soundtraxx DSD-LL110 LC Help

[yankee flyer]

 Ken & Stix

Thanks , Yes I to bought the holder thingy from harber freight but my bifocals din't let me see to well through it. I have the female pig tail from Litchefield ordered and it should plug right on AND IT COST $5.45 with shipping. Gotta run. 

Lee

[wjstix]

Life-Like / Proto engines are sorta upside-down backwards. Generally you'd have an eight-pin female receptacle facing up on the lightboard with a dummy plug in it. You remove the dummy plug and stick the decoder in using either an all-in-one decoder with 8-pins sticking out the bottom, or a regular decoder with a nine-pin to eight-pin harness. With LL there's a female receptacle that faces down, you have to lift it up and remove the lightboard, then replace it with a decoder and connect it up.

 

[cudaken]

yankee flyer

I found that I don't want to try soldering wires to the board

 

 Lee, why not? Is it you cannot see the wires, cannot cut the wires or need a extra hand? Reason I did not like installing decoders was due to wire cutting and need a extra hand. Harbor Freight had fixes for booth. I picked up a small set of wire cutters that made short work of the small decoders wires for $3.95. I all so got what I most people here call a Third Hand. It is a stand with two arms with alligator clips for hands and a magnifying glass so you can see what you are working on. It was $6.95 and made the last decoder install a snap.

           Cuda Ken

[yankee flyer]

 Rich
Thanks that is exactly what I need. Now I hope it doesn't cost $7 to ship!

Thanks ALL.

Lee

[richg1998]

Here is a pigtail.

http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=999002983&cat=174&page=1

 Rich

[rrinker]

 If the plugs you got sold will connect to the board, they're the right thing. The only thing I can say is use a SMALL soldering iron with a fine point, small diameter solder, and small wire - like that attached to decoders thathave wires. You just have to work carefully. Tweezers can help wrap the wire around the pins before soldering. It's not impossible, but it does take a bit of soldering skill to accomplish. Feed some small diameter shrink tube on the wire before soldering and then push it over the solder joint on the pin to catch stray strands that could short between pins, and also provide some strain releif so those wires you so painstakingly soldered on don;t pull off.

 Another option is to get the part from a Proto2000 loco that the decoder plugs in to. It's the same as the piece you already have, but soldered to a small circuit board with each pin connecting to (relatively) large tabs that are easier to solder wires to. Someone who hard-wires decoders in (like me) may have some floating around.

                                                --Randy

 

[yankee flyer]

wjstix

If so what you probably have is a green lightboard with 8-pins sticking out of it, kind of like this:

Stix
Yes that's the critter alright. The LHS sold me a pack of four plugs that look just like the one on the decoder and it will plug onto the decoder. The problem is that I haven't figured out how to solder a wire on those tiny pins. (I do have some past experience soldering) but the factory must have a different method or fitting. I will look a the site you posted

Thanks   but wait maybe the LHS sold me the male part and it's not supposed to plug on the board
Lee  

[wjstix]

I believe that decoder has been discontinued, that's probably why you're having trouble finding info on it. The LL stands for "Life Like" if I remember correctly, and it's made to be used in a Life-Like engine. If so what you probably have is a green lightboard with 8-pins sticking out of it, kind of like this:

 This is the male part of an NMRA eight pin plug. What you need is a female eight-pin plug to attach to it. It should have eight color-coded wires sticking out of it for you to solder to your track connections, speaker and motor.

I'm not sure how easy it will be to find. Unfortunately this decoder is meant to be plugged into an engine that has the receptacle built in. For your purposes a lightboard replacement or a "hardwire" decoder would probably have worked better.

I tried finding one online and couldn't, you could check with Tony's Trains, they might be able to help you.

www.tonystrains.com

 

[armchair]

 I hate to be a downer, but if You're soldering skills are lacking You will either have to learn or find someone that can do it for You. Decoders, sound systems are cool but You're getting into more of a specialized task. If You don't have a Weller soldering station or something similar, You might get one. Soldering the little wires & such is tedious, but the right tools will enable You to do things You didn't think possible. Luck, R

[yankee flyer]

  Hello  

I need some help with DSD- LL110 LC   I bought a cheap decoder to put in a dummy GP35 that I'm building into a fully independent powered sound unit. This is a learning exercise.  I found that I don't want to try soldering wires to the board and soldering wires to a plug to plug into to the decoder didn't work for me either . I bought some of the little 8 prong things that look just like the plug that is on the decoder board and they will plug on the decoder but I haven't been able to solder wires on one,  the pins are so small.

1 Can I buy a pigtail that will plug onto the decoder?    Soundtraxx web site was no help. I could not get past the cover pages.

2 Where?

I hope someone can help!
Thanks in advance.

Lee