I have just bought a bachmann diesel 108 DMU with lighting oooh! lovely, but its supposed to be dcc ready. But to get at the dcc plug of course you need to remove the body of both the drive car and the dummy car. Even reading the instructions it ain't easy to see what you need to do 'just remove screws as shown' it says Hmm why don't they design a better way of fitting decoder chips?
So called DCC ready
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If you think that was fun try doing the same thing with an Athearn Challenger 4-6-6-4. The instructions say to access the factory fitted decoder remove the tender
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It took me 2 and half hours and many
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words, probably because I'm a blunt and crude expat colonal, to figure out how they did it. It's easier to build a brass kit.
Ozzie21
Ozzie21
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QUOTE Yep, why can't they put a DCC decoder onto a SD or XD card and plug it in to a slot from underneath.
Most of us use tiny Digital cameras or phones with more complicated circuitry than these trains with DCC, why can't they adopt a more user friendly technology.
I don't think that we would be able to afford the prices that they would want for the models you have to remember that the Qtys that model railway models are produced are tiny compared to tv's, mobile phones & satnav's so we are getting the cheapest option now the only reason that Bachman can DCC with sound in such small numbers are that they know will all sell.
Pete
Most of us use tiny Digital cameras or phones with more complicated circuitry than these trains with DCC, why can't they adopt a more user friendly technology.
I don't think that we would be able to afford the prices that they would want for the models you have to remember that the Qtys that model railway models are produced are tiny compared to tv's, mobile phones & satnav's so we are getting the cheapest option now the only reason that Bachman can DCC with sound in such small numbers are that they know will all sell.
Pete
QUOTE (Doug @ 13 Feb 2007, 21:29) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yep, why can't they put a DCC decoder onto a SD or XD card and plug it in to a slot from underneath.
Most of us use tiny Digital cameras or phones with more complicated circuitry than these trains with DCC, why can't they adopt a more user friendly technology.
A decoder is a lot more complex than an SD card in terms of the number and type of components used.
Your business model would need to assume sales of millions of decoders to justify the set up costs. Given the rate of change of decoder technology and the fact that the decoder market is fragmented across many manufacturers, I doubt you'll find any manufacturer willing to take the risk. It's the same reason that no one has come up with a custom DCC decoder chip.
Andrew
Most of us use tiny Digital cameras or phones with more complicated circuitry than these trains with DCC, why can't they adopt a more user friendly technology.
A decoder is a lot more complex than an SD card in terms of the number and type of components used.
Your business model would need to assume sales of millions of decoders to justify the set up costs. Given the rate of change of decoder technology and the fact that the decoder market is fragmented across many manufacturers, I doubt you'll find any manufacturer willing to take the risk. It's the same reason that no one has come up with a custom DCC decoder chip.
Andrew
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