Thank you for the excellent video. I too was led to believe that the green box Kato locomotives were DCC friendly until I bought a “revised” F3 unit which has the same unfriendly chassis as the blue box but comes with an upgraded pickup system with newly designed trucks. So not ALL green boxes are DCC friendly. Thanks for the battery trick! Neat!
Video very helpful to me. About to start the installation of decoders on my vast Kato collection, consisting of 68 American locos, with 11 NS Heritage on order.
Good video , also Kato I believe made a older chassis that does not have the screws that hold the chassis together. The one I have just used pressure and the factory board tabs to keep it together. I am just posting so people be careful because it is a pain to install a sound decoder in.
TopHobbyTRains has a Atlas GP38-2 and a lot of other units that they have installed Loksound Micro's, Digitrax, MRC, and Soundtraxx Micro Tsunami's in to. They were pretty loud in the videos they had.
More like $200 for those on eBay. Those second issue of those from 2010 are hard to come by, for the 5001 and the 5010. I'd like to know how to go back from DCC back to original DC. I bought one used recently that has DCC, but since I don't use DCC, I have no way to program the decoder to go back to DC running, so I want to remove it.
Hi there, new in the hobby I´m wondering what DCC is for? i have read that it will only add sound but can´t control 2 trains in the same track... from analog to DCC what is the up grade or difference? please let me know cheers...
sohchx it is now DCC. You turn the light on with your throttle. I'm just running it with a battery and have no way to turn the light on with out putting the engine on to a DCC powered track.
you said that you would normally disable the DCC mode in this video. I watched it 3 times. Why would you disable the DCC when you are installing a decoder. Frazzled
Awesome!! I learned more from you in 10 minutes than of the other videos I've watched so far about n scale, decoders etc. 🏁👍
Awesome! Thank you!
Thank you for the excellent video.
I too was led to believe that the green box Kato locomotives were DCC friendly until I bought a “revised” F3 unit which has the same unfriendly chassis as the blue box but comes with an upgraded pickup system with newly designed trucks. So not ALL green boxes are DCC friendly.
Thanks for the battery trick! Neat!
It has been know that some people will swap out a Blue Box mech with a green not mech. But you have a good point. I do not know every thing.
I just learned this lesson too.
Video very helpful to me. About to start the installation of decoders on my vast Kato collection, consisting of 68 American locos, with 11 NS Heritage on order.
Nicely explained - illustrated. Simple enough for us HO guys to understand.
Good job.
Good video , also Kato I believe made a older chassis that does not have the screws that hold the chassis together. The one I have just used pressure and the factory board tabs to keep it together. I am just posting so people be careful because it is a pain to install a sound decoder in.
Thanks, Missed the comment. Make sure to Subscribe so I can see your comments.
Great information in this video. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks
TopHobbyTRains has a Atlas GP38-2 and a lot of other units that they have installed Loksound Micro's, Digitrax, MRC, and Soundtraxx Micro Tsunami's in to. They were pretty loud in the videos they had.
More like $200 for those on eBay. Those second issue of those from 2010 are hard to come by, for the 5001 and the 5010.
I'd like to know how to go back from DCC back to original DC. I bought one used recently that has DCC, but since I don't use DCC, I have no way to program the decoder to go back to DC running, so I want to remove it.
Hi there, new in the hobby I´m wondering what DCC is for? i have read that it will only add sound but can´t control 2 trains in the same track... from analog to DCC what is the up grade or difference? please let me know cheers...
DCC is basically remote control for trains. It has nothing to do with sounds. DCC can have sound, but DCC is used to control individual trains.
Hi Eric,
Good explanation. Have you thought about doing a HO hardwire installation on TH-cam as well?
Great video, I have read somewhere about the use of Kapton tape and I know it is included with the Digitrax decoders. Any thoughts. Thanks John
Do you use Kapton tape? Never done decoder yet, wondering if necessity or not.
I have that SAME loco!!
Can you add sound decoder or speaker to that board dcc
That I would not know, I would say just get a sound decoder board for it.
Do you know where I could get newer Kato couplers? I bought a UP SD40 and it has the old rapidos. (It was cheap though, and it runs great.)
just install a micro trains coupler. Do not throw away the rapidos
I put the decoder in and It will only go in reverse, no forward at all, but the light does come on.Any suggestions???
Did you get it to work?
@@IMRROcom Why didnt you apply the Kepton tape to ground the decoder?
I noticed that before you swapped the decoder your engine had light, after the decoder install the engine no longer had a light. Why is that??
sohchx it is now DCC. You turn the light on with your throttle. I'm just running it with a battery and have no way to turn the light on with out putting the engine on to a DCC powered track.
It appears as if you did not use any kapton tape. Am I right?
Most of the time it is not needed.
you said that you would normally disable the DCC mode in this video. I watched it 3 times.
Why would you disable the DCC when you are installing a decoder. Frazzled
Word slip it is DC not DCC