Tomix Shinkansen 0 DCC?

[mr.dunkelwald]

Hey there,

 

i'm currently trying to install DCC into a Tomix Shinkansen 0. Started with it half a year ago, got frustrated since i got a short-circuit assembling it, put it away.

Anyone know what could be the cause of this short-circuit? I only get it when i assemble it (putting the plate with the pick-ups onto the chassis, otherwise it works fine.

So i suggest that the solder points on the springs are too long and merge. Or haven't i insulated enough of the pick-up strips?

 

Another question: how do i solder anything to the silver metal pick-up strips in the end cars? They're a different material and hard to solder to.

 

Cheers, Moritz

 

 

[chadbag]

If you want to put DCC decoder in your end cars you either need to solder to the metal pickup strips (yes they are hard -- I had success using liquid flux -- you can read it in the Tomix 500 DCC thread) or to the springs below them.  I've done both.  Directly to the strips is better as you don't chance messing up your springs.

[jozasa]

9 hours ago, mr.dunkelwald said:

Another question: how do i solder anything to the silver metal pick-up strips in the end cars? They're a different material and hard to solder to.



I have had success sticking copper self-adhesive tape to the strips, and then soldering to the copper

Edited December 6, 2019 by jozasa

[chadbag]

19 hours ago, chadbag said:

If you want to put DCC decoder in your end cars you either need to solder to the metal pickup strips (yes they are hard -- I had success using liquid flux -- you can read it in the Tomix 500 DCC thread) or to the springs below them.  I've done both.  Directly to the strips is better as you don't chance messing up your springs.

 

Using a liquid flux called "Superior #30" from H&N electronics has made it much easier to solder to that super slick steel type strip Tomix uses.

[jozasa]

On 12/5/2019 at 4:22 PM, mr.dunkelwald said:

 

i'm currently trying to install DCC into a Tomix Shinkansen 0. Started with it half a year ago, got frustrated since i got a short-circuit assembling it, put it away.

Anyone know what could be the cause of this short-circuit? I only get it when i assemble it (putting the plate with the pick-ups onto the chassis, otherwise it works fine.

So I suggest that the solder points on the springs are too long and merge. Or haven't i insulated enough of the pick-up strips?

 

 

I'm currently installing DCC in my Tomix Shinkansen 800 Waku-Waku, which seems to be very similar to yours

I also had a strange short-circuit after putting the plate back, but it was because I forgot to reinstall the isolation sheet, as marked with an arrow in attached pic

Then the pickup strips were touching the chassis and making the short circuit

Maybe your problem was the same?

 

Make sure as well that the cables soldered to the motor springs don't touch each other of course, as you say. I did find it very delicate too...

 

 

[jozasa]

On 12/5/2019 at 4:22 PM, mr.dunkelwald said:

 

 

Another question: how do i solder anything to the silver metal pick-up strips in the end cars? They're a different material and hard to solder to.

 

 

If you want to avoid soldering and finding the right flux to work with those metal strips:

And apart from the adhesive copper tape that you can wrap around the metal strips (and then solder to the copper tape) as I mentioned in a previous post

 

I found another good solution, that can be called "the Kato way". I inserted a brass strip of 5mm wide and 0,2mm thickness on top of the metal strips as shown in attached pictures. They fit very solid. This is more or less how the Kato lighting strips are mounted. And then you solder the decoder pickups to the brass.

 

It works beautifully!

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by jozasa