I originally posted this in randgust's Climax thread, thought I would post it here as well... Before I start my kit I wanted to see if I could convert the critter to DCC. Here’s how I was able to convert the Kato critter to DCC. I hope to now be able to fit this in the Climax. The first photo is of the underside of the circuit board of the critter. This is installed face down in the frame touching the motor leads and truck pickup strips and provide the electrical path that the current follows from the trucks to the motor leads. To be able to convert this to DCC, there are cuts in the silver traces that need to be made in order to be able to isolate the motor traces from the pickup strip traces. The picture gives you the orientation of how it is located in the frame- worm end on top, motor end on the bottom. The next photo is where I made cuts in the traces to isolate the motor contacts from the truck pickup strips (which in this case can be considered the “frame”). The red lines indicate cuts in the traces, the green line indicates where you will connect adjoining traces with one of the wires, and the blue dots are where holes are drilled (about a # 75 bit I think) through the board so you can push the wires through from the top of the board and solder them to the bottom traces. The next photo is the wires soldered in place. This is where a third hand tool comes in handy. Tin all wire ends. Insert a tinned wire end through the hole and bend it over flat against the trace- just make the bent over end as short as possible, just long enough so it will hang in the hole if you let it go. I bent mine towards the inside of the board. On the wire used to connect the traces where the green line is, just leave the end long enough to bend over and touch both traces and solder it to both traces. With a small soldering tip just touch the wire end with your solder and apply the iron just long enough to get a small bit of solder to make the connection. Obviously from the look of my photo I need to practice my soldering! Those of you with better soldering skills will use much less solder than I did. Once you have all the wires installed hold the board up to a light from behind and make sure no solder ran over any of the gaps between traces. The wires should be standing straight up from the board on the top side when you are through.
Your photo of the modified board is missing one cut from the diagram. The red line to the right of the green line, where the trace goes diagonally, does not match the modified board photo. I presume that this is on purpose?
No, I just forgot about it when I was making the cuts- it really wasn't necessary for it to work, it was more of a safety precation to reduce the chances of an accidetal short from the opposite side from the trace below it (with my crummy soldering I actually did get a blob over on that trace but just scraped it off with an xacto blade- luckily I noticed it before I put things back together). I would still make the cut just to be on the safe side, and when I dissassemble it again I will make the cut even though I know it works okay now.
