Decoder identification help.

[mecgp7]

Over the years I have collected a handful of Atlas factory decoders. I swapped them out with analog boards for consistency. Now I have a DCC system. I went and mixed all my light boards together and now I can't figure out which is which in some cases. Is there id on the boards? Some have virtually no markings at all.
Thanks in advance,
Clint

[trainforfun]

There is not a lot of different board that fit on Atlas locos , many models use the same board . The best way is to install the one that is the same lenght as the one you want to replace . It's not very scientific but it's the way it goes !
Just take care to place the board in the right direction to be sure motor contact touch the board at the right place .

[mecgp7]

The issue isn't which loco, it's whether or not the light board is DCC or not. The early boards are obvious, but the new ones are less so.

[peteski]

It should be pretty obvious that the board has the DCC circuitry, rather than just couple of LEDs, maybe couple of diodes, resistor or two, and possibly couple of capacitors.  A DCC decoder consists of more than a dozen components (including integrated circuits).

[mecgp7]

Are there numbers on the boards that identify them. It is not obvious on some of them.

[peteski]

Are there numbers on the boards that identify them. It is not obvious on some of them.

What locomotives do these fit into?  Can you post a photo of both types of boards?

[peteski]

Tonight I was tuning up friend's Atlas C630 loco.  When I took it apart, the decoder in it has a number LE063XF etched on the bottom side.  That is a factory decoder (made by Lenz) Atlas used to use (before they recently changed vendors).  I hope that this helps you out.  I did a quick Google search for that number and Atlas decoder manual came up as the first result.

If you see other numbers on your circuit boards, and if you can't post photos in this thread, do a Google search for what you think is the part number on those unidentified circuit boards.  You might get lucky.

[Big Train]

I just finished doing the same thing of trying to identify a number of N scale DCC decoders. And here's what I found out:

For Atlas, if you have the illustrated parts diagram, there should be different part numbers for either analog or DCC decoder board.

As peteski said, using the DCC decoder part number in Google, you might find threads, maybe from this forum, or others, that could narrow the search. I did find this link for Atlas:

http://www.atlasrr.com/pdf/Atlas_N-Scale_Decoder_Applications.pdf

And I also found that early Atlas DCC equipped locomotives used Digitrax decoders that had the Manufacturer ID of 127 for Atlas and not 129 used by Digitrax. This could present problems during programming and where JMRI DecoderPro might also help in identification.

The other thing I discovered was that DCC decoders made by other manufacturers, in some cases, might revise the format of part number on the DCC decoder (DN163K1a, LE063XF, N12A0) using only a couple of numbers or letters of the original. Some could be self-evident, others may require some CSI investigative research.

Hope this helps...