ESU Direct Select Micro Drop In Decoders shipping end of October

[Steveruger45]

Sbc4dcc has posted the dimensions for both the 73100 and the OEM version 73199.
I just had a look inside my atlas sd60 and kato C30-7 and took some measurements using a vernier caliper.  The 73100 would fit in either of these locos. 

For the sd60 you would have to modify the frame a little IWO board slots for frame pick-up at the rear part of the frame. That is cut them out as this board is too short for the atlas long board in these locos. In this case the only frame pick up for track power would be on the front pads of the board.  Eminently Do-able I think.  There would be plenty of room at rear of board for a 16x9 speaker or even two 8x12mm speakers could be squeezed in.  For the kato C30-7  It looks like it will fit more precisely in a dcc ready version but a lot more work on the older non dcc ready version with bearly enough space at rear for an 8x12 speaker after filing down the frame and possibly modifying the rear light tube a bit.

The 73100 looks to have 6 large caps and I am hoping this includes a keep alive.  I would love to see a more detailed wiring diagram.  Just wondering if Peteski would have a chance at investigating these like he did such a great job on the OEM board in the IM sd40-2.  Would sure like to know if these have onboard keep alive of a reasonable amount say around 400uF, or if they have an easier way to install such.

[peteski]

The 73100 looks to have 6 large caps and I am hoping this includes a keep alive.  I would love to see a more detailed wiring diagram.  Just wondering if Peteski would have a chance at investigating these like he did such a great job on the OEM board in the IM sd40-2.  Would sure like to know if these have onboard keep alive of a reasonable amount say around 400uF, or if they have an easier way to install such.

I doubt those are large-value tantalum caps. On the SD40-2 ESU decoder I evaluated those physically large cap were just ceramic caps (probably tens micro Farads, not even hundreds).  To find the exact values I would have to unsolder one of them. But non-polarized ceramic caps are smaller capacitance per cubic millimeter than the polarized tantalum or electrolytic caps. That is given.

If someone lets me borrow one of those decoders I can do some reverse engineering. 

[EspeeGoldenState]

Just ordered the pre-2016 board to put into an IM SD45T-2, which probably has the best chance for a speaker to fit up top somewhere due to that loco's length. We'll see!

What size of speaker are you going to use? I've thought about doing that to my 9389.

Chris