I have four of these. Every single one I've replaced cracked gears, milled down the frames by over a 1/4", eliminated the frame power pick up and hard wired track power to both trucks, installed sm leds for lights, ground lights, number boards, esu decoders with power packs and scale sound speakers. 20 years old and these protos still look good, and run better then some of the newer stuff. Well worth the extra effort IMHO. Never done a decoder buddy though, just hard wired everything. I have another engine I'm getting ready to start, I'm going to try the DB for it and see how it goes. Love your tutorials. 👍
A great how-to. I wish you would edit out the superfluous stuff such all of the repetitive actions where you change your mind so much. Still, very informative but tedious.
Liked watching your video. Learned a lot. Just curious though. The decode had two wires attached to it. Where did they go? I have same decoder and can’t decide what to do with them Thanks
I have four of these. Every single one I've replaced cracked gears, milled down the frames by over a 1/4", eliminated the frame power pick up and hard wired track power to both trucks, installed sm leds for lights, ground lights, number boards, esu decoders with power packs and scale sound speakers. 20 years old and these protos still look good, and run better then some of the newer stuff. Well worth the extra effort IMHO. Never done a decoder buddy though, just hard wired everything. I have another engine I'm getting ready to start, I'm going to try the DB for it and see how it goes. Love your tutorials. 👍
Thanks for watching.
A great how-to. I wish you would edit out the superfluous stuff such all of the repetitive actions where you change your mind so much. Still, very informative but tedious.
i actually like the cool blue better than white. looks modern.
It would have been nice if this had been rehearsed before actually recording. Good information, just way to tedious.
you need a bigger tip for better heat transfer.
One big problem cracked wheel gears. Everyone I have had cracked gears
It's a pretty blue light
Yes. Don't use cool white led's.
@@SoloContracting cool means blue :p
Miniatronics "Yelloglo" 3mm LEDs wired with a 470 ohm resistor
I am afraid you completely lost me on the headlight issue ....
Liked watching your video. Learned a lot. Just curious though. The decode had two wires attached to it. Where did they go? I have same decoder and can’t decide what to do with them
Thanks
They are speaker wires. I cut them off of the Decoder, they were not needed.
@@SoloContracting thank you. I could not figure out what to do with them.
Appreciate the info.
Can you explain what a Decoder Buddy does and why you need it?
It is a space saver. There is less wiring involved. That's one of the big pluses. If you have hard wired a decoder you will appreciate the simplicity.
Hello, are you saying that you had to correct soldering pad issues on the ESU decoder to correct the lighting functions? Thanks. Ed
No. The issue was on the Decoder Buddy. The 21 pin connector that the decoder sits on was not completely soldered to the board.