Michael, In one case, my Big Boy that I mentioned earlier today, there were no wires between tender and engine itself. I used the 'live' draw bar to supply current to the decoder located in the boiler. The boiler decoder feeds the motor, headlight and the firebox flicker light. The sound only decoder was located in the tender so it supplied only the speaker. A prior owner had installed wheel wipers to pickup current from the engineer's side making the tender self-sufficient. The backup light and marker lites had been lite via some earlier arrangement--I was just happy to use it. I imagine a function only decoder would do that job just fine--they weren't available at the time and my supply of normal decoders was tight at the time.
Regarding the Tsunami and it's suitability for motor control--what's wrong with them other than the one amp rating? I've heard several members of this list mention that. I run my Tsunami's along with Digitrax, Lenz, TMC and NCE decoders and don't really notice any real problems. I do have a slight problem with the MRC sound decoder that is made for S, but again for the money and for the purpose I use them--they're okay. Bob Werre BobWphoto.com On 3/18/11 2:48 PM, Michael wrote: > > If you install two decoders, one in the engine and one in the tender, > there are two wires between engine and tender, the two track power > wires. This is not an uncommon arrangement in any of the "good" scales > like S and P-48, where the Tsunami's don't really have the current > specs we'd like for the motor. > > -Michael Eldridge > > --- In [email protected] <mailto:S-Scale%40yahoogroups.com>, Bob > Werre <bob@...> wrote: > > > > I often said that the engine wiring is one of the downsides of working > > with the extra features of DCC. Steam engines have the advantage of > > tenders to store everything, but the disadvantages of wires into the > > engine itself. I have thought of running the wires through perhaps a > > hollow draw bar mechanism but that too has it's complications. > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
