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drM decoders?


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chadbag

I saw on the "what did the postman deliver" someone got a decoder from the drM company.  I had not seen these so investigated and it appears they are out of Taiwan.  Their webpage doesn't give a lot of specs.  I've emailed them about Railcom support (one decoder specifically mentions but the others don't so asked them if their decoders in general supported it or not).

 

Has anyone tried drM?   How do the LKN100 light decoders work?  (these are their FL12 cab light decoder equivalents).  Price is decent and shipping is not bad to the US it seems (when doing a sample cart).

 

Looking for any experiences with them and any comments on them.

 

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@chadbag That was me who posted about their decoder, I've just got for the Kato EH200. The decoder is sitting in the locomotive waiting for some wires to be installed to the secondary circuit board. The dRM is in fact located in Taiwan I ordered my decoder online and it took about a week which was awesome. The fit was great they even have installation photos for the locomotive go figure. As I mentioned the decoder is awaiting some wires then I'll be testing it soon. They are a legit outfit as one of the members may be a dealer for their decoders (I made a thread asking about dRM) . Unfortunately I can't speak to any of their otherr products maybe other have. Below is a picture of a dRM decoder in a EH200. 

20240723_223735.jpg

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chadbag

Yep!!   I saw that and then looked them up and went to their website to try and get more info and see their product line.

 

Besides the EH200 they have some of both types of the normal KATO lightboard replacements and EM13 and FR12 type decoders for those who DCC their Japanese KATO...

 

I'd try some of theie decoders -- especially the FR12-type as I always am needing those sort.  And if they all support RailCom I'd probably try a couple of their other ones.

 

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On 8/2/2024 at 4:22 AM, bc6 said:

@ksxmi Have you emailed them they are pretty responsive to.emailĺ

They told me to look at the pdf, not quite helpful
(edit: After another exchange, they said it's 2, step light. I might give it a try since FL12n is hard to find.)

 

@chadbag i asked them about railcom and the answer is no

Edited by ksxmi
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chadbag
Posted (edited)

I have not received any email in response to my inquiry but just noticed they had the downloads for the spec sheets.  I had not seen those before. 

 

I'm not really caring if their FR12 equivalent has Railcom but am interested in if their EM13 equivalent does, since they mention Railcom in the description of some of their other motor decoders, and these companies tend to use the same core decoder circuitry across their lines if possible (just different form factors).  I looked at the download sheet for their EM13 decoder equivalent, the ND-DE131 Digital decoder, and unfortunately it doesn't mention Railcom.

 

They do mention an HD08100 wired decoder with Railcom but there is no download sheet for that decoder to compare against.

 

too bad.   I'd liked to have found an affordable EM13 decoder with Railcom.  I'll continue using the pCB EM13 adapter boards (from this JNSForum) that I had made and use with D&H decoders or other micro decoders -- I've used a Zimo on one as well...

 

Edited by chadbag
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Hello,

 

Interesting to have an alternative to KATO decoders.... but I don't see the advantage. For a full train you need one motor decoder EM13 and two cab/end car decoders FL12. The cost of KATO's decoder set is 33.96$ (Hobby Search), and the drM's is 36$ (clone decoders). 😒

 

Am I missing something?

 

It's also funny to see that the pack of two FL12 KATO decoders costs 23.23$, but a single one costs 10.19$!

 

Cheers!

Dani

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48 minutes ago, Dani said:

Hello,

 

Interesting to have an alternative to KATO decoders.... but I don't see the advantage. For a full train you need one motor decoder EM13 and two cab/end car decoders FL12. The cost of KATO's decoder set is 33.96$ (Hobby Search), and the drM's is 36$ (clone decoders). 😒

 

Am I missing something?

 

It's also funny to see that the pack of two FL12 KATO decoders costs 23.23$, but a single one costs 10.19$!

 

Cheers!

Dani

 

 

When I go to the drM shop, it shows a price of "$12.0" for the EM13 clone.  I've not tried to order or anything.

 

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3 hours ago, Dani said:

It's also funny to see that the pack of two FL12 KATO decoders costs 23.23$, but a single one costs 10.19$!

You refer to this right? https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10982930

The pack of two is not for two Kato FL12 decoders, it contains two FL12N decoders, it's the new version with automatic dimming.

 

I am also interested in testing various decoders compatible with the Kato EM13. The price is not the only criteria. I am mostly interested in adding a "stay alive"  / "keep alive" capability. I also would like to compare the performance / stability of the BEMF, specifically when running at low speed.

 

Marc

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chrisdavis103

I live in Taiwan (I'm from the US).   I ordered direct and shipped to my home in Taichung (they are also here as I understand).
I set up an EF81 Kato with the https://drm.life/product/nd-n54k0-dcc-decoder/.   I was assisted by Fu Hua (via email) for ordering, payment, etc.
Super helpful and in English in case you are wondering.  My Chinese is pretty minimal, so I opted for English - no worries.

Man I was blown away - the overall performance is stellar - another unit with a similar Digitrax on my layout is choppy, but this setup is smooth as silk - I can set the speed to 1 and it crawls over the whole layout.   Easy to install, no solder.   The speed curve is really nice out of the box.   I am super excited.   The price is right too.

I am replacing as many of my current decoders with these where applicable.

I can post/send a video if anyone wants to see the unit in action.   Maybe a link to Google drive.

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Thanks @chrisdavis103, but the link does not seem to work.Google Drive replies “You need access. Request access, or switch to an account with access.”

Anyway, the performance looks impressive. I will purchase a couple of these decoders.

Marc

 

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I have no problem ordering overseas butg there are some folks that would prefer to not order stuff from other countries.  Hopefully Iron Planet Hobbies can pick up more than the turnout decoders.

 

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ahh.  ok makes sense.   just wanted to make sure folks were aware.   I will say I have had excellent support (via email) from Fu Hua (at DRM) in getting things rolling on some of the installs.   I'll post some of my findings and maybe some helpful hints once I'm all done.

I've complete two installs now - I'm still in awe of the low speed consistency and realism.   So far so good.   The online installs are decent, but there are definitely some things that could be included to make it simpler and more clear as to what needs to be isolated between the board and the various connectors inside the loco.

I have 4 more to go with DRM stuff (an EF64, EF66, and a pair of EH200s).   I have also located a vendor in Japan to get decoders for my unitram PortTram units.   We'll see how that goes next.

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1 hour ago, chrisdavis103 said:

I have also located a vendor in Japan to get decoders for my unitram PortTram units.   We'll see how that goes next.

 

Which vendor is that?

 

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Nagasue System Design Office in Japan.   I ordered a couple of their decoders.   around $40 USD total including shipping.
 

1.0 X Order No. #2024102263      ¥5,400 JPY
 

1. DE28TLRK_r2 (@\2200) * 2 = \4400- ---------------------------------------------------------- = subtotal \4400-
+ shipping \1000- ---------------------------------------------------------- total \5400-yen

 

website - https://www.snjpn.com/ngdcc/indexj.htm

One other quick note - their stuff looks overly complex from a design standpoint - the boards have a lot of components and based on my experience with SMT and board layout, not sure why they are like that given the functions they perform, but i haven't seen the schematics to make a real judgment.  
See what you think if you go check out their website.   Looks like a pretty small operation, but you never know with Japanese stuff.


 

Edited by chrisdavis103
added more context
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Once I get all done with the drM decoder install, I'll try to put some "how to" docs / images up.  I found some gaps in the installation info that may help others do the installs more easily.  Kapton tape is your friend - haha.

I also ran into a tiny mechanical interference with the DE10 cab and the decoder.

The components sitting under that portion of the shell interfere with the bosses on the cab shell enclosure.  There are two small finger tabs that help hold it down and the components are just tall enough to interfere a bit - I used a soldering tip to melt the bosses a bit so that it fits a little better.   If I do it again, I would just carefully trim the bosses down, but they are super small and not easy to reach even disassembled and I didn't want to break one off trying to reduce it.   The melting approach seemed to be less error prone.

 

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5 hours ago, chrisdavis103 said:

Nagasue System Design Office in Japan.   I ordered a couple of their decoders.   around $40 USD total including shipping.
 

1.0 X Order No. #2024102263      ¥5,400 JPY
 

1. DE28TLRK_r2 (@\2200) * 2 = \4400- ---------------------------------------------------------- = subtotal \4400-
+ shipping \1000- ---------------------------------------------------------- total \5400-yen

 

website - https://www.snjpn.com/ngdcc/indexj.htm

One other quick note - their stuff looks overly complex from a design standpoint - the boards have a lot of components and based on my experience with SMT and board layout, not sure why they are like that given the functions they perform, but i haven't seen the schematics to make a real judgment.  
See what you think if you go check out their website.   Looks like a pretty small operation, but you never know with Japanese stuff.


 

 

Yes I've ordered from them a few times, both for shipment to the US and for shipment to my Sus in law in Japan who saves them for me.  They have good stuff.  I really like their bi-polar function decoders.  Makes adding DCC to Tomix (and KATO in some instances) EMU/Shinkansen etc. very easy.

 

Since they don't support Railcom either as far as I know I have not bothered with their motor decoders.  I've been sticking with the German/Austrian (ESU/D&H/Zimo) or TCS (US based) for my motor decoders.  Using the EM13 dummy board project here in the forum I can also make EM13 compatible ones using those brands.

 

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9 hours ago, chrisdavis103 said:

Nagasue System Design Office in Japan.   I ordered a couple of their decoders.   around $40 USD total including shipping.
 

1.0 X Order No. #2024102263      ¥5,400 JPY
 

1. DE28TLRK_r2 (@\2200) * 2 = \4400- ---------------------------------------------------------- = subtotal \4400-
+ shipping \1000- ---------------------------------------------------------- total \5400-yen

 

website - https://www.snjpn.com/ngdcc/indexj.htm


I have also installed these decoders (six of them as you need two per tram) in my Kato Portram. I should be able to find photos.
Anyway, tell us how it goes!

Marc

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