I'm trying to add DCC to some old Mantua steam locomotive tenders, and I had some basic questions.
I want to mount the decoder/current keeper/speaker in the tender. Is it better to mount it on the metal base with mounting tape or in the plastic shell? What have you found to be effective?
I want to have some miniatronics wire plugs coming out of the tender to hook up with the locomotive. However I want to "mount" the wire plug so that the solder joints don't get stressed and eventually come apart. What is a good way to mount the connecting wires to prevent stress on solder joints? I was thinking of just using gorilla tape to tape it to the metal frame so that if there is pull on it, it wont affect my solder joints. What techniques do you use for mounting the connecting wires coming out of tender?Thanks!
I generally use the 6 pin JST wired plug from TCS for the connector. It could easily be super glued or even just loose between loco and tender. The speaker is mounted on the floor firing down with enclosure. I put a small bead of clear silicone caulking around the speaker enclosure for sealing and holding. The decoders have shrink wrap and a dab of silicone will stick it to anything you can. That's how I've been doing it for twenty years and have not had any problems.
I started out converting my older locomotives using the NMRA 8 pin connector as my standard. I have rewired over 30 steam locomotives and tenders for DC or DCC operation.My reasoning is the NMRA connector can be used with the standard DC adapter plug for the locomotive to operate on DC easily or using any 8 pin decoder for DCC operation.I buy header strip connectors and make my own connectors, much cheaper that way about 2¢ per pin.I make a wiring harness to go between the tender and locomotive and mount the decoder in the tender using double sided tape.
I mount a matching connector on the locomotive.This is a Rivarossi Cab Forward.Below is a MDC Roundhouse 0-6-0
By using the NMRA connectors all my decoders are compatible. Mel My Model Railroad http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/ Bakersfield, California Turned 84 in July, aging is definitely not for wimps.
There were several versions of these tenders. For the full metal ones, I have cut a piece of styrene and glued it on the floor to avoid any kind of short. Like Mel, I use silicone to "glue" the decoder on the floor. Long wires can be tied together, and siliconed to the floor as well. Silicone takes a while to set, but it is easily removable.
Simon