I've never heard of a loco coming with a decoder installed that has a dummy plug that keeps it from operating. You don't unplug the dummy plug from the decoder, you unplug the decoder from the PC board, or unwire it if its a PC board shaped decoder.
In the past few years, most all locomotives are migrating to being made with a DCC Ready lightboard installed. The DCC Ready versions have a dummy plug, and the DCC Sound versions have a 21 pin decoder instaled, and simply two wires attached to the speaker tabs.
Obviously to convert a $250 DCC Sound loco to a $150 DC (DCC Ready) loco would be to replace the DCC decoder with a dummy plug and leave the speaker in place. Takes about 20 seconds after you remove the shell.
Sell the sound decoder on ebay for about $60-$70
Other locos that have DCC installed or old school DCC Sound would likely have a PC shaped decoder "hardwired" in place. It could be replaced with a DC/DCC ready PC Board.
IMO, that would be the easiest way. Unwire the decoder and replace it with a similarly shaped PC board.
Of course, if a loco comes equipped with a decoder that is simply plugged into the pc board, (usually a used loco with an aftermarket decoder installed) replace the decoder with a dummy plug.
- Douglas
All of the ten Bachmann steam locomotives that I've bought came with a circuit board in the tender, which I think was for lighting, but there may have also been a plug-in for a DCC decoder. I removed all of them, as I have no need for lights in my locomotives - I don't do "night" running, and in my layout's late '30s era, headlights were not required to be on unless it was night-time or inclement weather...situations that I do not model.
The added room in the tenders allowed me to make coal bunkers that were actually useable to be filled with loose "coal" (added weight), and also with custom-cast lead weights in any of the other freed-up spaces.This also eliminated the need for multi-pin plugs between loco and tender, which often caused tender derailments, and were an added nuiscance if a loco required servicing.I replaced them with two flexible wires with smaller and easier to plug-in or disconnect ends.
Eliminating the lights also freed-up space in the smokebox for added weight, and I was able to fit even more weights by replacing the plastic air reservoirs with lead-filled brass tubing, and found room in the cab and under the cab roof for more weight, too.
All of them are now good pullers and very easy to service, too.
If someone is in need of such parts, they're available for the cost of the postage....
(photo will enlarge if clicked-upon)
First reply gets them all. Send me a PM with your full mailing address and/or your e-mail address (I'll copy it, then remove it to keep your info secure, as I cannot reply through the current PM system.
Wayne
Edit: Just a note to let everyone know, the circuit boards have found a new home.
Wayne, Email sent!
Sheldon
Lastspikemike Of course I understand how a dummy plug works. Leaving the decoder in place makes it easy to restore DCC function when you realize how good modern DCC is. In case you wish to resell the locomotive. Or, add DCC to your layout.
Of course I understand how a dummy plug works. Leaving the decoder in place makes it easy to restore DCC function when you realize how good modern DCC is.
In case you wish to resell the locomotive. Or, add DCC to your layout.
I don't resell locos after I buy them, and I already know how good DCC is and is not, and I'm not adding DCC to my layout.....
You still don't get it Spike.
doctorwayneBachmann steam locomotives that I've bought came with a circuit board in the tender, which I think was for lighting, but there may have also been a plug-in for a DCC decoder
Mike
If I remember correctly, some of the early Atlas dual mode diesel locomotives came with a plug, but there was not a separate decoder involved. Changing from DC to DCC, or the other direction, was accomplished by repositioning the plug.
maxmanChanging from DC to DCC, or the other direction, was accomplished by repositioning the plug.
Overmod maxman Changing from DC to DCC, or the other direction, was accomplished by repositioning the plug. Do you mean a 'jumper', like a little plastic block that fits over a couple of fixed pins on the board?
maxman
Changing from DC to DCC, or the other direction, was accomplished by repositioning the plug.
Do you mean a 'jumper', like a little plastic block that fits over a couple of fixed pins on the board?
As I recall, there was indeed a plastic rectangular thing that had 8 pins attached. Also as I remember, there was a spot on what we would now call a light board that had 12 holes in it. To go from DC to DCC you moved the 8 pin plastic thingy from one set of holes over slightly and "plugged" it into the adjacent set of holes on the "goes into". (Thinking about this, maybe there was only 3 pins on the plug and 6 sockets on the board...it has been awhile.)
I'm an old guy, so to me anything that has pins attached is a "plug" that goes into the "goes into". I also remember that there was another manufacturer that used little copper pieces to do the same thing.
Also, my definition of a "jumper" is either a wire or wires that are temporarily installed around something that has failed in order to get something else to work (like a battery), or to program something (like a turnout decoder) and then get removed, or what they call the individual found floating under the Washington Bridge.
LastspikemikeReplacement cost is not value, just btw.
Completely irrelevant.
LastspikemikeWhat is level for the seller to do with a return depends on the sale contract. Most such sale contracts expressly permit repair, substitution or refund of price. The customer voluntarily returns the item purchased anyway so the vendor doesn't ever steal anything by refunding the price. Theft requures a wrongful taking in the first place. Technically, there are three categories: conversion, detinue and trespass to personal property. Only the last can be theft, strictly speaking.
We weren't discussing what the seller legally could or could not do, or what the legal definition of theft is, but merely the spirit of the transaction.
'Jumper' acquired another meaning in the age of personal computers, where cheap option switching on motherboards and many hard drives were done with those little square blocks fitting over pins protruding from the device -- often using the same pitch as the pins in multiple-pin connectors.
I agree with you that any such device that is a block with pins should be called a plug or perhaps 'jumper plug'. Even if it has only two (shorted) pins and did exactly what the 'jumpers' did, except in a socket or holes in the PCB.
Occasionally you would find jumpers that were shorted only to reset something (e.g. by grounding charge) and rather than wangle a screwdriver blade in there, a block would be connected over pins fir the necessary time. Sometimes the jumpers would be stored on only one pin, or 'sideways' from the live direction of a couple of adjacent pins, to be quickly available if needed -- I never did figure out how to store them so I'd have one in the field when I needed one.
maxman Changing from DC to DCC, or the other direction, was accomplished by repositioning the plug.
The Atlas locos he's discussing had jumpers, it was two, two pin jumpers joined together to operate in tandem. There were six pins on the decoder, two went to the track pickups, two went to the motor output of the decoder, and two went to the motor. In the "DCC" position the jumpers tied the motor pins to the decoder output and it operated just like any normal decoder equipped locomotive. When the jumper was placed in the "analog" position the motor was tied to the track pickups. In this position the motor operated off DC straight from the track like any regular non-DCC locomotive, but the lighting functions were still powered by the decoder.