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 Kato 10-173 651系 'Super Hitachi' So, you have just purchaed Kato 10-173 651系 (651-series) “Super Hitachi”, and want to know how to convert it to DCC. I’ve just begun this process myself; here is part one (of many!) of my report.
The 651系 is factory-fitted with interior lighting, a nice touch. But, being bulbs, those lights have to go. For one, they draw a ton of current—55mA/bulb @ 9 bulbs = almost half an ampere!—which limits the number of trains that my Digitrax Zephyr can drive simultaneously from two to one. For another, bulbs get hot when powered by AC, and DCC is AC. Some people have reported that Kato’s bulb-based interior lights cause meltdowns when run on DCC. I don’t have a link, because I think this claim is largely apocryphal, but Kato nevertheless cautions against using their bulb kits with DCC. Or at least they did until they discontinued those sets. Anyway, Kato’s LED interior lighting kits aren’t compatible with the 651系. You’ll see why below. This means we’re going to have to improvise something new if we want to run out 651系 on DCC.
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Trying to figure out what to put in your Kato EF65 or DD51? Click through, and perhaps I can assist you. [...]
Still looking for the perfect decoder for your shinkansen (bullet train) or commuter train? Click through: I’ve got what you’re looking for. [...]
The Kato EM13 and FL12 drop-in decoders, when used in Kato “DCC Friendly” models, are basic but fairly nice, and dead-simple to install. In this post, I demonstrate how to install them into Kato’s E4 shinkansen (bullet train). In a previous post, I installed these decoders into a Kato E231-500.
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 Stack of EM13 and FL12 decoders The Kato EM13 and FL12 drop-in decoders, when used in Kato “DCC Friendly” models, are basic but fairly nice, and dead-simple to install. In this post, I demonstrate how to install them into Kato’s E231-500 Yamanote Line. In a later post, I’ll show how to install them into an E4 shinkansen.
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For the curious, I’ve decided that my EF66 doesn’t really fit the theme of the rest of my collection. Having a theme—nothing that doesn’t pass through Ueno or Omiya Stations, in my case—really helps limit the desire to just buy anything and everything. And, well, an EF66 in JNR Sleeper Express livery doesn’t fit my self-imposed [...]
Update 16 April 2009: I’ve added a link to the TCS spreadsheet.
I don’t have any kind of fancy programmer for my DCC decoders. I have only a Digitrax Zephyr, and the will to enter dozens of CVs by hand. I don’t have the money to do more than that. I am willing to bet many of my readers are in the same boat.
Well, just because we don’t have fancy computer-controlled programmers doesn’t mean we can’t take advantage of our computers! To that end, I’ve put together a fancy spreadsheet to help manage the CV settings of my various trains. I’m doing one spreadsheet for each major manufacturer (because they all do things differently), and you can download the Digitrax spreadsheet here and the TCS spreadsheet here. Read on for instructions.
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Trying to select a decoder for your shinkansen (bullet train) or commuter train? Click through, and see: I’m here to help. [...]
 OSHI25-901 circuit board This is the lightboard from the OSHI 25-901 dining car from the Tomix 92950 “Yumekukan” set. This board sits in a fitted pocket in the galley of the dining car. There are three SMD LEDs (the three white boxes on the left); three long lightpipes run from the LEDs to the rear of the car. The middle LED lights the taillights and signboard, and only lights when this car is at the end of the train—it doesn’t light when the car is at the head of the train. The outer two LEDs light two rows of table-lamps in the dining room of the car, and remain lit whichever direction the train is running. The two leads on the right connect directly to two steel strips that run along the bottom of the car and (in addition to providing much-needed ballast) contact pickups in the trucks. So, when +12V is fed across the leads (I don’t know which direction, to be honest), all three LEDs light; when -12V is provided, only the outer two LEDs light. In addition to the LEDs and resistors, there is what I’m guessing is an SMD bridge rectifier (for the table-lamps)? Although it has six pins instead of the usual four. And there’s some other tiny little resistor like thing by the middle LED.
The challenge before me: Convert this puppy to DCC. The board is too small to modify. And there’s no space to construct a replacement board. And, as many of my readers will know, controlling two independent lights with a DCC decoder requires three wires: Two “function” leads (that when activated, short to ground; when inactive they are left floating), and the +12V blue common. In my favor, there is a fair amount of room in the galley for additional circuitry, beyond just a decoder.
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Read Part 1 of this article.
Read Part 2 of this article.
As a preface let me say this: The results of this install are mixed. On one hand, I got everything to fit, with room to spare! Which is excellent news. I also learned a lot, which is also excellent news. However, several things went wrong with [...]
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