I have two Kato Dash 9s (HO) and the Atlas master DCC system, along with an Atlasmaster GP38. I have had the Atlas master for about six months. I finally hooked up the Atlasmaster to my layout yesterday and am loving it and the GP38! My questions are as follows: What is the easiest and cheapest way to put a decoder in my Dash 9s? I see in the documentation that they have a DCC plug socket. What decoders can I just plug in without any wiring or shell mosifications? And how hard is it to program a decoder with Atlasmaster. I had in the past asked here about soundtraxx decoders and I saw that Soundtraxx now makes a "plug and play" GE sound decoder for Katos. Is this true plug and play, just plug it in the socket and go? Also, is a speaker included or does it have to be installed seperately? Thanks again! Ski
Check out Soundtraxx's website to answer your specific questions about their decoders: http://www.soundtraxx.com/dcc/plugnplays.html The cheapest decoder is a Digitrax DH121. About $16.00 but you would have to hard wire it. One with a plug is a little more. This only provides a front and rear light. No special features. Checkout http://www.ttx-dcc.com for complete price list of decoders. There are plug and play decoders available but they cost more. I don't know how hard it is to program with an Atlas but I doubt it is difficult. You will only have to program the locomotive number and possibly the lights.
