Locos and Tenders with separate decoders.....

Zerogee

Zerogee

Clencher's Bogleman
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Another little techie question, further to my thread in the SOUNDS section where I've been talking about the LGB sound tender that I recently acquired.
The sound tender, which is motorised, has a 55021 chip that will be (after removing and re-wiring the original installation) plugged straight into the sound board in the prescribed direct-decoder manner. The loco that I am using the tender with, will have its own separate decoder fitted.

My question is this: when an LGB unit retains its factory circuit board and has a decoder piggy-backed onto the main board, as intended, does the output from the AUXILIARY SOCKET (the two-pin lighting socket) feed straight track power (ie: unmodified DCC at full voltage), or does the decoder do anything to it before passing it out of the socket?
What I'm really asking is: IS IT SAFE TO CONNECT THE LOCO AND TENDER (each with their own decoder) TOGETHER VIA THEIR TWO-PIN SOCKETS, SO AS TO SHARE THE POWER PICKUPS? Or should I leave them completely unconnected and simply let each unit do its own thing?

Jon.
 
If you connect the loco and tender you will get better running as you double the number of pickups. The plugs should be only connected to the track pickups but sometimes you find a little yellowish thing in the circuit. This is an overload cutout in case of short circuits. (It doesn't work as to do the job properly you need two, one in each wire).
 
Something I just remembered about this.

I believe that the lighting sockets can be wired to different power pick up sides of the loco from loco to loco.

I guess that is because polarity is unimportant for lighting.
 
Thanks Cliff and Mike, so the moral is check everything carefully before plugging it in.... ;)

Jon.
 
Also, there is at least one factory fitted MTS loco (the RhB tractor) where the socket is connected via the PCB, and feeding power in through it fries the electronics.
Not strictly relevant to this, but a caveat worth knowing about.
 
Thanks Tony - that was exactly the reason I asked the question in the first place... now the MTS-fitted RhB tractors use the standard LGB "small loco decoder", so does that mean that any loco fitted in the same way (of which there are several, including the KoF and Kleine Dicke from the old MTS start set) will have the same risks attached....?

Jon.
 
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