Has anybody had any positive experiences in installing the new(er) ESU sound decoders that were designed to be installed in atlas 2016 and later locos. Just a preface as to my experience, up until this decoder; I have installed 60+ esu sound decoders in KATO locos; F3, F7, MP36, P42, CHARGER, SD40, SD45, SD40-2, SD70MAC, AC4400, Dash9 and all GEVO's. I'm waiting for the ESU KATO widebody decoders to be realeased so that I can do all of my E8's, PA's. I decided, today, to take a look at what the job would entail using a Dash 8 using 3 wheel trucks. Since I was never fond on how Atlas connected to the lightboard/decoder to the electrical leads from motor contact(they rest up making contact with the board); I previously hard soldered the motor contact to the digitrax board to make sure there was no intermittent contact. So......I had to carefully unsolder to motor leads. Not too much fifficulty. The ESU "fits" in the frame slots but it is really sloppy and loose. The motor contacts rest up on the backside of the board. There are no slots to pull the lead and solder. The board has several LED's. On the rear of the board is located one on the BOTTOM of the board. So I can make a 9x16 speaker fit snugly under the board but the led id there and so are additional contacts. That's a problem. Front of the board looks to have smd's on both top and bottom. Beteen the sloppines of the fit of these boards and the motor contact issue, I may just wait and see how others like their results. Anybody have any updates on when or if ESU is going to release the widebody boards for the KATO locos? Best regards, Brian
I haven't installed any but have been watching installs. You can find some. ( HERE ) I hardly have anything new enough to put them in. Hope to see your install here or someplace when you do it. Sumner
I should have included that I am referring to the ESU decoder #58751, Loksound 5 Micro DCC Atlas Legacy decoder. I'm actually glad that I don't have a lot of Atlas locos so I may just wait or use up the four decoders and be done with it.... I will post photos if I decide to install these. Brian
