My standard to prepare drives

[faraway]

I developed over the time a standard how I modify new and used engines entering my roster.
The modifications are done to
a. reduce weight and become therefor a more silent runner (loss of pulling power is not important on a small switching layout)
b. install a Zimo MX630 DCC decoder
c. install warm white LED main head lights (loss of functioning ditch lights is acceptable)
d. easy to remove shell
e. reduce free cables that tend to touch moving parts and create noise

The weights are removed and a custom PCB is mounted with double side sticky tape on the motor. The 6 line PCB is standardized 2 line power in (track), 2 lines motor power 1 line common power (blue) and one line split for front and rear light usually protected with 1.5kOhm resistors. The light lines are terminated with 1/10" plug connectors. the PCB should be as long as possible to keep the wires from the trucks as short as possible. They are a constant source of trouble when they touch the drive.



The LED wires are bend into "frog position" and fixed with Kapton tape. That is as easy as it looks and is surprisingly solid method of mounting.


The fixed LED is covered with black tape


Finally connected to the drive and put on a test track. the correct polarity of the plugs is marked with a white felt pen.


I did this standard procedure today on an old Proto2000 GP18 but I did it also on four brand new Genesis NS GP38-2. It is amazing how much and many cables Athearn stuffs into their models hock: