Japanese HO DCC stuff

[VR_Densha_Otaku]

Hey Guys VR otaku here,

 

I have several questions in regards to DCC and HO scale model trains from japan

I have DCC in HO scale, and I was wondering what do brands do with DCC, I know (from Personal Experince) that Kato mainly use 8 pin sockets and Tomix requires hard wiring,

 

what about Tenshodo? are they 8/next18/21 pin DCC decoders or require hard wiring?

[VR_Densha_Otaku]

Also if someone knows a good speaker for a Kato EF58 class, I'd be thankful to know what it is as I really want to get my Kato EF58 sound fitted

[VR_Densha_Otaku]

didn't relise there was a DCC section whoops 😅. admin, feel free to delete 

[cteno4]

Actually this may be a better place for this general question of HO and dcc. The dcc forum is focused mostly on the specifics of installations, decoders and such. We can move it later if mods think it would live better in dcc. One of the problems with forums is that it’s hard to decided sometimes like this where something should live or get the right eyeballs for answers.

 

jeff

[Kamome]

Hi @VR_Densha_Otaku

 

I have a few locomotives, EMUs, DMUs in HO

 

Kato

Pretty much most of the newer released locomotives are 8 pin but this wasn’t the case some years ago. If you pick up used, older locomotives, decoder sockets were not added so would need to be hard wired. Features wise, the Kato locomotives with decoder sockets are only fitted with headlights. Tail lights would need to be added with some modification.

Newer released products, EF510, EF81 and the recent 165 EMU release have independent truck mounted motors so again dcc would have to be hardwired and feed 2 separate motors. The 2 locos have red leds for shunting/tail lights but the light board would need some modification for DCC as far as I know.

 

DMUs such as the Kiha 80 series and Kiha 58 have 8 pin sockets inside the interior of the motor car so the decoder would not be hidden. Cab ends, IIRC, would need the head/tail lighting hard wired.

 

Tomix don’t include any DCC options so all need to be hard-wired. Again most locos other than banking locos, don’t have tail lights so would need to be modified.

 

Zoukei Mura are relatively “modern” by Japanese standards having a 21 pin decoder socket and room for a speaker. I only have their DD54. Feature wise these have head/tail lights and also cab lights each end. 

 

Tenshodo, again only having a 9600 and one of their converted plastic display models. The 9600 has an 8 pin decoder socket in the tender while the plastic models use low cost motor truck conversion kits which would need hardwiring and lighting added.

 

KMT (Kumata) sell ESU sound decoders for various Japanese locomotives if you wanted to go down the sound route. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Kamome

[Beaver]

Tenshodo have their own 'Quantum' digital control and sound system which is not compatible with DCC. Some of their models come pre-fitted with it.

 

https://1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=117&cat=&target=Series&sortid=6&searchkey=Quantum

 

However it looks like the 'correspondence modules' use the same 8-pin socket fittings as DCC decoders so it should be possible to fit a decoder in the same place.

[marknewton]

Dafydd, I have a number of Tenshodo steam locos in 1/80 scale - two D51s, two 9600s and a C61. They are definitely DCC compatible. I run them on my club layout which uses a NCE DCC system.

 

 

I also have a NCE system at home - I was running one of the D51s with it this afternoon. This video is from a previous running session on the "Kitchenbenchbahn":

 

 

Also worth a mention is that most Tramway model locos have 8-pin receptacles.
 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited May 4, 2023 by marknewton

[shadowtiger25]

On 4/18/2023 at 4:47 AM, Beaver said:

Tenshodo have their own 'Quantum' digital control and sound system which is not compatible with DCC. Some of their models come pre-fitted with it.

 

https://1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=117&cat=&target=Series&sortid=6&searchkey=Quantum

 

However it looks like the 'correspondence modules' use the same 8-pin socket fittings as DCC decoders so it should be possible to fit a decoder in the same place.

The quantum sound actually is a DCC decoder, they are old QSI decoders (even though QSI shut down in 07).

I have 3 C62s and 1 D51 that are tenshodo quantums and I regularly run them on digitrax DCC at the club, and my c62-2 has sevral hundred running hours on DCC systems.

They are one of those kinds of decoders that can run on DC and I believe that's what the Quantum Engineer does.

[shadowtiger25]

Though one thing to note about the Tenshodo QSIs is that the wiring is very confusing inside.

My C62-2 has a broken wire on the JST plug that connects the tender to the loco and while tracing wires I realized its a spaghetti mess inside.

I'm hoping to upgrade those QSI locos to ESU eventually