Has anyone installed a Digitrax DN163AO in the Atlas 8-40CW? I just did and after soldering the wires from the ditch light LED's to the decoder, positive common and negative to fuction output pad 1&2 the LED's went up in smoke! I thought the resistors were built into the board to prevent this. TCS has a good install page for this loco on their site and its nice and easy, just solder to the function pads no resistors to add. Just went with Digitrax as that's what I had and use in most of my locos. Next step is to order a new LED dich light board from atlas $11! and try the TCS decoder and keep my fingers crossed.
I have installed TCS in my 8-40CW's without any problems. In fact the ATSF loco on the TCS page is mine as I sent it to Arthur so he could post the tutorial. I do not like Digitrax and only use TCS. Customer support and actual board design by TCS is far superior in my opinion.
I have two other 8-40CW that came with the NCE decoder but I never realy liked them, this one was a DCC ready unit I found for a steal. I'd go with the TCS decoders in the first place for my fleet but when I was getting into DCC six years ago TCS didn't have any drop in decoders yet and Digitrax had an extensive line. Thanks for the install guide, made it look easy. I should of listened to my gut and used a TCS decoder to begin with. Also it looks like TCS uses the orange colored LED's that Digitrax stopped using in favor of a clear one that is way too bright.
I'm not sure the Digitrax decoders have the resistors installed. I know the TCS units do. You can buy a resistor pack from Radio Shack and wire them in line. Mark
Check out Reality Reduced There is an episode of reality reduced (episode 10) that is dedicated to installing working ditch lights on a KATO SD70MAC using a DN163K1b Digitrax decoder. I know for a fact that he said you had to add the resistors in-line. It was a nicely done demo and I'd recommend watching it before trying again. Don Here is a link to the episode: http://realityreduced.blip.tv/file/1303050/
Some Digitrax decoders have the resistors (680 ohm) and some don't. If they do, Digitrax makes no mention of it in their manuals. I had to contact their tech support and they agreed that the DN163K1B, and DN163K1C had the resistors for each of the added 4 FX functions (you can see them lined up next to the common + pad), each with it's own solder pad. It looks like the DN163I2 and the DN163A1 also have them, the I2 has 1000 ohm, the symbol for 680 and 1000 ohms is 681 (or 189 upside down) and 102, respectively. I can't read the online photo of the A1 to tell what type. It does not look like the A0 has them. You should see a flat surface mount component right next to the + solder pad for each function and it should say 681 or 102 on it. I don't know why they keep it a secret. I wouldn't go so far as to issue a blanket condemnation of any particular brand decoder. Both Digitrax and TCS have worked well for me.
Thanks for the info. It is odd that Digitrax went to the trouble to engineer this into some decoders and did not let us know. Wiring resistors into the loco is one thing I love to avoid. Mark
Thanks for the info, I wish Digitrax would let you know this. I added dich lights to a Kato P42 using the DN163KOA per the Digitrax instructions and no resistor was needed so I assumed all their decoders had them. Thanks for the headache Digitrax!
Just curious, what didn't you like about nthe NCE decoders? I do not own any NCE decoders yet, so I was curious. I followed the Digitrax route out of product availability for the Kato drop ins, 85% of my fleet is Kato.
What I didn't like about the NCE decoder was that Atlas doesn't include any info on it. What model number is it? What CV's are for what? Your totally in the dark trying to program it. Decoder pro wouldn't recognize the decoder type. It took some extensive online sercing to find some info on it. I found that programing it on decoder pro as a NCE N12AO worked but I needed to do alot of tweaking of the speed tables to get it to run with my other Dash 8's with Digitrax decoders. The reason I wanted to standardize on one brand was for the ease of programing, didn't need to learn all the ins and outs of programing lots of different brands.
Yes I installed the Digitrax DN163AO in the Atlas 8-40CW No it does not have the needed resistors. I used 1k 1/8 watt. Some how I toasted both LED's after I had them working. I ordered a new LED ditch light board from atlas I ordered a TCS decoder (it has the resistors) Install was fairly easy. The Brown wire goes to the Green LED + pad The Blue wire goes to the Green - pad The Red wire goes to the Violet LED + pad The Black wire goes to the Violet - pad I used these CV settings I found on the TCS website Green wire (function 1) CV35 = 4 Purple wire (function 2) CV36 = 4 (default is 8) CV51 = 10 CV52 = 11 This will cause the Ditch Lights to come on only when the loco is in forward and function 1 is activated. When function 2 is activated the lights will flash. Gary
