Converting a Cable Car to DCC

[rbryce1]

Bachmann makes a very small DC Cable Car, Product Code: 60532, and I was wondering if anyone has tried to convert this to DCC yet.  Don't know if the motor is or can be isolated and if there is even a decoder small enough to fit and be somewhat hidden, perhaps one that would fit in N scale.

[richg]

If the below is like yous, hardwire a DZ125 decoder. The decoders come with instructions.

http://www.hoseeker.net/assemblyexplosionbachmann/bachmannsanfrancablecardiagram1990.jpg

Rich

[rbryce1]

By golly laddie, that's the ticket!

Thanks, this is far cheaper than I hoped.

[rbryce1]

Rich,

Well, I looked into the DZ125 decoder and read too many complaints about it to feel comfortable with it.  Many complaints about it living far too short a lifespan and having problems.  Not saying they all do have problems, but I am not real comfortable with the feedback.   I was really surprized at the size of some of these decoders.

I also found that TCS makes a decoder, the TCS Z2 which will also accomodate N scale and small HO scale.  It has a continuous rating of 1.0 amp and a peak of 2.0 amps, and is only 3/8" x 1/4" x 1/8" in size.

I have used their decoders in the past and like them, and their no questions asked complete 1 yr warranty even if you screw it up is pretty attractive.

So I ordered one today.  Again, thanks for the info you provided, especially the blow up detail of the car.  Really helped.

[Ken G Price]

Rich,

Well, I looked into the DZ125 decoder and read too many complaints about it to feel comfortable with it.  Many complaints about it living far too short a lifespan and having problems.  Not saying they all do have problems, but I am not real comfortable with the feedback.

I have also used DZ125 decoders and found that they are not as good as the other Digitrax decoders. To many glitches in trying to set CV's. Just to weird. 
I plan replacing the ones I do now use when money is available.

[richg]

I have no problem with my DZ125 and have not read of any issues but I will say, TCS a very good decoder and quite small also. Many seem to like the TCS decoders.

Rich

[Ken G Price]

Rich, I was also thinking of the TCS decoders. If I was doing HO I would get one of those SF Style Cable Cars in a minute.

[rbryce1]

Sort of an update, as I am not finished yet.  I disassembled the cable car with no difficulty, in fact after removing the powered truck from the cable car and removing the 4 screws which hold the top cap in place, the entire truck fell apart in my hand!

It was easy enough to see how it reassembled though.

The wheels are metal with a plastic gear in the center of the axle, which isolates the left and right wheels from each other.

A spring clip contacts the inner side of the wheel to pick up power.  Each side of the truck is metal and isolated from each other, and the spring clips in contact with the wheels fasten to the metal truck.

Another pair of metal spring clips fasten to the metal trucks, and the motor actually rests on these spring clips, and contact the electrical terminals on the motor.

To isolate and wire the motor, I had to solder the grey and orange wires from the decoder to the two metal pickups on the motor.  Sounds easy, but these tabs only about 1/8" to 3/16" in size and are also the motor brush holders as well.  They are also in direct contact with the plastic motor frame.  If you apply too much heat, the plastic frame melts.  If you apply too much solder, the solder will wick down into the brush mechanisms and solder them in place, not allowing them to be spring fed against the rotors.  Need to bee real careful.  I didn't feel I had the experience to do this part, so I took it over to H & R Trains in St. Petersburg, which is conveniently only a matter of blocks from my house.  Dave, the repair tech soldered the wires to the motor like he had done it every day (and he probably has!).

Next comes connecting the red and black wires to either the metal truck halves or soldering them to the spring clip between the motor and the truck.  Don't know yet which way will be best, but will look at that this evening.

Last, the motor still needs to rest on the spring clips for positioning and alignment and also needs to be isolated from the two spring clips to prevent track power from directly contacting the motor.  I intend to do this with shrink tubing over the metal clip, so the motor will actually ride on the shrink tubing, not the metal clip.

Put it back together, paint the exposed wires black to match the interior and tape the decoder to the floor, put it on the track and fire it up.  If it goes as planned, it will then be a DCC San Fransisco Cable Car with practically no exposed components.  Hopefully it will go as planned, but we shall see.

More after it either turns or burns! 

[rbryce1]

Well, it turned without burning!

Successfully soldered the red and black track power wires to the underside of the motor support spring clips last night and was able to reassemble the entire motor truck with all the wires in place and no interference problems.

I removed the motor from the truck and placed the truck on the track and powered the rails with DCC, and the motor performed great with really nice speed control in both directions.

Only one more thing I need to do is put the shrink tubing on the motor support clips to electrically isolate the motor from the clips, reinstall the motor and it's finished.

[Ken G Price]

Photos? Video?

[rbryce1]

Photos? Video?

I can do that! ... I don't even need a reason!   

[rbryce1]

Bad news today!

Day before yesterday I ran the chassis and it responded fine.  Last night I got the cable car all reassembled and went to test it.  Could not get it to move.  Turns out I can not get any power on any of the tracks at all.  My brand new (6 weeks old) Dynamis LED's just continuously blink at me, and the manual says the remote is not communicating with the Command Unit.  Tried everything including a master reset with out any luck.  This morning I took everything over to H & R Trains (Bachmann dealer located right down the road from my house!) and we substituted each piece of my system out for one of theirs one at a time and we determined I have a defective Command module.  Receiver, throttle and power supply are all working fine on their Command module but neither my equipment or theirs will get my Command module to respond to either of our throttles.  Guess I need to contact Bachmann Monday morning and see what I need to do to get a warranty repair or changeout.

At any rate, looks like video will need to wait until that happens.

Hope this is just an isolated case.  6 weeks doesn't seem like a very long half life for a Command module!

[rbryce1]

I contacted Bachmann this morning and they want the uniit back.  Looks like a few weeks of down time.

[rbryce1]

I contacted Bachmann this morning and they want the uniit back.  Looks like a few weeks of down time.

Well, Bachmann received my Dynamis and agreed it was bad.  They are sending me a complete brand new unit under the warranty, which was shipped on Tuesday, I believe.  Once it gets here, I can finally test the cable car conversion.   

[Doneldon]

Well, Bachmann received my Dynamis and agreed it was bad.  They are sending me a complete brand new unit under the warranty, which was shipped on Tuesday, I believe.

rb-

Why did they ship you a new warranty?

                                                   -- D