I got my Xytronics here
There maybe better deals. I am happy with it.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
They seem to be the Rodney Dangerfield of soldering equipment. Even on the electronics board I am on, they are almost never mentioned. It's always Hakko this, Hakko that (as long as you get a real one, they are widely counterfeited) or, for those with money to burn or are buying for a production environment, Pace is a huge one. With a huge price tag to match. Weller doesn;t come up much. Why? Because unless you go to their high dollar commercial stuff, they frankly aren;t that good. Which saddens me, Carl Weller invented the modern soldering gun, right in my home town, but now it's just a name used for brand recognition, slapped on anything and everything. I have a cheap soldering gun for heavy feeders I got at Walmart - yep, says "Weller" on it. Their production level equipment IS quite good - but no home hobbyist needs that level of a soldering station, which will exceed the cost of SEVERAL sound and DCC locos. Those things are for critical production where consistency and 24/7 reliability are required.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinkerMy Xytronics is $60 or less and I've had it for 11 years now. It's ESD safe (grounded) and is completely repairable - plenty of different tips available as well as replacement heaters and so forth, though I've had no problems with it. Use it for track (I tried making Fast Tracks turnouts at one point) on doown to decoders and fine electronics. A couple of people here have the same one (or the current model which replaced mine).
I followed Randy's recommendation and bought a Xytronics LF-399D and I have rarely been so happy with a purchase in my life. I was using a supposedly decent quality temperature controlled Weller. The improvement in my soldering going from the Weller to the Xytronics is absolutely amazing!!! I get quick, clean shiney joints every time now whereas with the Weller I was constantly struggling to keep the tip clean and the quality of the joints was hit and miss. I haven't changed anything else. I'm using the same solder and flux, and the same preparation methods.
Truly amazing product!
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Glad peoople have the money Hakko charges. Yikes. My Xytronics is $60 or less and I've had it for 11 years now. It's ESD safe (grounded) and is completely repairable - plenty of different tips available as well as replacement heaters and so forth, though I've had no problems with it. Use it for track (I tried making Fast Tracks turnouts at one point) on doown to decoders and fine electronics. A couple of people here have the same one (or the current model which replaced mine).
Hello All,
rrinkerJust keep that 150 watt soldering gun in the drawer when working on this stuff and you will be fine.
The latest issue of MMR magazine; July 2019, pg. 52, Larry Puckett discusses the importance of a grounded soldering iron.
I had been looking to upgrade my solder station and this unit fit the bill!
I just got a Hakko FX 888D and I love it!!!
Prior to this I had always been a Weller man but this one swayed me.
I also bought the T-18 BL tip with a "needle point" tip.
Check out the TEquipment web page for pricing (hint: setup an account for better pricing).
Hope this helps.
"Uhh...I didn’t know it was 'impossible' I just made it work...sorry"
You don;t HAVE to solder int he Athearn/Atlas board form factor decoders, but those little plastic caps holding the wires on are HORRIBLE and soldering is really the way to go with these. The main connections, power from the track, motor, front and rear lights, are nice large tabs that are not hard to solder at all. It's when you want to add more, like ditch lights, which often connect to tiny pads somewhere int he middle of the board that it starts to take some more skill with the soldering iron.
Just keep that 150 watt soldering gun in the drawer when working on this stuff and you will be fine.
A great resource is The DCC Guy.
Larry Puckett is also a contributor to Model Railroader Magazine and has a colum called "DCC Corner".
https://tcsdcc.com/index.php/installation/ho-scale/1107
Remember, soldering is an acquired art, not a necessary evil. Practice on scrap material first if you have never done it.
I am suggesting the above conversion. I am not familiar with Athearn diesels. It might be too much for you but TCS is great.
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.
Randy is correct, you have picked a replacement board and not a plug in decoder. It will require some soldering skills and most of us would replace the light bulbs with LED's if we went that route.
It's actually not easy to find a good pic of a decoder with a 9 pin plug. Loksound doesn't seem to have any.
I'd call Tony's Train Exchange and see if they have a recommendation plug and play decoder and speaker. Let us know what they suggest.
There are several with 8 pin or 9 pin plugs (and many of the 8 pin plug ones - it's a wiring harness that connects to a 9 pin plug on the decoder - saves having to make 2 different decoders when they are really the same thing). he one you linked will work, but it completely repalces the board int he loco, it does not plug in to it. This is probably a better way to go, the less extra stuff under the hood, the more room for a bigger speaker. The bigger the speaker and enclosure, all else being equal, generally the better the sound will be (although those teeny tiny sugarcube speakers do sound excellent).
I prefer Loksound over Soundtraxx, they have a similar line up of decoders as far as plug in and board repalcement types.
An added complication with your specific loco is that Athearn until VERY recently used 1.5V incandescent bulbs. Some decoders are able to handle this without any external components, but often times the connection point is a solder pad on the decoder, different from the 'typical' headlight connection point on those style decoders. The decoder instructions and detailed specifications will indicate if it has features to handle 1.5V bulbs or not.
A good place to look is the TCS web site. They have many photos of various decoder installs - the not so secret tip is that all decoders in a given form factor are pretty much the same, one brand of 8 pin decoder is pretty much just like any other brand of 8 pin decoder, etc. So the TCS photos, while of course they show TCS decoders being used, are applicable for any brand you choose. Though TCS would also not be a bad choice either, they are very good decoders.
My advice would be to get the experimentation out of the way early on, and then settle on one brand to use in all other locos. Rather than try to recall the quirks of 3 or 4 brands of decoders, pick one brand and learn it well. That's more of a tough choice if you go with one that cannot be updated after the fact, but ones that allow you to update the decoder with new features or upgraded sound files after the fact without taking the loco apart make it easier to stick with one. Just one of the many reasons I standardized my locos on Loksound.
--Randy.
I am very new to the dcc world and have been trying to find a decoder for my first dcc locomotive
It is an Athearn ready to roll SD50 diesel locomotive. According to the illustration page, it has a dcc jumper board and dcc adapter board and it says "to convert to dcc, unplug the dcc jumper board and plug in a decoder with either a 9-pin or 8-pin plug" it goes on to say an 8-pin plug would require soldering.
I have been looking for a decoder with sound to equip to my locomotive and have felt a bit confused trying to find one. One I keep coming back to is this one
https://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/econami/ecopnp.php
I'm not sure how many pins it has (I'm sure you can tell by the picture but I'm not well versed) and I don't think it has a speaker for sound so I'm assuming you'd need to wire a speaker in? Which makes me wonder how to pick a speaker out.
As is clear, I am a little lost when trying to pick a decoder for my locomotives so any help at all is appreciated!