I recently purchased 2 Life-Like (Walthers) GP38-2. Though some vendors claim this engine is "DCC friendly", it is actually not. See on this site. The two motor contacts touch the two half frames directly, one on the top, the other on the bottom, whereas on Atlas "DCC ready" engines, both motors contacts are on the top and touch the PCB. Here are 2 pictures of the Life-Like PCB (top of each picture, the bottom one is an Atlas analog PCB for comparison). I think that the purpose of this complicated Life-Like PCB is to dim lights opposite to the direction of travel. Top. Bottom. I see 2 options to put a DCC decoder in this engine, and would like to collect your opinion : 1. Use a small decoder with wires. In this case, I will only retain LEDs and associated resistors from the Life-Like PCB. Question : can you read on the picture the value of those resistors and tell me if they are OK ? 2. A drop-in DCC for Atlas engines could do the job, with some additional wiring and soldering, since the overall size seems compatible. Opinions and advice welcome.
Alan, We kicked this one around a few months back. I wrote to Walthers/LL/Proto and asked them what one might do and they suggested a frame modification for making the Atlas drop-in fit. It's toward the end of this thread. I have NOT tried this. I am considering asking LL/Proto/Walthers to offer a frame swap program since they misled the public when selling these. Adam
Well thanks for the link. :thumbs_up: I may consider using a wired decoder, but I haven't found any picture from someone who did it. Just to know exactly what to retain from the LL board.
Looks like: LL board: R1 = 100, R2 = 100, R3 = 560, R4 = 560 Atlas board: R = 1000 The LL values seem lower than necessary, but they may lower the voltage in one of the ICs and thus need less resistance for the LEDs. I would guess the 100 ohm resistors serve a different purpose than to limit current to the LEDs. The Atlas is about as expected. If I were to install a decoder, I'd use the TCS M1 and I'd change the LED resistors to 1000 ohms. How hard is it to isolate the lower motor contact from the frame? Once that's done and a wire run up to the board. The traces can be cut and the MI installed.
The lower motor contact should be OK to isolate, and no issue to solder a wire to run it up to the board. :thumbs_up:Thanks for reading the resistors value. I knew how to read color codes, but didn't know the other code. If 101 reads 100 Ohm and 561 reads 560 Ohm, I suppose that the last digit is the power of ten multiplier, like the third ring on the color code. So this means in essence that the LL PCB cannot be reused. This just gave me the idea to use spare analog Atlas board (from engines in which I put a drop-in decoder) as a basis instead since the resistor and LEDs are OK.
You're right on. The last number is the number of 0s following the first 2 digits just like the color code. I think your idea to use spare Atlas light boards makes great sense. I've been wondering what to do with the pile of them I've accumulated. Guess I'll have to build a fleet of GP38-2s.
