I have an Athearn 6 Wheel Loco with Board that has the 8 Pin & 9 Pin Plug. I have a DH 165P ready to install and wondering for better pickup.
Where Exactly on the SideFrames would I Solder these?
The board looks to me like each corner would have power for the Pickup so I would Solder All 4 here?
Which loco do you have and which one is it? Typically the side frames are plastic. If it's modern you probably won't be able to get a better connection with the pickup.
Springfield PA
He means the internal sideframes on the truck, not the decorative ones that clip to the outside. The rivets that run through are brass and easier to solder to than the steel plate itself. USUALLY it's toe corners of the circuit board - one truck should already have a wire on it going to the circuit board, if that's one corner then the opposite side should be for the other side pickup - one of them will have a wire that folds under the board and has a ring terminal secured through the board mouting screw.
The center two terminals usually have the lights connected to them.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Assuming you have a diesel with two 6 wheel trucks and a more modern OEM board as you mentioned with 8 or 9 pin plug--each side of each truck should already be supplying electricity to the OEM board. So you shouldn't have to solder. As I recall a DH165IP is a small 8 pin plug decoder and should just plug right into the 8 pin OEM sockets.
Richard
Thanks for the replies; just to make it clearer I bought the Board & Hex Drive Motor through Ebay (link at the bottom) and is going to go on a Railpower SD90. It has the front/rear lights attatched and the 4 corner wires (seems like left to LH side and right to RH side)
I'm not the best with Electronics & Soldering yet.
I'm assuming I would solder the Front and Rear Left corners to the Left Front & Rear metal sideframes and Right side likewise?????? I did look at the board underneath to try and determine the power sources.........(I just don't want to short a Decoder).
Once I plug that 9 pin in and I was going to wire in extra ditch lights for Green & Violet; now where would I get the common Blue from as I don't want to cut anything on the 9 pin area; it seems that I could solder on the blue part where the 8 pin would go or would I solder to the back of the DH163 decoder itself (this seems very small to me though)???????
Here is the Link from where I usually get these from.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ATHEARN-HO-MOTOR-FLYWHEELS-DCC-READY-DASH-9-AC-4400_W0QQitemZ360334146354QQcategoryZ19130QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp4340.m263QQ_trkparmsZalgo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%252BC%26itu%3DMRU-220%252BUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D10%26pmod%3D360329608304%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D6436498224159370467
The trucks are Athearn SD45's
My son is just about finishing one of those and he got the approriate sideframes by the way. As I recall those are typical Athearn trucks where the one side has the tab that comes up about an inch above the frame for one side of the trucks and the other side of the truck is connected via the king pin resting on the hole. So, what we did was to isolate and solder to each side wherever we could to allow for the best truck movement and not short out when turning. Do this before you put the truck on the frame and before you add the sideframes. We cut down the tall tab since we wanted to add sound and an interior.. We left just enough for soldering. Be sure and check the movement of the truck after you solder. Don't use thick wire either, I'm thinking maybe 24 gage is what we used.
After that it's a matter of connecting to the board. But I thought the DH165IP was made for connecting to an 8 pin plug. If that's the case, another decoder format would be easier to work with.
Train Modeler My son is just about finishing one of those and he got the approriate sideframes by the way. As I recall those are typical Athearn trucks where the one side has the tab that comes up about an inch above the frame for one side of the trucks and the other side of the truck is connected via the king pin resting on the hole. So, what we did was to isolate and solder to each side wherever we could to allow for the best truck movement and not short out when turning. Do this before you put the truck on the frame and before you add the sideframes. We cut down the tall tab since we wanted to add sound and an interior.. We left just enough for soldering. Be sure and check the movement of the truck after you solder. Don't use thick wire either, I'm thinking maybe 24 gage is what we used. After that it's a matter of connecting to the board. But I thought the DH165IP was made for connecting to an 8 pin plug. If that's the case, another decoder format would be easier to work with. Richard
I have done this method on a couple of units and it works great. It takes practice at first, but it is worth it.
Will