Converting T&F to DCC

[Wooglin]

Hi all,

I am new to the forum and was hoping for some help with converting Thomas & Friends HOs to DCC. I run the Bachmann EZ Command DCC controller and I purchased a Thomas & Friends 'Duck' HO locomotive.  While the instructions say I can run DC with the EZ Command DCC controller this did not work. We put Duck on the track and switched to address 10. The train makes a fair amount of electrical noise and turning the accelerator knob turns into electrical whine but no movement. Not sure why this won't work but ultimately would like to convert Duck to DCC.

I've searched forums and posts for days and there are many about converting Thomas HOs to DCC. However, most are quite outdated and I am hoping for more current advice using current decoders. Any advice would be much appreciated. Basically looking for a decoder recommendation and if there is one that includes sound and can fit in the loco, even better.  Thanks all!

[Red Tender 5]

The electrical noise is expected when placing a DC locomotive on a DCC layout regardless of controller. Without going too much into detail, the track is constantly switching polarity from +14v to -14v, and the DC motor will respond accordingly. Even on a DCC system with working DC mode, the constant switching will increase wear on the motor.

I haven't done an install on Duck but I have done an install on a few other models which you can read about here: https://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,38280.0.html

I have looked inside duck and it is pretty straightforward to convert to standard DCC. If you've ever soldered two wires together, it's a 10 minute job. The longest part of any Bachmann DCC install is verifying where the wires go, because I have not found any consistency in wire color choices.

There are two manufacturers of programmable sound decoders: Loksound and Digitrax. Digitrax I think are a beginners' decoders, and I have never used their sound decoders; I use Loksound for all my locomotives instead because I find them to be exceptionally better. There is a price difference between the two though, and Loksound requires a proprietary computer peripheral to program the sounds called the LokProgrammer. I do not know if Digitrax has the requirement for a specific computer peripheral.

Duck is large enough you might be able to use an HO scale decoder, but for your first one I recommend an N scale decoder just in case. For Loksound, the products to get are one of the following:

• 58923   LokSound 5 Nano DCC »Blank decoder«, single wires, gauge: N, TT
• 58820   LokSound 5 micro DCC "blank decoder", 8-pin NEM652, gauge: N, TT, H0
• 58823   LokSound 5 micro DCC "blank decoder", single wires, gauge: N, TT, H0
• 58810   LokSound 5 micro DCC/MM/SX/M4 "blank decoder", 8-pin NEM652, with Speaker 11x15mm, gauge: N, TT, H0
• 58813   LokSound 5 micro DCC/MM/SX/M4 "blank decoder", single wires, with Speaker 11x15mm, gauge: N, TT, H0
• 58816   LokSound 5 micro DCC/MM/SX/M4 "blank decoder", 6-pin NEM651, with Speaker 11x15mm, gauge: N, TT, H0

Digitrax you will have to do your own research for.

For the install, only the cab needs to be removed, which can be done with just two screws. Document which wire goes where on the PCB. The PCB has 4 wires in pairs: R, M+, L, M-. The sides "left" and "right" are relative to the front of the locomotive, i.e. Duck's left and right. To the wire going to the right rail: connect the red decoder wire. To the wire going to the left rail: connect the black wire. To the wire paired with the right rail wire (M+ if it was connected to R, M- if it was connected to L): connect to the orange decoder wire. Connect the other motor wire to the gray decoder wire.

After this the decoder should have the following unused wires: two brown wires, a yellow wire, blue wire, white wire, green wire, purple wire, cyan wire, and pink wire. Brown wires go to the speaker, blue and white go to a headlight, and blue and yellow go to a rear light, should you choose to add lights. The other 4 wires are additional function wires for such things as a firebox light, cab light, any other light sources, or a custom uncoupling mechanism. Any unused wires should be trimmed to fit in the locomotive. Drill holes in the cab floor to let the sound out and attach the speaker.

After you have wired the locomotive, you can download the lokprogrammer software, download a sound file that has chuffing sounds you like, and replace the whistle with one you like. When you are happy with how Duck sounds, you can upload the sound file and enjoy Duck.

[Wooglin]

Thank you for the detailed response! This will be my first attempt at a conversion so this is very helpful. For starters, I picked up a Bachmann EZ Command Two Function Decoder yesterday at the train shop. No sound but I thought I would start simple for my first attempt. I hope this was a decent choice to simply run the train with DCC.  I will look into your recommendations above for future conversions and adding sound. Thanks again!

[Wooglin]

Turns out the Duck we purchased was a lemon (bad gearbox maybe).  Such is our luck purchasing our very first Bachmann Thomas locomotive.  The store exchanged it for a working Duck and we were on our way to our first DCC conversion.

I am very excited to report that after many tries and curses at soldering these tiny wires, we have successfully converted Duck to DCC!!  It was rather surprising to my son and I, what with some very amateur soldering connections, that when we put him on the track it WORKED!!

I was losing patience and running out of wire to work with as the orange connection was proving quite challenging.  When I thought we had ruined a $100 Duck and I wanted to give up I kept at it and finally made the orange wire connection.  Now knowing that we can do this and it actually works (and with my soldering skills tested and improved by experimenting on poor Duck), we are looking forward to the next conversion!

[Wooglin]

Hi all,

Since converting Duck to DCC,  I've also converted Paxton, Bill, Ben, and Edward! It's been fun learning how to do the conversions and each engine is unique in how to take them apart and manage the wires (Bill & Ben are the same of course).

I have not tackled a sound decoder yet and all were done with simple mobile decoders. I don't think any of the above could fit a sound decoder without modifications or using a tender. With the exception of Duck, I had to use the smallest mobile decoders I could find. I hope to fit a sound decoder in Gordon as my next project if he has room.

I'll post some pics and descriptions of the conversions when I get a chance. I looked everywhere for DCC conversion help on specific engines and couldn't find much, so I hope it will be helpful for someone!

[Red Tender 5]

I haven't looked at the inside of Bill & Ben but I'm confident they can fit a speaker and keepalive somewhere. A Loksound 5 Nano is extremely small, after all.

[Wooglin]

I am curious if this would be possible without modifications.  There is some room in their cab but a Loksound 5 Nano is ~20mm long so not super small and I am not sure where the speaker would go.  Its possible there is some room in the boiler but I didn't open that up since the cab was easily accessible and removal of the boiler was a little more involved.  I guess anything is possible but I am not pursuing conversions that require significant modifications.