I have a customer who asked me to put DCC in Am. Flyer. I know it's possible but how do I wire it up and can I still make the smoke generator work? HELP! I'm using Digitrax.

-- Kelly Weeks (kcw_ven@msn.com), February 09, 2000

Answers

Kelly,

Sure, how to do it depends on what motor is being used. These will fall in to two general types, Universal and Split Phase. With AM the normal is the Universal.

The way to tell the two apart is simple, the field coil on a Universal will only have two leads. On the Split Phase there will be three leads, forward, reverse, and center tap.

With the split phase, easy to use one of the AC drive Digitrax decoders, a DH140, DG380L or DG580L, just wire as directed by the manual. Then set CV61 to equal 04 for AC drive.

With the Universal type motors, all you need is to add a diode bridge large enough to handle the motor current. Wire the right rail motor brush as normal to the decoders Orange wire. The decoders Gray wire to an AC terminal on the diode bridge, the other AC terminal to the motors other brush terminal. Wire the + of the diode briges to one side of the motor coil, and the - to the other side of the coil. You can now use any decoder you like that will handle the motors current.

As far as smoke unit, pending current draw of smoke unit, and current limit of decoder used, function output, either wire direct, or if current draw exceeds that of decoder function output, use via small relay.

Don

Remember Always Have Fun and Enjoy!, Don Crano Akron, Oh NMRA #096211 mailto:donc@sssnet.com Visit Model Railroading with DCC at: http://pages.sssnet.com/donc/

-- Don Crano (donc@sssnet.com), February 09, 2000.