Converting the Kato Snow plow

[gavino200]

I had a little time this evening, so I thought I'd put a function decoder in my Kato Snow plow. I actually thought that would be easy - These are large compared to the DD16 and they don't have motors. I was expecting a lot of extra space. Turns out it's quite difficult to take apart until you work out how to do it properly. So, I didn't install a decoder. I was happy just to get them back together. This is more like a reconnaissance. I'll go back again with a plan and a very small function decoder. 

 

 

When you take the shell off you see this combo grey/green piece on the chassis. I learned the hard way that the key to this car is to take the gray part off first while leaving the green part in place. That's not so easy, They're very well snapped together and they want to come off as a unit. If you take them off together then a very complicated array of copper strips all jump out of place and you have no idea what went where. 

 

 

Circled here is the only space available in the whole plowcar for a decoder.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a picture of the upper side of the light board. I forgot to take a picture of the lower side. There's a second LED on the bottom side. I did discover by accident that if you put the board back in wring side up, then only the red lights light up in DCC. That's at least a slight improvement. Front plow now has both lights. Back plow is just red. 

 

Edited January 22, 2019 by gavino200

[katoftw]

Drill a hole in the grey piece and feed the wiring throught the hole. Plenty of space between grey piece and the body shell.

[gavino200]

5 minutes ago, katoftw said:

Drill a hole in the grey piece and feed the wiring throught the hole. Plenty of space between grey piece and the body shell.

 

Oh, nice! Thanks kato! How about the light board? Did you have to alter it much? Anything counter-intuitive? 

 

Edit: Also, what decoder did you use? 

 

Edit: The gray piece seems to contain a weight. Did you have to drill through the weight or just the plastic?

Edited August 1, 2018 by gavino200

[katoftw]

Sorry was just a suggestion looking at your pics. I havent done it myself.

[gavino200]

1 minute ago, katoftw said:

Sorry was just a suggestion looking at your pics. I havent done it myself.

 

Ok, thanks. It's a great suggestion. I'll check it out. 

[chadbag]

You have a digitrax decoder to put in, right?  If you need a thinner one D&H makes the FH05B which is 13.7 x 7.8 x 1.5 mm only

 

[Kiha66]

Actually that light board is designed to attach to a kato fl12 decoder in passenger cars, you could possibly install one between the board and the power pickups if there is enough give.  I'll try with my pair tomorrow to see if it fits.

[gavino200]

12 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

Actually that light board is designed to attach to a kato fl12 decoder in passenger cars, you could possibly install one between the board and the power pickups if there is enough give.  I'll try with my pair tomorrow to see if it fits.

 

 

Here's a picture from the internet showing the underside of the light board. It looks like it matches the FL-12 pads exactly. I feel relatively certain that you're right about this.

 

http://hokutosei2014.shop-pro.jp/?pid=87803296

Edited August 1, 2018 by gavino200

[Kiha66]

Good news!  Kato actually made them dcc ready, and it doesn't even require complete disassembly!   Just remove the very top grey piece, then slide in the fl12.  Remember to make sure that the decoders face opposite directions in each car.

[Kiha66]

First remove the shell and top grey piece. 

[Kiha66]

Then slide in the decoder, easy as that! 

[Kiha66]

Make sure that the decoder is all the way inserted, only the tip of the decoder should be showing (all four square contacts on the top should be covered).  Wish I had realized this before I completely dissambeled the first one.

[gavino200]

You rock, kiha!!!

[gavino200]

Just now, Kiha66 said:

Make sure that the decoder is all the way inserted, only the tip of the decoder should be showing (all four square contacts on the top should be covered).  Wish I had realized this before I completely dissambeled the first one.

 

Yeah, me too!

[Kiha66]

 I wish kato would let people know about when they do this, I mean they've already gone to the trouble of designing it into the train, why keep it a secret? 

[gavino200]

2 minutes ago, Kiha66 said:

 I wish kato would let people know about when they do this, I mean they've already gone to the trouble of designing it into the train, why keep it a secret? 

 

That's a good question. I wonder if you just called the Kato Hobby Center, speaking perfect Japanese if they'd be able to tell you. 

[chadbag]

Dang you guys, now I need to get the KATO snowplow set...

[gavino200]

I still haven't been able to get this to work. I put an FL12 in both of them and they both blew. Smoke etc. I wasn't able to see anything that didn't look right. So it was a mystery. I'm going to have another try soon. If I can't find a 'reason' for the problem I'll isolate and hardwire. 

[Kiha66]

Thats not good.  I'll try to take a look at mine and see if I can see anything that could cause it.

[gavino200]

It's not such a big deal. The "smoke" was really that tiny little bad smelling "decoder burning" fart that the FL12 gives out if you fry it. Nothing in the snow plows is damaged. I wasn't expecting any difficulty - it's "drop in" after all. So after a bit of fiddling I just put then aside, to receive more time and attention at a later stage. 

 

Likely something got disturbed when I completely dismantlement them before. Likely I made the same error reassembling both pieces. So this will be my next "project". I'll take them apart slowly and carefully and go 'full-logic' on them, until the problem is solved. 

 

Hold off on looking at your for now. I may ask you for input later if I can't work it out. I have to go out of town this weekend, but plan on doing it the following weekend. I might try to make an FL12 "test rig" as I have a few lying around that are of uncertain functionality.

[chadbag]

I've a few blown FL12 from other models.  If the pickup strips get dislodged at all when inserting they seem to easily short.   Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[gavino200]

4 hours ago, chadbag said:

I've a few blown FL12 from other models.  If the pickup strips get dislodged at all when inserting they seem to easily short.   Sorry I can't be more helpful.

 

I agree Chad. That's probably what's going on here. When the unit was completely disassembled it was very difficult to get all the copper strip parts back in place. There's a good chance I made an error with their placement. A second possibility is that I may have over-zealous in giving the FL12 a "good push" into place. We'll see what the autopsy shows.

[gavino200]

I'm going to try to solve this puzzle this weekend. I took both units apart. I have no faith that either were reassembled properly, so keeping them intact had no purpose.

 

So here are the pieces below. It's a simple but baffling task. 

 

The variables: Three copper pieces, to possible light board positions.and two possible decoder positions.

 

Anyone able to remember anything about their reassembly sequence?

 

I think the short flat copper pieces go in first to the lowest position (but I'm far from sure)

Then the Irregular long pieces to the middle position.

Then the short springy pieces. Open part upward?

 

Next regarding the decoder. The two pick up pads must face downward to the copper strips.

The four LED leads must face upward to touch the light board.

 

Then, regarding the light board. The position with separation between proximal and distal pads must contact the LED pads of the decoder.

 

Anyone see anything wrong here?

 

[Kiha66]

I wonder if the light boards were installed upside down?  You'll notice one side has the square contacts, thats the side that should touch the decoder.  The other side has traces running along it which will possibly short out the decoder.  The stack should go long brass, short brass, spring brass, decoder then lightboard.  Thats all that I can think of at least!

[gavino200]

I tried this multiple times with no success, until finally I decided to try it without the short, flat, thick, copper strips. Surprisingly it worked. I have no idea why, but since it's functioning both electrically and mechanically I'm not going to sweat it. 

 

I did use a tiny bit of adhesive putty to keep the long strips in place. Otherwise they're extremely annoying. And I also, soldered the decoder to the light board. Both of these made it much easier to reassemble without everything falling out of place.