Hi all . Have been busy stuffing drop in decoders into several atlas GP30s. You know the drill- take loco body off, insulate frame near motor contacts with Kapton tape, install board, test and reinstall body. But- when I went to install the body it wouldn't fit over the chassis... like the chassis was suddenly too wide. I can only assume that the new decoder board was slightly too wide and holding the chassis halves apart. I took a file to several of the boards to remove material just outboard of the chassis contact tabs, and it seems to have improved. Anyone else encounter this ? Don't like mix and matching boards when I use locos MU'd and once in these boards work nicely.
I found that Digitrax DCC boards for Micro Trains FT's would fit in the A units but not the B's. The problem was the window glass was thicker in the B's than the A's. This obviously is not the problem with the GP30's. "DCC Vs our sanity" is a thread title option................
I've had a similar problem with the Atlas GP7. Have not found a solution. It's not all of them, just one specific frame. Never have figured out why, the motor appears seated correctly. I can get it to run, but the shell will NOT go back on without FORCE, and it bulges at the sides then and is too high.
Yes, I've run into this many times with board decoders and Atlas locomotive models. You could compare the width of the decoder board and the stock board with a caliper to confirm. After the decoders got smaller, I started doing more of those in these types of models and modified the original board. Here is a link to a blog post that shows this type of installation. http://n-scale-dcc.blogspot.com/2014/03/tcs-m1-in-atlas-n-master-line-gp7.html
Yes, yes anyone doing decoder installs now or thinking about doing them should bookmark Brad's site ( HERE ) and scroll through all the installs on the left side of the page there and the other info. If I'm doing an install in something I haven't done one in before I usually check and see what his approach was and it was his site that gave me the knowledge and courage to start doing them. Thanks Brad, Sumner
At this point I have 3 of the irons shown above and ( HERE ). Most of the time I forget I have the fine point one shown and use the other one for everything, general wiring, decoder installs and building turnouts. There are times the fine one is pretty much a must if you have to say solder to a pad on one of the decoder boards vs. wire to wire. The decoder installs I've been doing I have had to use a function yet that is only accessible from a pad on the decoder. I've been getting ones that have enough functions wired with wires off the decoder that I've just been soldering the wires or... ... something like above. Love the irons above. I bought an iron that is really small with a really small tip but don't use it. Sumner
I have that iron and I guess I'll try it again but if I remember right I wanted something that ran hotter than 12 watts. I run my irons about as hot as they go for everything I do. I like to get on and off the joint as quick as possible. That seems to limit the spread of the heat to anything nearby. I use flux and usually pre-tin and have soldered quite a bit which helps to get the solder to flow almost the instant you touch the iron to the joint. I have a number of their other products and like them a lot. Sumner
Soldering iron tips with short tapers can transmit heat to the very end of the tip more efficiently/rapidly. When working in a tight spot that does not have room to "lay down" the cone of a longer tip on the joint, short tapered tips are really helpful. The long-tapered tips are great for tiny leads on small, closely spaced pads that don't have much thermal mass to heat up. Chisel, hoof, and bent cone shaped tips are also good at transmitting heat rapidly into a solder joint. The latter is easier to lay down on a larger joint, while also having a tiny point for more precision joints. Unfortunately, wide varieties of available soldering iron tip shapes is one of those features typically found only on more expensive irons. Note: Do not try to alter the shape of a soldering iron tip. They are usually copper cored for heat conductivity, and iron plated for high temperature durability. They don't take kindly to grinding, cutting or bending.
