I recently got the time and money to get out my collection that had been put away for quite some time. i have a decent sized setup with half a dozen engines. they are all at least 10 years old and i have been looking to update them to dcc. the problem is that i have no idea where to even begin on dcc? could anyone help me out with that?
First welcome to the board, and welcome back to the hobby!
I think you'll find DCC greatly simplifies everything once you get the decoders installed.
The first question is: "What kind of engines do you have?" (Make/model) Are the motor brushes isolated from the frames? Are they can motors or open frame motors?
-Don
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Without knowing what brand and types of engines you have, we can't provide much help. If they're Tyco, Lima, or early Bachmann they may not be worth the cost of a decoder because no matter what you do with them they won't run well. DCC is no cure for a poorly performing locomotive -- in fact, it may run worse.
Please provide a list of the manufacturer and type(s) of locomotives you have and we can then give a much more reasoned guess about how to go about installing decoders and which ones will fit.
3 of the engines are life like gp-38-2 diesels and two of them are mantua gp 38-2 diesels. the last one actually belonged to my dad when he was a kid, its a tyco, beleive its a fa-1 style
Assuming the LifeLike engines are the train set quality and not Proto 2000 models, you need to run all of them on DC and see if they even still run. Any locomotive that doesn't run well on DC is not a candidate for conversion to DCC. You might be better off purchasing all new engines. The Tyco, especially, would not be worth the cost of a decoder.
The Tyco and LifeLike engines probably have only one powered truck and plastic wheels on one of the axles of the powered truck. They were very poor on power pickup because of their plastic wheels, had a poorly made pancake motor mounted directly to one truck, and were very light weight.
I don't own any old Mantua engines except some steam engines, so I can't say how they were built.
okay, that helps me out quite a bit. so, if they are in good working condition, what is the procedure that i would go about to install dcc in these and how would i program it to work with my setup?
On most of those older locomotives there was lots of room for a decoder. I installed TCS T-1 decoders in most of that type for other club members. The T-1 comes with a solder-in wiring harness, and instructions are in the package showing which wires to use.
The ease of installation depends on what is really inside each locomotive. Until you open them up and have a look and can describe what's inside, more detailed instructions can't be provided.
JFETTER2, again it depends on who made the engine. A brand new Life Like engine is not worth adding a decoder to. As far as I know Life Like made 3 grades of engines.
Life Like name only, pretty much junk. Life Like Proto 1000 and 2000 are great engines and most of them will be DCC ready.
JFETTER2what is the procedure that i would go about to install DCC in these and how would i program it to work with my setup?
From that question I wonder if you know what DCC is. DCC is the system that runs the engine, not just something you add to your engine.
Here is a link that might help. http://www.tonystrains.com/index.html
Look at DCC for beginners.
For a new person to DCC, I would buy some DCC ready or DCC installed engines first. I will not say adding decoders as a whole is hard, but there other things that will make the job a little more complicated than it seems at first.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Here is a place to start. At least it gives you an idea of what you might come up against. Then you can come up with more specific questions. Some may have motors that draw a lot of current.
http://www.tcsdcc.com/HO_Search/search.html?search=
By the way, you do not have to yell at us, all upper case letters. Normal text works just fine. Look at all the other messages.
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.