6 Pin Decoder Wiring Harnesses

[6029 King Stephen]

During a recent trip back to the UK I bought a couple of Bachmann 6 Pin Decoders for use in my two Dapol N gauge locos. However, according to the instructions that came with them they are only suitable for plugging into DCC Ready N gauge locos as supplied and for hard wiring should be used with a 6 Pin Decoder Harness. Under no circumstances should you solder directly to the pins (according to the instructions). Where can I get 6 Pin Decoder Harnesses from and has anyone managed to solder wires to the decoder pins without any problems or decoder burnout? The space available in the Dapol 14xx is very tight and I wonder if fitting this decoder with a harness might make it too big for the space available. Until I read the instructions, my intention was to just solder some small pieces of wire to the decoder pins.

 

Grateful, as always, for your assistance.

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[Suzie]

Bachmann do them as part 36-562. Looks like you can get them here:-

 

http://railsofsheffield.com/6-pin-decoder-socket-with-wiring-harness-x3-36-562-JJJA13394.aspx

 

 

 

 

 

[Edwin_m]

DCC Supplies also do the 6-pin harnesses.

 

When it says you should not solder to the pins what it probably means is that soldering to the pins is at your own risk and will invalidate the warranty. While it's a rather tricky soldering job there's no reason why it should damage the decoder unless you keep the heat on too long or the wire shorts to the next pin. After all the similar sized Zimo decoder has solder pads actually on the PCB for connection of the third and fourth functions.

[nigcuberail]

Also see here:

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DCC-DECODER-CABLE-HARNESS-WITH-6-PIN-NEM-651-SOCKET_W0QQitemZ330399876729QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Trains_Railway_Models?hash=item4ced5e0679

 

No connection (ha ha), just a satisfied customer.

[richard brown]

try this link http://www.dccsupplies.com/shop/index.php?cPath=24_21 they have pre wired and un wired socket

 

Richard

[6029 King Stephen]

Thank you for all your advice. It is interesting that Bachmann haven't yet issued the harness that they state in their instructions is needed for hardwire fitting of the decoder. I will probably go with DCC Supplies from a purely economic point of view or maybe try soldering the wires to the decoder. I will probably 'chicken out' on the latter given the GBP15.99 cost of the decoder in the first place.....

 

Regards,

 

Steve

[AMJ]

One thing I spotted with the 8 pin to 6 pin harness is that it has all of the fancy bits to give you 7 wires from the 6 pin chip.

 

It has wires for head, tail & common return in addition to the usual pairs for motor & track.

 

I did read how to do it but as it comes with the 7 wires keep it simple and use that rather than remembering how to do it.

 

Not seen the 6 pin harness without plug but assume it's the same.  I wanted one of these but shop had one with 8 pin plug on so cut it off and hard wired as I would have done so with the harness only.

http://www.dccwiki.com/6_Pin_DCC_Plug  This shows how to wire up lights if no blue common available.

[TWG]

Unless your soldering skills are extremely good, you will find that, as soon as you apply heat to solder a wire to a pin, the solder on the decoder will melt and the pin will fall off.  If you can solder fairly well you would do better, in my opinion, to remove the pins and solder wires directly to the decoder.  If you have a very small bit on your iron, good eyesight and a steady hand, it is not as difficult as it looks - but examine your work with a magnifying glass to be sure that the solder has not connected two pads.  A harness is a simpler and safer solution, if there is room.

[Izzy]

The Bachmann 6-pin wiring harness is as big as the Bachmann 6-pin decoder - the black main part (so the wires are extra to this size) - and you may well find that there just isn't the space to add one into a loco. Soldering the wires directly to the decoder pins is no real issue, but as always it's related to using suitable tools for the job, in my case a small Antex 15w iron with a 1mm tip as anything larger/hotter would be overkill. The Bachmann decoder is better in this respect as the pins are fairly long and there is a plastic spacer between the pins and the main decoder body. 

 

I tried fitting a decoder this way into the new Jinty and there is a thread here on the decoder bits http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/82934-farish-jinty-2fs-dcc/

 

 

Izzy

[Vonzack]

Hi Steve,

 

I converted one of these for a friend and to be honest, I think you may struggle as Izzy above has said. There isn't much space in these locos, so it just won't work with the harness. Also the Bachman chips tend to be quite big in themselves, so again you may struggle with that. When I converted a 14XX, I used a Digitrax DZ125, but even then I stripped the excess heat shrink off it to make the install easier.

 

Hope it goes well.

 

Cheers, Mark.

[Steven B]

For something like the 14xx I'd go straight for a wired decoder rather than one with a 6 pin plug and a wiring harness. There's no point in wasting space fitting a socket when you don't need to.

 

Save the Bachmann decoders for something with a socket.

 

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.