Hello New born baby here

[4884inoregon]

HELLO ALL
THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL I THINK I'M IN NEED OF SOME HELP I PURCHASED A PROTO 2000 SERIES DCC READY SD-60. SO I TALKED TO A FEW PEOPLE AND I HAD MENTIONED THAT I HAVE PURCHASED A NEW NCE POWER CAB AND THAT I WANTED TO BE ABLE TO RUN IT ON DCC EITHER BY ITSELF OR BEHIND MY 4884 BIG BOY (AS A HELPER ENGINE AS YOU SEE IN THE VIDEOS) AND THEY TOLD ME THAT A P2KSR DECODER IS WHAT I NEED SO I ORDERED ONE PUT IT IN PER THE INSTRUCTIONS AND I GOT BUBKISS GOOSE EGG NADA NO BUENO WELL YOU GET IT.
SO I'M THINKING THAT I WASTED $32 FOR NOTHING. SO MY QUESTION IS WHAT DO I NEED EXACTLY TO GO FROM DCC READY TO DCC OPERATIONAL WITH ALL LIGHTS AND SOUNDS?
ANY IDEAS?
Thank you all
Clayton

 

[kjd]

Hi, welcome from a fellow Oregonian. The yelling is a bit loud but I'll see what I can. In the first photo the factory board is in place. Take that bit with the resistors out and put in the P2KSR and plug it in. It isn't a sound decoder but the lights and motor should work. Better sound decoders with a speaker will run $100 plus. Is the chassis photo a before photo and the decoder is installed in the second photo?

Full disclosure, I've never used a P2KSR decoder but looking at a photo on the Google, it looks pretty straight forward. Check the light bulb with a AA battery. If it doesn't light or lights very dim you probably won't need a resistor for the lights. If it comes on fairly bright with the battery, you need to add a 1k ohm resistor in line (series) with the light bulb or it will only work long enough to tell you it used to work.

I have a Proto SD60M and it had very low gearing, it ran very slow compared to other locomotives. You might have to adjust the speed tables on the SD60 or the BigBoy or both but we can cross that bridge when we get there.

 

[JazzDad]

WELCOME!

 

[2Tracks]

Hey Clayton, welcome to this spot, from southern Oregon...

 

[Iron Horseman]

My question is what do I need exactly to go from DCC Ready to DCC Operational with all lights and sounds?

In short, what KJD said.

A little longer. That locomotive has an 8 pin NMRA plug. That is what makes it DCC READY. Pull that plug and put in an 8 pin decoder and it will work. Put in an appropriate decoder and it will work without blowing the lightbulbs. That is the battery test KJD was talking about. Some decoders have built in resistors and others don't.

Sound is a totally different story. I do not see any factory location for the speakers, which means you have to invent/create one. Not always an easy thing to do. The NMRA 8-pin plug does not allow for sound, so you have to add additional wires from the decoder to the speakers, or completely replace the original circuit board with the sound board. Looks like maybe the speaker could go in that cut out for the cab. I have no specific advise because I've not dealt with that specific locomotive and Proto did so many variations of their circuit boards and lighting anything I said would be speculation. Once again getting back to JKD's battery test.