ESU Amherst Announcements

[reinhardtjh]

No.  No actual announcements from ESU (yet)  They will be at some point.  These were taken from a photo sent to me by @GM50 4164 which was sent to him by a friend at the show.



First off, we have a CAD layout photo of the ESU 58751 - LS5 Micro DCC Atlas Legacy decoder which looks like the replacement for the 73100 LS 4 Select decoder a lot of us have been moaning about.  Apparently ESU listens.



And here we have what looks like an actual photo of the ESU 58941 LS5 Micro DCC Direct Kato Widebody decoder which is designed to fit Kato E units, F units, PA (PB?), F40PH and P42 locos.  It looks like a ESU Nano and a main board which is designed to replace the circuit board in the Kato units.  I had done some test fitting with a Nano (with the adapter board detached) and it's possible to fit a Nano on top of a properly designed lightboard replacement with the E24 connector.  Looks like ESU anticipated this and has them on the way (given that there is an actual photo and not just a CAD drawing of the board).  This would do what the Wutter board did but also work for the Kato E and PA/PB locos.




There haven't been any updates to the ESU web site as of yet.  Perhaps on Monday since the site is run out of Germany (I believe).  I would expect some sort of posting by ESU on their Facebook page sometime during the Amherst show.  Perhaps some sort of live event.  But these pictures look pretty exciting for us in N Scale who like ESU decoders.  Hopefully the semiconductor shortage doesn't put these too far away from actual production.

[tehachapifan]

Wow! a replacement for the 73100 board!

I really didn't think that was ever going to happen!

[peteski]

Finally a good quality (ESU) decoder for Kato E-units (and others)!  But wait . . . it is not a decoder but an adapter board that holds the snapped-in nano decoder!  Hmmm.  I'm surprised that this arrangement provides enough clearance inside the very tight top clearance E-units (Wutter's similar adapter board for micro decoder doesn't).  Makes me wonder if ESU actually tested it in E-units. 

Wutter/Skent's adapter info:
https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=50310.0

[Wutter]

And here we have what looks like an actual photo of the ESU 58941 LS5 Micro DCC Direct Kato Widebody decoder which is designed to fit Kato E units, F units, PA (PB?), F40PH and P42 locos.  It looks like a ESU Nano and a main board which is designed to replace the circuit board in the Kato units.  I had done some test fitting with a Nano (with the adapter board detached) and it's possible to fit a Nano on top of a properly designed lightboard replacement with the E24 connector.  Looks like ESU anticipated this and has them on the way (given that there is an actual photo and not just a CAD drawing of the board).  This would do what the Wutter board did but also work for the Kato E and PA/PB locos.

12 functions?!?!?!?? Does anyone know the full pinout of the regular Loksound 5 Nano? Were there just hidden functions in all the rest of the pins this whole time that were not accessible with the normal wire harness?

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[reinhardtjh]

12 functions?!?!?!?? Does anyone know the full pinout of the regular Loksound 5 Nano? Were there just hidden functions in all the rest of the pins this whole time that were not accessible with the normal wire harness?

Posted earlier in this thread: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=52422.msg726808#msg726808

[keeper]

I really hope that these decoders will be available here in Germany as well.

Thomas

[RBrodzinsky]

While the Nano has 5 of those Aux outputs as logic level (3, 4, 10, 11 and 12), I am intrigued if the statement "12 Aux Outputs! LED Ready!" indicates the connector board uplifts them to powered.

Alvin, the Nano wiring in the on-line manual has been superseded by the new wiring board.

[Wutter]

While the Nano has 5 of those Aux outputs as logic level (3, 4, 10, 11 and 12), I am intrigued if the statement "12 Aux Outputs! LED Ready!" indicates the connector board uplifts them to powered.

Alvin, the Nano wiring in the on-line manual has been superseded by the new wiring board.

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I would guess they have something to uplift them to be powered, there seems to be stuff on the board that isn't just resistors and small ceramic caps.

Thanks for the picture Rick! It looks like in that picture of the hardwired Nano there still isn't a pad connection available for Aux 4, 9, 10? Unless there are more pads on the opposite side?
I'm guessing that LF and LR for the normal headlight functions count towards the total of 12 functions? Since on the picture John linked I don't see an Aux 9 and only count 11 lighting outputs on the ESU pinout.

[RBrodzinsky]

My bet is A9 is logic level for a PowerPak.  No idea about A4, and I can’t see 1, 2, or 7 either!  But there are some pads on the “far” side where the stencil marks are hidden in their photo.  But I had not noticed Aux9 missing in the pin out diagram

[reinhardtjh]

Both are now listed on the ESU web site.

LokSound 5 micro DCC Direct Atlas Legacy

LokSound 5 Micro DCC Kato USA Widebody

Each page lists availability as Q3/22 so they are a ways out.  I was hoping the Widebody was closer at least since there was a sample at Amherst and an actual photo.

[RBrodzinsky]

And the page for the Kato wide body states "12 function outputs", not "12 Aux outputs", so that would count F0F and F0R

[narrowminded]

I see myself getting back to some DCC installs when the new micros come out.  Those dimensions should fit well in a fleet of Bachmann RS-3's, legacy or the new one for current models.   They are both listed as having the same envelope dimensions.

[keeper]

LokSound 5 micro DCC Direct Atlas Legacy

On the website they say this:

The LokSound 5 micro DCC Atlas Legacy is also a “direct style decoder developed for early (before 2016) Atlas, Intermountain (and others). The decoder was made for locos produced before sound was added during production. This replaces the popular ESU 73100 Select Direct Micro.

Does this include the DCC ready RS11?

Thomas