I'm having a discussion with a friend and need a little input. I know MTH makes locomotives that can run on DCC, but do not contain traditional decoders. Do other non-MTH locos exist that can be controlled by DCC, but do not contain a traditional decoder (ie with colored wires separate from the circuit board?). Are there manufacturers who have integrated the functionality of DCC decoders into circuit boards in the train, such that when you take the shell off there is no obvious visible decoder (that you could fairly easily replace with another decoder)?
Atlas used a "dual mode" decoder, all you did was change the position of the jumper plug, to go from DC to DCC.
I think there are others that have that, not sure.
Mike.
My You Tube
BLI locos come with a decoder board alreayd installed, not a board with a decoder plugged in to ir.
Most manufacturers that sell DCC/DCC+Sound locos have a circuit board with a standard decoder plugged in to it as opposed to a single proprietary decoder board. This allows much more flexibility - change to a different decoder, repalce the decoder if it fails, or offer the loco configured for DC operation. Don't know why you would ever want to do it any other way.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
All photos of DCC loco decoders I have seen are PC boards or a PC board with a decoder plugged into it. Another PC board in a shrink wrap with a plug. Some six pin, eight pin, nine pin, 21 pin. Some soldered.
I have done different variations.
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.
Bachmann DCC ready steam locos come with a PC board and a shrink wrapped decoder. Unplug and plug in another decoder.
Some other brands will be similar.
AFAIK, all present day decoders contain integrated circuit boards. The opposite of that are the old school boards that have discrete components, i.e. separate transistors, resistors, etc mounted on the circuit board itself, but those were very limited to back around the start of DCC and relatively few in number, usually for larger scales than HO, too. This has nothing to do with wires. You'll always have wires connecting the decoder to the pickups, the motor, lights, etc.
The shrink wrap on decioders also doesn't really have much to do with what the decoder is made of. It's there to protect the board from shorting and, to nearly equal extent, to prove that you haven't been "doctoring" the board if you have to send it back for warranty work.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Some decoder manufacturers have board replacements that are decoders, and not the typical shrink wrapped decoder that you plug in.
You remove the factory board, and replace with the decoder board.
passenger1955Thanks Rich. So have you seen some DCC locos that have a PC board but no shrink-wrapped separate decoder?
Yes. I have some. Steamers and diesels.
passenger1955I know MTH makes locomotives that can run on DCC, but do not contain traditional decoders.
Does this refer to DCS?
Does the loksound select meet your definition of not looking like a decoder? I assume you mean a shrink wrapped package with a bunch of colored wires, but maybe you don't
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Awesome. Thanks everyone.
I don't know of any that are in a shrink wrapped package with a bunch of colored wires and no circuit board, other than most of my own installs since I prefer to hard wire decoders instead of figuring out the factory board. For Kato/Atlas and some newer Athearn where that board form factor works, I'll put the board in and remove the factory one - most of my Atlas/Kato locos are so old, the 'board' is actually a chunk of plastic that retains two long strips of phosphor bronze wire that forms the circuit connecting the track pickups to the motor and light bulb.
rrinker I don't know of any that are in a shrink wrapped package with a bunch of colored wires and no circuit board, other than most of my own
Me too, can I say that in this forum without going on probation again?
Hardly anyone has anything good to say about DCS. Yes there are some sounds in DC, but if you want DCC fuctionality then the form factor may look different but it's a DCC board. Bachmann has proven the only color of wire you need is black.
That's it, I'm going to just buy a spool of #30 black wire, and every install I do from now on will be black wire, and black wire only. If the loco already had other colors - out it comes, black only.
Let someone else figure it out if I ever sell a loco off....
BLI seems to have an abundance of black wire on hand, with a piece of gray thrown in for variety:
BLI_NYC_484_P2b by Edmund, on Flickr
Cheers, Ed
Oh, no simple linear voltage regulators for them, no! They are much too fancy, with a switching converter on board. At least, I don't know what else they would need that large coil for.