Piko (DE) announce Whitcomb 65 ton switcher in N

[pmpexpress]

To my surprise, a bit of internet research revealed that the Whitcomb 65T Switchers were extensively used by the chemical, gravel, mineral, and steel industries.

Gulf, The US Navy, and several grain/feed and lumber companies also employed these 65T Switchers in their operations.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/diesel134.html

[mrp]

The advertisement shows the engine having a Piko sound decoder.
Will the decoder work with US based DCC? (NCE in my case?)

Michael Pennie

[nstars]

The advertisement shows the engine having a Piko sound decoder.
Will the decoder work with US based DCC? (NCE in my case?)

Michael Pennie

That won’t be any problem, DCC is DCC.

Marc

[nstars]

As far as I can see, the US offering will be the Atlantic Coast Line.

Marc

[Chris333]

Carbon Limestone had one on their standard gauge side of the crusher:

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/clcxD10.jpg
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77177665@N03/39078641305
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=2899582

Ex. Army.

[Ntrainz1]

LNE 602

https://www.jeff-z.com/wks/locoroster/602/602.html

[peteski]

The advertisement shows the engine having a Piko sound decoder.
Will the decoder work with US based DCC? (NCE in my case?)

Michael Pennie

Well yes and no. While (as Marc mentioned)  in theory DCC is "DCC", I recently bought a new Piko loco (German Class 221 Diesel) with factory installed sound decoder.  It works fine with Digitrax system, but it does not play well with my NCE PowerCab.

The first problem was that PowerCab stops sending speed step packets to active loco address if no speed or direction changes are made on the handheld throttle.  That is to reduce the packet traffic to the rails.  That caused the loco to shut down after 3 seconds, until I moved the throttle knob to change the speed or direction. That decoder seems to use CV11 (packet timeout) register.  I set it to zero (disable timeout).  Now the loco does not shut down, but when I stop the loco (throttle set to speed step zero), the loco continues to creep as if it was still receiving speed step one packets. 

I don't know if other Piko decoders will have the same incompatibility, but I figured that I'll give a heads-up on it.  I looked at the Piko decoder and it is nothing like I have ever seen. I wish that manufacturers would use proven decoders from well known manufacturers (like ZIMO or ESU), instead of rolling their own.

[bigdawgks]

I believe Piko's decoders are supplied by D&H (https://doehler-haass.de/cms/). I'm not too familiar with their different models but my bet is it's all the same firmware. It doesn't help that their website and product info are all German language only.

[peteski]

I believe Piko's decoders are supplied by D&H (https://doehler-haass.de/cms/). I'm not too familiar with their different models but my bet is it's all the same firmware. It doesn't help that their website and product info are all German language only.

Thanks!  I'll have to investigate that once I get back to that project.  I thought that Minitirx/Marklin uses those decoders for their factory installs.  I have a Minitrix steam model (I bought few years back) with a factory installed sound decoder which does not have the problem I described in that Piko loco.

[bigdawgks]

@peteski sorry I got mixed up. D&H is indeed the supplier for Minitrix, while Piko uses rebranded Uhlenbrock decoders (https://www.uhlenbrock.de/de_DE/index.htm). My bad.

[haasmarc]

I think my future steel mill may have found a loco.

http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/bscx142.jpg

[peteski]

@peteski sorry I got mixed up. D&H is indeed the supplier for Minitrix, while Piko uses rebranded Uhlenbrock decoders (https://www.uhlenbrock.de/de_DE/index.htm). My bad.

Thanks! Another unknown to me decoder.  Oh, the joy of working with German-centric sound DCC models. 

[ljudice]

Would make a great coal mine loadout "bug slug" remote control loco...

[peteski]

Tried the "filtered" link - all I got was a page telling me I needed a newer browser because mine is obsolete.

@nkalanaga , here is a photo extracted from that page.

[up1950s]

And here is 1 of 2 numbers of the other .