While I have done a few LS 5 decoder installs into steam (tenders have room!) I had not yet tried putting one of the new decoders into a diesel loco. The added depth kept me a bit leery of the task. This weekend I finally decided to give it a try, starting with a wide-body EMD F7A unit. As I only had one of the Micro DCC decoders (58823) on hand, I decided to start with one of my "single" units, an Intermountain F7A Santa Fe #312. I used sound project S0711. Here's the video of the finished install (with an installation section) The first question, of course, was would everything fit. Here is a photo of the stock frame, with the old Digitrax decoder sitting in there I milled out a pocket for the speaker at the rear. NOTE: for any future installs on these units, I would also mill down the deck above the motor just a bit, taking off about 1/16"; there is plenty of metal and this will give a bit more space. Next up was to tackle the lights. Unlike the Kato E & F units, the IM units have very shallow light pipes, with the LED stuck in a holder right next to the nose (already removed in photos above). Here we see the installed light pipe Taking the light pipe out, I cut the lenses apart, glued them into their respective holes with CA, and added a couple pieces of black styrene between them to prevent light leakage. Next up was to create a small light board for the front. Santa Fe had a Mars Light in the upper head lamp, but also a red emergency lamp The lower lens is the standard head lamp. To build the lights, I created a small styrene board: at the top are two 0402 SMD LEDs - one red, one warm white; at the bottom is an 0603 SMD LED, warm white. Again, note the pieces of black styrene separating the upper and lower lamps. This was sufficient to eliminate light leakage between the lenses After fully installing, I did find that I needed to add a light block just below the cab windows, to prevent being able to see the backs of the LEDs lit through the side windows, and also a block below the lower LED, to ensure light wasn't coming out from the frame around the front coupler. The rest of the install was very straight forward. Speaker in the rear, with decoder just forward of it. At the front edge of the decoder, I placed a small PCB board with the resistors for the lights, a "U+ common" (blue wire) pad, and a pad with a 100uH inductor for the stay alive caps. The standard track pickup for this loco were screws in the back left and forward right of the frame, but since I milled out the back left screw hole, I tapped one in the fore left for the black wire. Two 330uF 20V Poly-Ta capacitors were added for stay alive, sitting over the motor. And here you see the cab interior back in place Final photo shows the red emergency lamp on
I am continually impressed by your installs as they are clean and nice with loads of functions and keep alives! Quick question, Would it be worth creating an actual PCB that had room for say 4 0603 or 0805 resistors. with 4 independent pads on one side and then a bar connecting the positive side (where the blue wire goes) and then room for an inductor. I know since you have a mill probably Ok to do manual but thinking with all the installs you do making something that you could fit probably 10 of on a 100x100 PCB footprint would probably only cost less than a quarter each and just make life easier. Just thinking out loud as I want to just wanted from your experience would it be worth or is each frame different enough the ""standard" size would be a problem.
@Keith Ledbetter , I've thought about, but milling is half the fun! What I have done is create a template (below) that I can print out and then transfer onto 2" x 4" piece of 1/32" single clad PCB board. The red lines are for milling, the black for cutting. Gives me either 4 lighting resistor pads per board or 3 resistors and 1 inductor, plus the common pad (without a mill line bisecting it). And I can quickly cut these narrower, if necessary for the specific loco, without worrying about where the traces are printed. Just yesterday, was putting a LokPilot Micro into a very old Kato GP38-2 (no sound for that one), and the stock board broke at the front light connecting points. I just cut one of these so I had a single light pad and the common available.
Rick, Very nice and great ingenuity exhibited. Thanks for sharing! One question about the upper light with the red & white LEDs. Is that light pipe diameter large enough to affix both LEDs directly in line with the pipe or does each one hang over the outside of the pipe? I know, clear as mud, answer as best you can. On another forum someone mentioned the class lights. Is it possible to mount LED on the side of the cab detail, that would clear the shell for easy removal/re-install, that aims at a piece of fiber optic glued into the shell? Thanks again for the share, Carl
Thanks Carl. The 0402 LEDs are a bit offset from center, but each one’s center of brightness is within the circle of the lens, but the pipe is noticeably smaller than the Kato pipe on the inside of the shell. Yes, I think I could mount class lights at the two front corners of the frame, just in front of the cab detail. Would need to block out the back of the number boards, as well as creating small cones to lights from shining back into the cab. There are enough outputs on the V5 decoder that one could do full RYG class lights, if appropriate for the model.
