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Loco to tender connectors

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  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 419 posts
Posted by UpNorth on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:39 PM

I don't know who you are responding too but I get by with 5 wires between the tender and the engine. The head light is wired to white and to one rail pickup thru the drivers. I still get dim and control of light.

I'm more curious as to how P2K wire up engine/tender thru the draw bar.

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:59 PM
 UpNorth wrote:
 locoi1sa wrote:

  Hi Rich

 I wish more manufacurers would use the conector thats on My P2K 0-6-0. The draw bar is the conector.

   Pete
 

How they do that  ?..  Needs 6 wires or leads; 2 for track,  2 for motor, 2 for lights (thow they can get away with only one for light).

 

The two wires, blue and white are for the headlight.  Two wires, blue and yellow for the tender light.

If you want two lights in the loco, You would have three wires for a total of seven wires. The blue is common for white and yellow. Usually steam locos have just the headlight and maybe a tender light. Maybe the yellow wire could be for firebox glow. The DCC controller can take care of programming the functions.

The Micro-Tsunami has only two functions. The standard Tsunami has four functions. Both decoders also have a "chuff" sync wire. There could be eight wires between the loco and tender depending on what you want.

 Here is a link to a nice tutorial for making your own connectors.

http://members.shaw.ca/sask.rail/plug-and-socket/Little-Plugs-and-Sockets.html

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.

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 419 posts
Posted by UpNorth on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:39 PM
 locoi1sa wrote:

  Hi Rich

 I wish more manufacurers would use the conector thats on My P2K 0-6-0. The draw bar is the conector.

   Pete
 

How they do that  ?..  Needs 6 wires or leads; 2 for track,  2 for motor, 2 for lights (thow they can get away with only one for light).

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 419 posts
Posted by UpNorth on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:21 PM
Did the same thing. Soldered the 8 pin socket to a piece of perf board from RS and mounted it to the tender floor, wired the decoder to the perf board. Wires from the engine have other socket so I can un-plug engine from tender.
  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 3,312 posts
Posted by locoi1sa on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 6:13 PM

  Hi Rich

 I wish more manufacurers would use the conector thats on My P2K 0-6-0. The draw bar is the conector.

   Pete
 

 I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!

 I started with nothing and still have most of it left!

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Loco to tender connectors
Posted by richg1998 on Monday, April 14, 2008 9:09 PM

Here is a suggestion for a tender to loco connection using the NMRA eight pin connectors. They plug into each other. One can be with the wires from the loco and the other can be mounted in the tender floor. I have used this process to build a decoder tester. I needed a socket on the tester to plug in the decoders. Here is a photo with a Spectrum 4-4-0 behind. The Spectrum connectors are opposite of what I am suggesting. Not the best photo but you should get the idea. The "socket" would be in the tender floor with the decoder wires soldered to the 'pins". The cups facing down.

The "plug" from the loco would have the wires inserted in the cups which just need a drop of solder to keep the wires in the cups. 

 

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.

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