DCC help- Kato SD45

[Psapple83]

Hey everyone,

I picked this Kato SD45 up at the Mad City Train Show this last weekend, and the guy told me this was DCC ready. I opened it, and (I'm new at this) it does not look dcc ready.

If I were to want to put DCC into this, how would I go about it? Is it worth it? (this thing squeals like a pig on my DCC layout with address 00)

I included some pictures of it...

 

[peroni]

Hi Psapple83,
Going by the pics there, all you have to do is to remove the 2 little jumpers
from the 8 pin socket and then put in a decoder with the 8 pin connector.
The jumpers are there so it will run on DC, when you remove them and put your decoder in, it will run on DCC.

 

[Psapple83]

Awesome. I looked at that but it seemed weird that it was a part of the board and not a plug hanging from a harness. Thank you very much for your knowledge. Now to pick a decoder!

 

[Mattchu60]

I have that exact model/engine/road at home. If you are going to put in DCC - I recommend replacing the entire light board. Otherwise if you use the 8-pin socket it will work just fine, but run slow. I used the 8-pin socket for a few days, frustrated becuase it would not MU with my Athearn SD60. Found out that the light board was sucking a lot of current and when I replaced the board it MU'd perfectly.

 

[Psapple83]

Who sells entire light board replacements? Are there light boards that are already DCC so I don't need to buy 2 items?

 

[kbkchooch]

Who sells entire light board replacements? Are there light boards that are already DCC so I don't need to buy 2 items?

Actually, your are not going to replace the lightboard, you need to eliminate it. A decoder like a NCE DA-SR is what you want. Works with Kato/Atlas/Proto drives.
http://www.ncedcc.com/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=47&category_id=13

 

[haplo777]

Probably bumped into you there (no figuratively either), I actually had a questionable purchase there. I picked up an HO engine from someone, it was used but the was in a shrink wrap. Once we got home we found that the back hitch (I know there is proper term for them) was broken and that someone had glued it back on. No big deal, my son still loved the engine but the problem is they glued the hitch back on wrong so it is positioned to high to latch with other cars. Oh well, live and learn.

Anyways glad to hear others were at the expo. My son and I had a great time.

 

[WP-MOW]

Just a thought , have one SD45 with the same board as yours psapple and by chance I had a Tusnami 645 t sitting there so now she purrs, save your money when or if you look at sound, for the GP35 I bought the one from soundtraxx for the kato. The sd 45 I used a regular sound board.