Has anyone tried installing a decoder in your Kato Reseau Duplex? I bought a TCS EUN651, but with the way the pins are soldered to the board, it sticks up at a harsh enough angle to not allow the shell to go on. I think I'll put a loksound micro in the dummy motor car. Anyone have any suggestions for alternate decoders for the motor end? Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk
I'm not familiar with the interior of this model, but you may be able to salvage your decoder purchase with an adapter. ESU makes the NEM651M for this, but you would have to solder on 6 wires without shorting the very close pins, so this is not a trivial soldering job. You would probably need tiny shrink wrap on each pin so the wires do not touch. Hot glue or superglue could work if applied sparingly. You could skip the wires entirely and maybe use a right angle header, if the decoder will fit at a right angle. You could try something like the LPPB061NGCN-RC (look for on sites like digi-key or mouser). The NEM651 plug uses 0.05 inch pitch on the pins, so any electronics connector/socket/header that has 6 pins on that pitch will fit. You will only pay extra by looking for something that was "made" for DCC/model railroading. Something with wires already connected will be more expensive due to the labor/difficulty in assembly and much harder to find. If you can get by with the right angle header, that would really be the way to go. If you end up getting new decoder instead, you can still find the ESU 54613, which is a LokPilot v4.0 with the 6 pin wire harness already wired up, or the v5.0 version 59626. I don't know of other decoders that use the NEM651 without looking like the TCS. Maybe another brand is small enough to get the shell on? The Digitrax DZ126IN is a little smaller than the TCS decoder. Jim
I have the Duplex in the new paint scheme (same train different paint) and I used a Digitrax decoder that dropped right in. No sound but it worked perfectly in the locomotive. I have not yet put a lighting decoder in the rear car but that is on my to do list. I cant remember the decoder I used at the moment and the computer I am on wont let me go to the site that would tell me. If memory serves it is something like a KO163IP. It was a simple install for the most part.
