Analogue on lgb digital
- Thread starter Dcameron
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A suitable non sound Decoder should come in at under £100 not sure if one of these would work, but it may be ok perhaps another member can comment re suitability with a USA Loco assuming it is a USA Trains Loco?
Fitting a Decoder is not that tricky but something that the faint hearted may have problems with. One of the benefits of this Decoder is that all the wires go into a Screw Terminal on the Chip.
If you can - perhaps best to let us know what exactly you have, you will certainly at some stage need to address Chip Fitting yourself as indeed £450 may seam a lot. But time is money these days and the fitter always has the responsibility that a Chip may get trashed during his fit if the Loco is unfamiliar.
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@Dcameron We're assuming here that by "USA train analogue" you mean a model made by USA Trains (rather than an American style model made by someone else?) Which loco is it you have?
Some of the big USA Trains diesels are known to have potentially high current draw especially if stalled or when first moving off. I seem to recall NCE did a decoder capable of handling 8 amp stall current, specifically for the big USAT locos. I'm not sure I'd go with a 3A decoder, maybe a 5 amp but preferably the big NCE D808-SR if it's still available?
[edit] NCE D808SR £92 here
D808SR Decoder - NCE - Shop by Brand
Who on earth quoted £450 to supply and fit a decoder? As @dunnyrail says it's not difficult unless you're really not confident with fiddling with electrics.
Avoid running un-chipped locos on DCC, it's really not good for them as you're putting power through the motor all the time even when stationary (hence the constant buzzing/humming when you place one on the track). In the small scales it can blow up motors very rapidly and is very much frowned upon these days. Quite a few systems don't provide the functionality. Address 0 is not a real DCC address in this context, it's a convention used by *some* DCC systems to cause the system to "bend" the signal in the track such that the motor in an un-chipped loco sees a biased voltage and turns. Other DCC systems may use a different convention (eg. Bachmann EZ Command uses "address 10" button to do the same thing).
Some of the big USA Trains diesels are known to have potentially high current draw especially if stalled or when first moving off. I seem to recall NCE did a decoder capable of handling 8 amp stall current, specifically for the big USAT locos. I'm not sure I'd go with a 3A decoder, maybe a 5 amp but preferably the big NCE D808-SR if it's still available?
[edit] NCE D808SR £92 here
D808SR Decoder - NCE - Shop by Brand
Who on earth quoted £450 to supply and fit a decoder? As @dunnyrail says it's not difficult unless you're really not confident with fiddling with electrics.
Avoid running un-chipped locos on DCC, it's really not good for them as you're putting power through the motor all the time even when stationary (hence the constant buzzing/humming when you place one on the track). In the small scales it can blow up motors very rapidly and is very much frowned upon these days. Quite a few systems don't provide the functionality. Address 0 is not a real DCC address in this context, it's a convention used by *some* DCC systems to cause the system to "bend" the signal in the track such that the motor in an un-chipped loco sees a biased voltage and turns. Other DCC systems may use a different convention (eg. Bachmann EZ Command uses "address 10" button to do the same thing).
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Thanks Phil I was wondering what the bigger Chip was.I can understand some people quoting that sort of figure.. - USA Trains loco's are a little 'DCC unfriendly'.
Of course, that could be the price of a DCC equipped loco?
If it is one of the bigger diesels.. I, personally, would fit an XXL.
