and to the forum. Great to have you on board with us. I hope you enjoy your stay with us. Feel free to come back and tell us a bit about your current modelling projects and if you dont mind, where you heard about us. Cheers for now Toto
Thank you for your welcome. I am returning to the hobby after a considerable break and have just started a new layout. It was intended to be and end to end industrial scene, as is my wont, but I have been persuaded to make it a circular layout (grandchildren!). My preference is for LMS rolling stock of late, but indeterminate, era. I discovered this forum as a result of a failure to fit a Digitrax decoder to a Hornby Fowler 2-6-4T. I suspect the encoder was not up to the job, so while searching for a suitable alternative I found the post below: https://platform1mrc.com/p1mrc/inde...nversion-on-a-triang-hornby-x04-chassis.4690/ I am keen to know exactly which decoder Mr Keith M fitted, so here I am. I have only just got into DCC and until now it has been relatively easy, i should have known it was too good to last!
I'm sure Keith will pick up on the thread when he comes on. From memory, he uses a lot of lais decoders but it may well be something entirely different in this instance. He will soon set you straight. Anyway, I hope you can get a few photos of your layout up as it develops. I'm sure you will get many more questions answered on here as we do have a great knowledge pool to tap into. We are delighted to have you here so have a good look around and enjoy. I'll catch up with you later again. Meanwhile enjoy the forum. Cheers Toto
Hi David and welcome to the forum and welcome back to the hobby. Keiths normal decoder of choice is the LAISDCC decoders, myself I have used Hattons standard decoder on a J83 J83 DCC Installation Video However, the X04 motor is an old open frame design, with quite a heavy current consumption. For these type of motors I tend to favour the TCS T1 decoder, this can easily supply 1.5A constant draw and a 2.0A peak, the cheaper decoders tend to manage 0.5 to 1.0A constant draw and 1.5A peak. However one of the advantages of the old X04 motor, is the motor is really easy to convert. On the non-insulated side of the brush spring, fit another piece of insulation. With the loco facing away from you, wire up orange wire to the right hand brush, and the grey wire to the left hand side. The black wire to the chassis and the red to the old insulated feed wire. If the loco goes the wrong way swap the connections to the brushes. Hope that helps Paul
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!!! I have just realised what I have done! I wired the pickup connections to the motor and the motor connections to the pickup! Why did I DO that?
G`day David and welcome to the forum, Sounds like you are right into it already... Enjoy your stay with us Gormo
Welcome aboard David, I’m sure your not the only one to have done that at some point in their DCC journey Kim
I don’t suppose the decoder could simply be reprogrammed? I fitted it (correctly) to a Hornby Pug afterwards and it didn’t work. This what I get for get for getting distracted from tracking laying and wiring. I shall get back to the mundane stuff for now.
Hi David and a belated welcome to the forum. I rather suspect that even though you might not have seen any of the dreaded white smoke emitted from your decoder, connecting it the wrong way around will likely have knackered it I'm afraid. It's very easy to make simple mistakes (how do I know that......) but it's one to put down to experience. Yes, the other posters are correct in that my decoder of choice is whichever type of LaisDCC decoder suits the job in hand, and I wouldn't touch Hornby or Bachmann branded decoders with the proverbial bargepole personally, others may disagree but I speak as I find. I'm not a Yorkshireman (close by in the next County though!) but I don't see any reason to pay more for a decoder than necessary, and having fitted around 50 of these Lais decoders to my fleet, I've yet to have a failure and I've found them every bit as good as the more expensive ones and just as versatile/configureable, so why pay more? There are usually at least 3 sellers of these decoders on Ebay and I tend to favour the one in Yarmouth as his postage is more realistic and he gives speedy service, what's not to like. When fitting any decoder, make sure the loco runs nicely on DC before fitting a decoder as they are not a 'cure-all' for rough running, any other problems, just shout out and someone on here will be pleased to help. Keith.
Hello Keith, I believe I know the Yarmouth company you mention. I have just bought a track tester from them. My only concern is whether they will work with the Bachmann E-Z command?
