DE-INSTALL DCC DECODER

[dutch65]

Hi,
I have 3 DCC On Board diesel engines and are running under regular DC. I am not to happy with the way these engines perform and was thinking of de-installing the decoder and turn them into regular DC engines.
The question is has anybody done this and are there any instructions from Bachman available for this.
Would appreciate any info that anybody can give me!
Regards
dutch

[jonathan]

Dutch,

My experience (so far) has been that Bachmann equipment, with decoders, also come with jumber plugs, so you can easily remove the decoder, plug in the jumper plugs, and and run the locos in DC with no loss in performance.  Mine came with instructions how to do this.

If yours came with out the instructions, check the "product reference" section of this website.  I'll bet you'll find some words on the subject.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Jonathan

[ABC]

Hi,
I have 3 DCC On Board diesel engines and are running under regular DC. I am not to happy with the way these engines perform and was thinking of de-installing the decoder and turn them into regular DC engines.

If your diesels are Bachmann Spectrum or otherwise have an 8 pin socket than it will be no trouble at all as Jonathan said. And Bachamnn includes instructions to remove the decoders from Spectrum engines, but there are no instructions for the standard line DCC engines. But if you have a standard Bachmann DCC engine you would need to rewire it for DC control, which would be a pain and is not really worth it and would require more work if you changed your mind and decided you wanted to run them with DCC.
The short answer is this...
If your loco came in a black Spectrum box than go ahead.
If your loco came in a blue box with a clear front that just says DCC on it then I would advise that you leave them AS IS.

[Jim Banner]

I am assuming your decoders are NOT plugged in.  Otherwise, Jonathan has already answered your question.

If you regularly install your own decoders, then converting a locomotive from DCC to dc is pretty straight forward.  But if decoder installation is a mystery to you and/or you lack some of the skills (soldering small connections for example) then you are best off taking ABC's advice.

All that is normally required is to remove the two motor wires from the decoder and reconnect them to the wires coming from the wheels.  You can leave the decoder, lights, and all the lighting connections in place.  Just remember to make notes so you know how to reconvert to DCC in the future.  Done correctly, this will not harm your decoder.  If these instructions are confusing, then you are probably not ready to do this work yourself.  (Please don't take that as a put down - I have no idea of your abilities but don't want you getting in over your head.)

Jim 

[ABC]

The 4-8-2 Berkshire in the Blue Standard box comes with plugs to remove the decoder. Also note the Black box has been replaced by the Red box for Spectrum or Blue box For Sound. Black Box being phased out.

The 4-8-2 Berk isn't a diesel the last time I checked, this is completely irrelevant. Furthermore, all the diesels coming in the Blue boxes labeled DCC On Board, do not have the plugs to remove the decoder. And I do realize that they have new boxes, but its not possible to have a blue box for sound because Bachmann doesn't make any Diesels with sound on board, and the Red Boxes still say spectrum on them if I recall correctly.

[Pacific Northern]

The 4-8-2 Berkshire in the Blue Standard box comes with plugs to remove the decoder. Also note the Black box has been replaced by the Red box for Spectrum or Blue box For Sound. Black Box being phased out.

The 4-8-2 Berk isn't a diesel the last time I checked, this is completely irrelevant. Furthermore, all the diesels coming in the Blue boxes labeled DCC On Board, do not have the plugs to remove the decoder. And I do realize that they have new boxes, but its not possible to have a blue box for sound because Bachmann doesn't make any Diesels with sound on board, and the Red Boxes still say spectrum on them if I recall correctly.

My mistake, did not realize you were talking only diesels., deleted offending post.

[ABC]

My mistake, did not realize you were talking only diesels., deleted offending post.

That's quite alright, although your statement was true in that the 4-8-2 comes with plugs, but so does the 4-8-4, and any other steam loco that comes in that type of box. There was no need to delete your post, the information although not dealing with the question at hand, could potentially assist someone else.

[macbmac1]

Hello:
I have a friend that has a couple of the DCC OnBoard FTA locomotives, which seem to run pretty rough on DC.  I found that these locos do not have flywheels, which help to smooth things out.  What I did for him was to program them on DCC-adjusting CV's 3 and 4, or acceleration and deceleration-this seemed to help smooth things out a little bit, as they do seem to operate a little smoother.  If you have access to someone with a DCC system, you might give this a try.
Hope this might help.