fitting DCC to Porter saddletank

[yeorail]

Has anyone experience in fitting a chip to the old 1997 Porter (mine is an excellent runner )   and if so which chip to use?i The chip makers appear to ignore both Porter models
Thanks Richard

[Kevin Strong]

The Porter of that vintage wouldn't have any special accommodation for a DCC decoder, so whichever decoder you choose will have to be wired in; isolate the track pick-ups, motor pick-ups, etc, and wire them directly to the decoder.

As to which decoder to use, that door's wide open. I'll presume you want sound, motor, and lights. How much ya wanna spend?

Soundtraxx just introduced a 4-amp "Econami" decoder, and TCS will have their large scale "WowSound" decoder on the market next month (September). There's also QSI's "Titan," and those from ESU, Zimo, Massoth, etc.

The Porter is a small locomotive, and if you're not going to be pulling heavy trains behind it, you may even be able to get away with the smaller 1-amp capacity decoders from the various manufacturers. That'll save you maybe half to a third compared to the cost of the higher-capacity decoders.

I've used the QSI decoder in a few of my locos, and I like it. Since the Econami and WowSound decoders are just coming on the market, I haven't had a chance to play with them personally. Response on the internet to them seems to be quite favorable with regard to sound quality and performance. I've got some projects coming up for which I will likely avail myself of these new boards. Nothing against QSI, but I like to try different manufacturers.

Later,

K

[yeorail]

Thanks for that I too thought that a smaller chip would do the job which reduces the price from around £50 to £38 I'm not a fan of sound so it'll be easier to fit something like the MX632decoder