The new n scale tenders What connector to use?

[jimwindley]

Hi
I've recently acquired some of the new Bachmann tenders.  I want to use them to put DCC in some old steamers.  I've figured out most of my problems,  one by one, but!!!

I want to buy some of the female connectors that attach to the 6 pin male connector attached to the board in the tender.  I know that I can buy the connectors from bachmann parts but at $10 each, that's more than I want to pay.  I'm sure that any of the big electronic outfits will have them, but I don't even know what to call them.

Anyone have a hint or two for me?

Thanks in advance  Jim

[ABC]

I checked six different online retailers and none of them have it. Personally I don't think that it is a part that anyone besides Bachmann would stock because not very many people would want to buy them.

[jimwindley]

Hi
The 6 pin connector that is soldered to the board is a standard electronic part.  I'm sure that an electric supplier will have the appropriate matching part.  I just don't have any idea how to find it.
Jim

[skipgear]

Unfortunately, it is not a standard part. I found them at Allied a while back and it would cost me $50 to order them. They wouldn't sell just one, you had to buy 10 of them at $5 each. It is an odd pin spacing and is only used for connecting two circuit boards together, not for a wiring harness normally.

The Bachmann parts list is about the best answer right now. I wish they would have included a female with the tenders for all the kitbashers out there.

[jimwindley]

AHA!!!
Do you have the allied number?  At $5 that is half of the bachmann cost.  Maybe if a batch of us ordered from allied the cost per unit would go down.
Jim

[jimwindley]

Hi again
A reply to this letter on another group tells me that it is a standard NMRA connector, REM 651.  These are in common use in europe.  You can get them in the US from Litchfield station.  See the link http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/home.php?cat=256
They have male, female and wired and  a 50 pin, male or female bar that can be cut down.  These are all cheaper than the Bachmann price.
I think this is the solution to my final problem.
Well, it's the final problem that I'm aware of.  SIGH!!!
Thanks for the help
Jim

[skipgear]

Please let us know if those plugs work. I unfortunately don't think those are right but will be very happy if they are.

I had forgotten that I had saved the link for the place I had found them before....

http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=851-93-050-10-001000virtualkey57510000virtualkey575-501101

It sounds like the 50 pin is how they are buying them and cutting them down.

[jimwindley]

Skipgear
I'm sure that these are the ones.  They are the ones that litchfield station sells and they are the ones recommended to me by a fellow in the UK.

I'm planning on ordering a few female and one male.

I have the wires to colour code the harness when I build them.
Litchfield station has the harnesses made up, according to the colour code of the NMRA.  Bachmann seems to use a different orientation for their  harnesses.  So if you buy one from litchfield be careful about the connections.

I used to teach at the community college here, and I went in yesterday and one of the lab techs in electronics measured one for me and came up with the .050" pitch.  This confirmed what I'd heard.

The Allied electronic catalog doesn't have them but the Digi Key catalog has them.  They are from the same manufacturer that your link sent me to.

So, my next step is to order these things and make up a harness.  I'm waiting for the replacement motor, ( it's in the mail), for minitrix pacific and then the real work begins.

I'll be sure to post my results.

Jim

[jimwindley]

Well gang
I got the sockets from Litchfield station today, and they don't fit well.  They have the right pitch but they don't connect well.  I'm supremely dissapointed.  They will do another job that I've wanted to do but not this one.  So, back to the drawing board.
Jim

[jimwindley]

Hi again
I've found another source, (I hope).  This one has the bayonet mount of the same dimensions as the board.  I've ordered some.  These are $0.94 each. I should have them in a few days.  I'll let you know.  SIGH!!!
Jim

[jimwindley]

Hi once again

Well, the new plugs came in the mail and they didn't work either.

However, since I am planning on removing the capacitors and the coils, (noise suppressors), from the board, I am going to remove the male plug from the board as well.  The noise suppressors are required, I believe, in Europe, but not in North America.  They also interfere with DCC.

I have a male plug with the correct pitch to fit the board and the female socket to fit the new male.   I'm going to press on with that.  That should work out to about $2.50 each board.

I wish that I had thought of that before.

Jim

[skipgear]

Jim,
I found a temporary solution last night. I was digging through some old computer parts and found a hard drive with an SCSI cable on it. The pin spacing matched so I got out the dremel and hacked out a 6x1 plug from the 30?x2 plug on the drive. It works good and fits tight. Oddly enough, I wasn't planning to use this on a Bachmann tender but to mate with a NEM plug that I had taken off of a Loksound decoder. I am using it for a tender to loco connector on another project. I decided to try it on a Bachmann tender and it worked. Since it will mate with the Bachmann tender plug, I am going to make my wiring match the bachmann plug from this point forward to make life easier to swap things down the road.

Besides that, I found some connectors on Ebay last night, 50x1 1.27mm spacing, 10 for $7 shipped. I have male and female connectors on the way.

[jimwindley]

skipgear
I have two old computers down stairs.  They are on the way to the scrap heap.  I'll have a look.  That would be much easier then removing the header from the board.  That makes me confident that there is the fitting we're looking for on someones stockroom shelf, waiting to be found.  I'm ever the optimist.
Thanks
Jim