[duffer]

Hi , I have recently purchased a Sonic models 56XX in N gauge and was surprised to see that it required a right angled decoder , my system makes use of Railcom so I needed a decoder that had Railcom and the only one I could find that fitted the bill was the ESU Lokpilot Micro 5 , on receiving the decoder I was again surprised to find that it has 5 wires attached to it which I guess are for functions ? , I have no need of any functions on this Loco so can I safely snip of these wires as close to the circuit board as possible ?.

 

[duffer]

Thanks 34C , the only thing future wise that I can think of would be the fitting of a stay alive and that would be only if the Loco needs one for uninterrupted running , do any of these wires need to remain for that ? .

 

[duffer]

I feel that I should warn anyone who has one of these models that the right angled ESU Switchpilot 5 micro is not suiable as the pinouts are reversed to those on the Locos 6 pin socket , i've ordered a non right angled one as I think it will fit and i'll let you all know if it does .

 

[duffer]

Good points , the layout is not ready yet to go fully live as there is a whole heap of Traincontroller configurations to do so it was just a passing thought really as i'm hoping that in operations i'll have no probs .

 

[duffer]

Thanks for that Nigel very nicely explained , it's virtually impossible to measure from the 56xx's decoder socket to the inside face of the cabs domed roof but I think it's most likely that a micro 5 non angled will fit , I should receive it on Monday 9th and i'll let people know by updating this thread .

 

[duffer]

I can now advise as the suitability of an ESU Lockpilot 5 Micro non angled decoder for the N gauge Sonic models 56 XX as I received it this morning and the model is now using it successfully, be advised though that it is a very close thing in that with the bodyshell back on it just touches the inside of the domed roof of the cab at the top , I have no need of the function wires so they were snipped off but they may prevent the cab sitting properly if you were to leave them on .