Installing Kato Drop-In Decoders (EM13, FL12)

[williamv]

31 minutes ago, Takahama Trainwatcher said:

Ha, ha, 10-578... I have that. In my spreadsheet my note says: "Motor bad contact". I have it running fine, now, however, thanks to the shims (just tested yesterday).

There are some entries earlier in this thread relating to the shims. 

 

If you get stuck with it, I can take a photo of one of mine to indicate where to put the shims.

Thanks so much. I’ll have a closer look and see if I can do it. 🙂

[williamv]

I thought I’d try the EM13 decoder in my Kato N700 but I can’t seem to fit it properly. The decoder won’t slide in all the way. I can see plastic notches blocking the wings on the motor. It looks like they’re stopping the decoder from going all the way in and under the wings on the motor.

I’m assuming the installation is similar to the E231-500 and E233. I can’t see any brass contact strips though. There’s only a printed circuit board which I can’t seem to push down far enough to be able to slide the decoder in fully, under the plastic notches.

 

Am I doing something wrong? 

[Takahama Trainwatcher]

33 minutes ago, williamv said:

I thought I’d try the EM13 decoder in my Kato N700 but I can’t seem to fit it properly. The decoder won’t slide in all the way. I can see plastic notches blocking the wings on the motor. It looks like they’re stopping the decoder from going all the way in and under the wings on the motor.

I’m assuming the installation is similar to the E231-500 and E233. I can’t see any brass contact strips though. There’s only a printed circuit board which I can’t seem to push down far enough to be able to slide the decoder in fully, under the plastic notches.

 

Am I doing something wrong? 

I don't have this model, but I think you need to remove the existing board. Someone came across this issue earlier in this thread.

 

[williamv]

That’s really helpful. Thanks!

 

I seem to have trouble finding things on here! I thought it was a little unusual that nobody had run into the same issue.

[williamv]

It looks like an issue with the contacts. I tried one of the problem decoders in a Kato E235 and it works just fine. It looks like the brass contacts have been designed differently and more reliable. I’ll try the shims in the older models. 🙂

On 4/10/2021 at 10:51 PM, Takahama Trainwatcher said:

I don't have this model, but I think you need to remove the existing board. Someone came across this issue earlier in this thread.

 

 

[bc6]

Hi CaptOblivious

 

I have a question for you, Im planning on doing a EM13 decoder install on my Kato E235 and want to make sure that the FL12's are absolutely needed to complete the install.

 

Thank you for documenting this installation it will make my life so much easier do this install. 

Edited April 11, 2023 by bc6

[cteno4]

Hopefully someone else can answer this for you captoblivious has not been around much for quite awhile.

 

jeff

[bc6]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Hopefully someone else can answer this for you captoblivious has not been around much for quite awhile.

 

jeff

Thanks Jeff I appreciate it.

[nicolahu]

The FL12 are needed if you want correct functioning lights. Otherwise red and white are on both at the same time.

If you can live with that you dont need the FL12.

 

[bc6]

38 minutes ago, nicolahu said:

The FL12 are needed if you want correct functioning lights. Otherwise red and white are on both at the same time.

If you can live with that you dont need the FL12.

 

Thanks nicolahu I probably won't have mind white lights on the end car lol but I ordered the fl12 decoders. Hopefully this will be good information for the next person who installs decoders in Yamanote type railcar.