
Probably not worth the time but your milage may vary.
The present Plymouth has a can motor. The present pickups are different than mine.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
This car stops at ALL railroad crossings!
You can do it, but I recommend it with something like a Lenz Gold which has a setting for pancake drives. That said, the decoder is worth more than the engine most likely....hardly worth it.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!