TA462 CTValleyRR FWIW, I noticed that the loco is a "limited edition" -- which probably means they made decoder installation easier -- and does not have Mars lights. Actually almost all Proto 2000 light blue boxes say "Limited Edition" on them. 99% of them have the 8 pin plug as well.
CTValleyRR FWIW, I noticed that the loco is a "limited edition" -- which probably means they made decoder installation easier -- and does not have Mars lights.
FWIW, I noticed that the loco is a "limited edition" -- which probably means they made decoder installation easier -- and does not have Mars lights.
Actually almost all Proto 2000 light blue boxes say "Limited Edition" on them. 99% of them have the 8 pin plug as well.
Well, that's what I thought, but there seems to be a different version of the loco out there to which the decoder installation instructions are actually relevant.... If you look above, you'll see that the installation instructions make no reference to an 8 pin plug.
And, FWIW, the box is silver and maroon.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
Thanks for the replies, everybody.
I actually figured it out. TCS has some decoder installation photos on their website, which I stumbled upon by accident while trying to figure out which decoder would fit in a Bachmann Spectrum GE 44 Tonner (which I'm still working on). The link is in Randy's post above.
While I'm not installing a TCS decoder, the Digitrax is similar in size and shape and it slipped right in.
After all the frustration on a standard decoder, And being told by walthers tech dept. that the mars light would not work with a decoder. If you notice the mars light has 3 wires. I broke down and bought the MRC 1803 sound decoder made just for the Proto 2K ALCO PA /PB locos. It will replace the entire walthers circut board in loco. And was able to use the mars light that came in the loco. It now runs good and sounds real good.
The cab units like FA's, PA's, and E's do NOT use the DH163L0/DH165L0 decoder. Nor do some other older P2K locos like the SD7's. The cab diesels almost all have a small square circuit board at the rear (on A units) which on all but the earliest versions have an 8-pin plug on them with a dummy plug installed for operation on DC. This circuit board ahs more than the usual diodes for directional constant lighting - they have a transistor or two which is part of the circuit that makes the mars light blink on those road names that have a mars light.
Since I generally replace the headlight bulbs with LEDs, and I model a road that would not have Mars lights, I usually bypass the circuit board. All the wires from the track pickups, motor, and headlight all run to spots on the bigger board, held in place by those plastic caps. Pull the cap holding the wires the come from the right hand truck pickup, and solder that wire to the decoder's red wire. Left truck goes to black. Motor can be tricky as to which one is orange and which one is grey, if the wires aren't already colored. I've seen some with orange and grey motor wires, I've also seen some with red and black, matching the track pickups, in which case the red motor lead is orange and the black motor lead is grey. No harm wiring it in reverse, it will just run forward when you set the controller for reverse. You can either flip the wires or adjust CV29.
If you want to use a plug-in decoder, you need one that has an 8-pin plug with a wired harness. There usually isn't room in the back above the circuit board, a common way to handle this is put the decoder up front and run the wires bacl along the length of the loco. Go to the TCS web site to see a picture of such an installation using one of their decoders. I don't think the included harness with the Digitrax equivalent is long enough. TC sells the harnesses seperately rather than makign up a new decoder name for each one, the TCS harness would work equally well with a Digitrax decoder if you are stuck on using Digitrax decoders. You'd get the DH163D, which just has a 9 pin plug and comes with plain wires, and repalce the plain wire harness with the TCS one made for the Proto cab diesels. Or if you look at the install pictuires on the TCS site, their DP2X plugs right in where the dummy plug currently is. See the link here: http://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Life_Like/Proto_2000_Alco_PA/Proto_2000_Alco_PA.html
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
CTValleyRR I'm really confused. I'm trying to install a Digitrax DH165IP w/ a medium 8 pin plug into a P2K Alco PA. I'm assuming that my LHS guy knew what he was talking about and that this decoder actually will work in this loco. Feel free to correct that assumption if necessary. However, the confusing part is this: The directions that came with the PA say, in part, "2. ...Remove the small circuit board from the large circuit board by pulling it straight up 3. Remove the 2 screws holding the large circuit board to the chassis and discard the large circuit board and the two screws. 4. Plug your DCC decoder into the small ciruit board.... 5. Place the DCC decoder and the small circuit board in the area previously occupied by the large circuit board." First of all, there is no large circuit board held on by two screws. There is a small circuit board (about 2" in length) held on by 3 screws. At one end of this is a small chunck of PCB which APPEARS to be plugged into a socket which matches the pin arrangement on the decoder. Removing the "large" circuit board is out of the question -- EVERYTHING is wired to it. It looks like LL forgot to update the instructions when they updated the loco design. Walthers / Lifelike websites don't have anything resembling technical data on them. I'm kind of stumped and would appreciate any ideas. I'm currently operating both DC and DCC (selecting one or the other, depending on which loco's I'm running, as I gradually convert them to DCC), so I don't want to ruin a perfectly good DC model by screwing up.
I'm really confused. I'm trying to install a Digitrax DH165IP w/ a medium 8 pin plug into a P2K Alco PA.
I'm assuming that my LHS guy knew what he was talking about and that this decoder actually will work in this loco. Feel free to correct that assumption if necessary.
However, the confusing part is this: The directions that came with the PA say, in part,
"2. ...Remove the small circuit board from the large circuit board by pulling it straight up
3. Remove the 2 screws holding the large circuit board to the chassis and discard the large circuit board and the two screws.
4. Plug your DCC decoder into the small ciruit board....
5. Place the DCC decoder and the small circuit board in the area previously occupied by the large circuit board."
First of all, there is no large circuit board held on by two screws. There is a small circuit board (about 2" in length) held on by 3 screws. At one end of this is a small chunck of PCB which APPEARS to be plugged into a socket which matches the pin arrangement on the decoder. Removing the "large" circuit board is out of the question -- EVERYTHING is wired to it.
It looks like LL forgot to update the instructions when they updated the loco design. Walthers / Lifelike websites don't have anything resembling technical data on them.
I'm kind of stumped and would appreciate any ideas. I'm currently operating both DC and DCC (selecting one or the other, depending on which loco's I'm running, as I gradually convert them to DCC), so I don't want to ruin a perfectly good DC model by screwing up.
How many pins are on the small chunk of PCB with everything wired to it, 8 ? Every P2K locomotive I have seen take a DH165L0 decoder and the small PCB plugs into it and you do toss out the larger board. The DH165L0 repalces it. Take a look at the DH165L0 manual and see if that looks right for your locomotive.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/