Converting to DCC an old Jouef loco

[dragosmp]

Hi all,

 

This is my second thread on the forum, not that I'm counting.

 

So, this week, tired of the depressing news, I was browsing the HO loco section on ebay (as one does nowadays) to chear myself up. And guess what, I found I loco very similar to something I got as a present when I was 6 from my grampa - a french SNCF electric loco. This is more than 30 years ago, that loco was lost somewhere along the way. This is DB, but still very similar to my old SNCF. I made an offer, got it, didn't arrive yet.

 

Here's the loco type:

http://lestrainsjouef.free.fr/fr/mot_exp/bb184_db.html

Based on my other thread, I was thinking of using a Zimo 617 decoder for the conversion. The datasheet in the link says the motor is a 5-pole on a worm drive and other smilar locos on that site have a strip-down guide, which this type does not.

 

My question would be if you have some advice about how to go about things, if you agree with the decoder and if you may have a link to a "how to DCC" guide for this particular type of loco. I will of course post my step by step conversion as soon as I have something to share.

 

Cheers

[Oldddudders]

I have no idea of how this chassis is constructed, but the principle of adding DCC to any loco is quite simple - there must be no electrical connection between either motor terminal and the track, and preferably not with the chassis itself, either. If you can ensure this you are half-way there. The motor leads - if any - go to the grey and orange leads of the decoder, while the track pickups go to the red and black decoder leads. Zimo is a brand I favour, but I haven't used their 617.

[dragosmp]

Merci bien Oldddudders, good points. I need to pick up the 617 as the site favourite, the 600R, seems to be out of stock everywhere. As an electronics guy, it seems the 617 is only a miniaturised version of the bigger 600, but with a multi-layer PCB. Maybe once I'll source a 600 to make a chip-to-chip comparison.

I'll let you know when the loco comes and how I go about the conversion.

[John ks]

The only thing I can add to what Olddudders said is, if you run into problems ask more questions

I (& I suspect many others) work better with images so photos of the dismantled loco would be helpful

John

[Ouroborus]

Red & Black to the track

Orange & Grey the other way.

 

As an add on to the advice above, a note of caution to check that nothing is connected to that pantograph.  Also to check it's not a split chassis type, not impossible, but harder.