I am still looking for someone that does PCB design work that might be a model railroader. Guess I am looking for a freelancer that does PCB design. This small PCB should not cost 1K to get designed. That is what I have ran into at this point. My idea is to remove the NEST18 socket and plug and replace with a PCB with wires. This will reduce the height by a bunch and give freedom of routing wires has needed. Still working to solve.
I've seen a few of these on AliExpress that might work for this.. If you need a PCB though send me the details and I'll put together a PCB for you
So after My Loksound Micro V5 #58820 decoders arived yesterday I test fitted them in the Z scale locomotives i ordered them for, only confirm i was correct the aded thicknes of the Next18 connector makes them too thick to fit. Even after milling the chassis down flat with the top of the motor their still just is not enough room. The #56889 Loksound Micro V4 with 8 pin connector was 25mm x 10.6mm x 3.8 mm The New Loksound Micro V5 with 8 pin connector #58820 is 25.5mm x 10.6mm x 4.5mm The size has clearly increased. The V4's are sold out everywhere I've allready milld every mm i can off the chassis and from the inside of the shell so the only thing left is to modify the V5 by removing the Next 18 connector an soldering wires directly to the board Removing the Next18 connector from the decoder was quite the challange. First i tried removing the solder with a solder wick then a solder sucker pen with out muh success. I finaly used a #11 Excel blade to slice the plastic portion of it away then desolder and remove the 18 connectors one at a time. As you can see in the picture i pulled solder tab #15 off in the process. But this decoder is slated for a B unit with out any lights so not having both U+ tabs (the Blue wire) will not be a big issue. Thats it for this weekend, next weekend I'm going to try soldering on the wires needed for this application. For those intrested I'm using A Hakko FX-951 soldering station with a FM-2032 iron & T30-J R0.2mm/40 deg. Bent tip A Modified Andonstar ADSM302 Industrial Microscope capable of 560X magnification with 1080p full HD display on a 22' moniter. David
David, You also have the U+ on the right, the three pads for keep alive. When soldering wires on, make sure to join the two outside sets, for track power in (the two pads on far left and far right of the “18”). Great job on removing the Next18.
I had a little free time tonight so I put my micro soldering skills to the test. I got the Red and Black track power wires, the Orange and Gray motor power wires, and the two Brown speaker wires soldered on Tested it and I'm happy to say its working just fine.. It looks like I still need a little more practise with micro soldering. But I think i did ok for my first try. Just need to add a little liquid tape over the bare wires and un-used tabs to insulate them from shgorting against the chassis As you can see in the pic's below Not having the Next18 connector makes a big diffrence in both lenth and thickness. David
Up date on the ESU V5 Micro decoders. Seems like there are going to be more interface types of the V5. There is one that will have wires only, much like the old micro select. 58813 is the number.
TJ Dreams, very small pads to solder to there. I was looking to have a break out PCB made to re place the NEST18 socket, but the design would cost me 1K just to do the design, and that was after I sent them a drawing of what I wanted done. Look at my previous post about the new interfaces. If you go to the ESU web page and look,under V5 Micro decoders , click,on the interface and you will see what is coming.
Woodone Take a closeer look at the pictures Zoom in as far as you can and you will see that the Next18 connector is still used The wires only is actualy a female Next18 connector mounted on a PCB with wires connected to the PCB which is snapped onto the male connector on the decoder. same as the 58820 just loose wires instead of a ribbon cable. The thickness of the decoder at the Next18 end will still be 4.5mm thick. The Quote below was Coppied from ESU's website. under Products / Loksound 5 Micro / Decoder first paragraph. "All LokSound decoders are equipped with a Next18 interface and are available with adapter plugs to suit all popular digital interface types." Also even if you had a brakeout board made you would still need to remove the Next18 connector and solder it to those same small tabs that im soldering the weires to.
The Next18 connector thickness issue essentially "broke" the ability of Kato to offer Kobo Shops sound-equipped PA units. There's just no way to fit the new 5 DCC micro in that engine because of the increased thickness at that end of the decoder (though it appears possible to use one of the Select Direct Micro board-style decoders in this engine). There's a thread about this on The Railwire. The person who does the sound installs for Kato has let Matt Hermann know about this issue. Whether the folks in Germany will do something about it is unknown. It doesn't seem to me that it would be that hard to leave off the Next18 connector and simply put solder pads for wires where the connector would go but I don't manufacture complex multilayer pc boards. John C.
Not sure I understand what pictures you are referring to. The 58813 decoder is not yet released. But it has wires only no NEXT18 Socket used. The break out PCB I was trying to make would have replaced the NEXT18 socket and just fan out with wires, much like you did by soldering direct to the decoder. My idea was to set a double sided PCB over the NEXT18 pads and reflow the solder then attach wires to the PCB giving you a bit more room for wires. By having a PCB with a footprint just like the NEXT18 it would just set on top,of the decoder and only add the height of the PCB.
Follow the link click on "Interfaces" then the 2nd picture from the left http://www.esu.eu/en/products/loksound/loksound-5-micro-loksound-5-micro-dcc/ Better yet here is the Picture of the 58813 / single wires coppied from ESU's website
Well, not exactly what the Dr. ordered. This still has the Next18 plug and socket. The only thing that is different is that wires are soldered to the plug board instead of a ribbon cable with an 8-pin connector coming from that plug board. What we really need is a version of the 5 DCC Micro that omits the Next18 socket and plug and just has wires soldered directly to the decoder board. Such an arrangement is available for the standard (HO-sized) 5 DCC decoder. Apparently, the folks in Germany have no current plans to offer such an arrangement for the 5 DCC Micro. But plans can change, and as I noted above, can it really be THAT hard to replace the Next18 connector with solder pads and direct-soldered wires? I suspect ESU doesn't WANT to do this, because it would require different assembly (soldering wires directly to the board, instead of soldering a Next18 connector to the board), and probably would result in more return/repair issues. But it is really what the hobbyist needs for certain after-market installations in narrow-hood N-scale diesels (or Kato PA-1's!). John C.
I wouldn't mind just having the pads, and leave the soldering to us (though that could result in more warranty returns)
John, I don’t see the NEXT18 socket on that 58813 decoder. Note too that the wires are on the top AND bottom of the decoder. So I am excited to see the 58813 decoder on the way. I could solder the wires much like TJDREAMS did but that is some really small pads to try to solder too that’s for sure! I have a new V5 decoder and have the shrink cut back but I have yet to remove the NEXT18 socket. If the 58813 has wires has I see in the photos I won’t have to do that- YEA!
For what it's worth, I am only using ESU in American HO steam now. In anything N scale, or in smaller British OO gauge engines, I have wholeheartedly switched to Zen decoders from DCC concepts; small, good, and if you fry one, no matter how, you only pay half price for a replacement! The way I pop decoders... eeps.
Jerry, Matt Herman has confirmed, the 58813 (Mult protocol) and the 58823 (DCC) are wired Next18 adapter boards. Pads are on both sides of the adapter. In the picture above, you can see the “underneath” wires are still above the Aux5/6 pads on the base decoder.
Well I guess that means I will have to give a try of soldering to the NEXT18 pads after I remove the 18 pin socket. The NEXT18 is so small you can barely see it hidden under the PCB.
