Since the stock decoder board didn't work after the downsizing attempt it is very possible. A rewire to the short range pins would be easy and I may have to do that, but I'm reluctant to make it a DC only loco. Does anyone know how to wire the DZ-125 into the short range tender board? Thanks Mark, Mark
Check my ten-wheeler out on the Northern Pacific and Black Hills thread. Used the Spectrum short tender and put in Loksound decoder.
Mark, Thanks for the link to the Atlas forum. I've copied and saved it to my documents file. I cut each wire one at a time and re-soldered them to the gold male pins on the short range tender board. I figured I'd get it working in DC first. Put her on the track and no luck, the light won't even light up. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Mark
I initially had a lot of problems with the short tenders I used for my 4-6-0's - specifically the jumpers on the decoder contacts - Said jumpers weren't on there very tightly and seemed to be covered with some sort of patina/corrosion. I eventually wound up chucking them entirely and soldering on jumper wires of my own, but if your ultimate goal is to install a decoder you might want to just go ahead and do that instead. Also, make sure all the other conductive parts (drawbar, wheels, wipers, etc) are clean and free of corrosion. I don't know where Bachmann was storing these things... flooded basement in the tropics maybe? Whatever the case, the ones I bought required a whole lot of attention before I was able to get things running smoothly. -Mark
BTW, did you actually remove the stock PC board from the short tender (when you were trying to put the long tender's PC board in there)? If you didn't get the wires from the contact strips correctly soldered back onto the bottom of the short tender's PC board, there wouldn't be any current to it (obviously). -Mark
Thanks Mark, I removed the PC board from the medium range tender to grind the edges down but I never removed the board from the short range tender. I've got to go to work, I'll mess with it some more tonight. Have fun, Mark
My money is on those DC-mode jumpers then. Mine didn't run at all after the tender switch until I cleaned that all up. -Mark
Mark and all others following along. You may well be correct. I de-soldered the Motor+ and Motor- wires from the short range tender board, hooked them up directly to a DC power pack and she ran. This is good news, at least I didn't pull the motor wires from the motor contacts when I was trying to shorten the medium range board. I've got to puzzle a bit and see if I can figure out where to go from here but if the jumpers are bad that may be the cause of my troubles. If anyone has any good ideas please share them. Here is a picture, the R (right wheel) wire disconnected when I was moving the M- wire to hook it up to the DC power pack. Thanks, Mark
Here is an update for those who are interested. I removed the PC board and soldered the R (Right Wheel) and L (Left Wheel) wires directly to the tender pickup strips. As a temporary test I also soldered the M+ and M- to the tender power strips. The test worked, she runs fine. Next I plan to de-solder the M+ and M- wires and connect them to the DZ 125 orange and grey wires. I will solder the red and black DZ 125 wires to the tender power strips. At this point the DZ 125 should work. If it does I will hook up the light control wires. If anyone sees a flaw on my plan please let me know. Here is the picture: Thanks, Mark
One step forward and two steps back. I wired up the DZ 125 as planned. The good news it she runs, the bad news is she stalls and hesitates, worse in DC than in DCC but not great in either. A real shame because in the previous configuration she ran better in DC than she ever ran before. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks, Mark
Your install looks good. The possible cause of the performance issues could be the connection from the trucks to the buss bars. I trimmed back the busses and soldered a wire from the tab of the truck to the buss bar. I drilled a tiny hole at the top of the tab to hold the wire first. I also added a little weight to it and these things have worked for me, it doesn't hesitate or such with the Loksound decoder running. Have fun! It's not too difficult, be sure to disassemble the trucks so you don't warp or melt anything.
Badlandnp, Great minds think along the same track, or maybe we just make the same errors. I did essentially what you recommended before I read your post. Here is what I wrote before I saw your recommendations: It Runs! Stalling and hesitation is a sign of power pick-up problems. With six drive wheels and eight tender wheels picking up power I couldn't see how I was having power pickup problems, but I stuck a big Arnold tender weight on the tender and she improved. Now I knew the problem was tender power pickup. I didn't want to put a bunch of lead in the tender and compromise the pulling capability of the locomotive, so I went hard core and wired the truck posts directly to the copper strips. In hindsight soldering to the copper strips probably caused a slight melting of the plastic under the strips and got them dirty with an insulating material. Cleaning the underside where the truck posts contact the strips may have worked just as well. I also fashioned an extra 1/4 oz. lead weight to fit in the tender. Bottom line she runs around the entire test track loop at speed step 3 with no hesitation. Now on to hooking up the light. Badlandnp, I tried to find a write up of your installation but my search skill is limited. Did you write it up? What did you call it or can you provide a link? Disregard, I found your post, thanks. Thanks to all and I'm still open for recommendations, Mark
Hooked up the light and put a 1K resistor in line between the black L+ and the blue L+ decoder wire. Soldered the white decoder wire to the L- wire. I really expected this to be no problem as evidenced by the heat shrink and tape job. Put her on the track, no light. She still runs fine, but the light is not working. Does anyone know how to trouble shoot this? Thanks, Mark
I got it working. Changed the resistor and rewired it as shown above and she works. I had to dump out my extra lead weight in order to get the top to close, but she is working fine without it. Thanks to all for the help, Mark
Do we get a pic of this unit in service? Looks like a bit of fun and learning went on, which is always good!
I don't know about fun, frustration yes, fun, not much. If I'd known what a pain that was going to be I wouldn't have started. It looked like it was going to be so easy, break off the Bachmann chip and solder a new decoder into the pins provided. I wish that had worked. Here she is: The tender rides a little high in the front, I'll mess with that another day. Notice the nice yellow headlight. Thanks, Mark
