New Railway Modellers Forums

TCS (can't remember which model) and Lenz Gold were key jst-9 decoders in the olden days, but most decoders with wires now are just decoders built for one of the other interfaces such as PluX or MTC-21 with wires soldered in place of the connector. None of these other interfaces make for a good plug...

Decoders are made with a specific interface, and if you need to plug a decoder with one interface, in to a loco with a different interface, you will need a harness. Typically you will find these decoders are fitted with the jst-9 interface, and the harness has the jst-9 plug on one end to go in the ...

It rather sounds like you had some sort of short circuit somewhere in the loco that has damaged the decoder. It is very import that wires don't get trapped against a metal chassis and especially on NEM-652 sockets that the decoder pins don't go all the way through and touch the chassis.

No, you don't need anything on the PCB.

The NEM651 6-pin one might work, but when using this socket it is usually best to get a socket with wires attached since the PCB serves no real purpose (in practice you don't need the V+ connection).

Yes, but if the points don't switch as well as you require then just add a supplementary switch (microswitch, or latching relay, etc.) that operates with the point to supplement the built in switching. With common return you will generally only have to switch one rail.

In that case link the orange and yellow feeds, and lose the insulated joiners at the boundaries of the yellow section. Blue section feeds will just work then.

A couple of things. Firstly, you should only need to switch one rail to isolate a section using a switch, so you should be able to use both poles of a double pole switch in parallel. You should be able to use common return wiring which will keep the switching much simpler. Secondly I assume from the...

Quite, with everyone hanging on to the deprecated standards that don't actually do the job! I cannot see an 8-way edge connector being very useful any more (the jst-9 was not far from this I guess in practical application), especially when it is bigger than 10mm, the 2x8 pin headers used in PluX are...

Quite agree that the decoders should go in a sensible location, and there should be no difficulty finding space in a tender under an easily removable coal load or in the fuel tank of most diesels, or maybe a removable roof panel, just like the prototype. Edge connectors tend not to be used so much n...

I will concede that the 1.9mm reduced thickness of the Next-18S compared the the PluX-16 near equivalent sound is nearly a scale foot in 'N' so manufacturers might be swayed to use the thinner solution, but I think that on the whole this is easily worked around. Zimo already make a sound decoder (MX...

There is an answer to the decoder space problem, and that is for loco manufacturers to use one of the sockets that has a defined space, i.e. any of the PluX sockets. Any manufacturer can use them, decoders are readily available for scales from 'Z' to '0', a small decoder will plug into a big socket ...

Looks excellent to me.

End2end wrote:...E and D - For indication connected to their own dedicated 12v bus run around underneath the layout...

End2ned

No need for a dedicated power supply bus, use what you already have available on the layout.

Unfortunately apart from the flaw pointed out by Suzie that would cause a dead short across the power rails through the LEDs resulting in there destruction, the reverse voltage rating of LED's is typically a mere 5V meaning in this application the survival of the unlit LED is a matter of chance rat...