Tim123

I’ve found the decoders which work best in my X03 motor conversions have been Digitrax, which can cope with up to 1.5 amps. They’re also marketed by Gaugemaster in their “Ruby” DCC90 series. They worked well without tweaking any of the settings.

Thanks, I’ll see what happens in 364 days time!

I’m just about to sign up - it says that the direct debit will be £24.99 each year, will the price be held at £24.99 when it renews?

The buyer is my dad's friend, and I know he's very fussy. When his car goes for a service he wants to watch the fluids being changed to make sure they do it properly! I was just wondering why an older tender drive just had the suppressor across the arms that secure the carbon brushes, whilst an early 2000s non-DCC ready loco drive had the spacer. Guessing with less room inside the cab area there's more chance of a short circuit if the wiring gets twisted round during assembly, the spacer keeping the leads apart.

I'm in the process of converting some 1990s locos from DCC back to DCC - I've sold them to someone who wants the locos to be in factory condition, so the suppressors are being soldered back in. Some of the suppressors are just the component, though some have black "spacers". Are they just to keep the leads apart, or do they perform any electrical function? I've not been able to find anything like them on Rapid / Farnell etc

If you can live without the ability to set the starting voltage CV2 and the top speed CV5 then try Hornby R8249, though you'll no have sound. TTS decoders can work ok, but need a few CVs tweaking when used with motors that have large flywheels like the latest 56s. Assuming Legoman supplied an ESU V5 then along with Zimo you've tried two of the best decoders for motor control. Gaugemaster decoders were based on DCC Concepts, but the latest Ruby series are Digitrax based. Digitrax are American, nearly all decent American locos from the last 30+ years have similar mechanisms to the new 56.