This must be a new record for me: Two successful decoder installs in four weeks. The Skyliner motor car is, thankfully, a straightforward install with only minor gotchas. Read on to see what I mean. [...]
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  A Keisei AE100形, headlights blazing. Ok, yeah. I said my next DCC conquest would be my Kato 651系 “Super Hitachi”. I lied. Besides, I said that, what, six months ago? I don’t have the necessary decoders on hand to continue work on it, but I did have the necessary decoder for this model, the Micro Ace A2896 Keisei AE100形 “Skyliner”. What makes this model challenging is that the headlights and the markerlights are not lit by distinct LEDs, but by a single bi-polar bi-color LED—a single monolithic LED that cannot be split apart into two distinct circuits for control by two distinct motor leads. Read on to see how I got it working. One of the reasons that I continue to buy TCS products for my own installations is that they have, hands down, the best tech support I’ve ever encountered for, well, anything—including telling me when to stop using one of the products. [...]  Update: After consulting with TCS, I no longer recommend the TCS Z2 decoder for this installation. Sadly, the TCS M1 is too large for this installation, and so I have selected a Lenz Silver Mini to replace the Z2. Previously, I showed how to disassemble the tamper down to the point where we can proceed with decoder installation. Let’s move forward with the decoder installation itself.   The Duomatic itself. Stop. (Collaborate and listen.) You just bought one of these fancy Lemke ballast tampers, and you are considering converting it to DCC. You can read a little German, maybe, or at least you can work from photos; or you found another guide on the web. It doesn’t look so hard. Don’t believe everything you read.  It lives! Tomix EF81 with working DCC provided by a TCS CN-GP. [Update 7 July 2010: The decoder failed by February. TCS advised that the CN-GP is a very delicate decoder; consequently, I cannot recommend this installation method. Currently looking for a new method of installation. Watch for future posts.] Read Part 1. It’s done. Well, almost. [Update 10 Jan 2010: Yep, it's done.] Anyway, it works, and that’s what counts. Here then I recount the two hours I spent last night making it work, and the year of effort that culminated in those two glorious hours. (Yes, it takes me about one year to install one decoder. No, I’m not that slow: it’s just a function of how much free time I have, and how I choose to spend it.) I’ve lost track of how many decoders have been fried in the name of getting my Tomix EF81 converted to DCC. I’m not at all sure what happened this time; I was very thorough in checking for shorts before I put it on the tracks. And, sure enough, when I power it up, it shorts and [...] TCS has just announced the K0D8 decoder for Kato E8A/B, F7A/B and P42 Genesis locos; it should be a drop-in replacement for nearly every Japanese outline electric locomotive Kato has produced in the last several years. I have updated the listings accordingly, and will update them when TCS releases [...] Not with the website, thank goodness. No, today I fried another decoder. According to Arthur at TCS, the CN-GP is rather sensitive to shorting, and that’s just what I did. So, it’s off for testing and replacement! The good news is, I shorted it out during a test-fitting, and so far it looks like it’s going [...] |
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