Atlas updated lightboards

[Southern1970]

Apologies if this has been covered already but I found it interesting that the newer atlas GP38 analog slide in light boards can either be replaced with a slide in decoder or plug in an E24 decoder direct to the analog board.  Great to have both options.

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[peteski]

Atlas seems to be using the E24 light boards on several of they redesigned chassis'.

It would be nice to see a close-up photo of the top of the board. I'm curious if Atlas included the GND solder pad for adding keep-alive.  I have my doubts though, but surprise me.

[TW877]

That's a really good decision by Atlas. This opens up access to a larger selection of decoders, giving the modeller a chance of sticking with a favorite DCC brand.

But what do you get from Atlas when you purchase a factory installed sound loco? The classic drop-in board? Or the new board with a decoder plugged in?

Chris

[Southern1970]

It would be nice to see a close-up photo of the top of the board. I'm curious if Atlas included the GND solder pad for adding keep-alive.  I have my doubts though, but surprise me.

Now attached

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[spookshow]

But what do you get from Atlas when you purchase a factory installed sound loco? The classic drop-in board? Or the new board with a decoder plugged in?

All locos come with the new style motherboard (+speaker). Sound-equipped models come with a decoder plugged in.

-Mark

[peteski]

Now attached

Thanks!  Unfortunately as I suspected there are no GND or U+ solder pads anywhere on the board. I suspect that all the new E24 equipped boards for various Atlas models were likely all been designed at the same time by the same person. It is unfortunate they didn't think of modelers wanting to add keep-alive circuits.  I also doubt they will ever redesign these boards to include those solder pads.

It is also interesting where the E24 connector is located, right at the edge of the narrow section of the board. Probably due to limited chassis clearance for the decoder.

Also interesting is that the light board has 6 LEDs populated (2 headlights and 4 ditch lights) yes the dummy DC board will only light up the headlights. Again, probably because Atlas only designed and makes one basic DC dummy board for all models.

While being ESU fan I personally like the idea of using the E24 connector, relatively few decoder manufacturers offer decoders with E24 interface.  ESU is the main one, since they introduced this connector.  But other than Digitrax making E24 non-sound decoder, and I believe ZIMO also makes or will make E24 decoder, none of the other manufacturers make these (yet?).

[OldEastRR]

I think that's the plan. Make something popular only one product will work with -- eliminates the competing products.

[peteski]

I think that's the plan. Make something popular only one product will work with -- eliminates the competing products.

I disagree.  E24 is the newest interface introduced to the DCC decoder world. I was pleasantly surprised that Digitrax (which too me is old-school manufacturer as far as decoders go) jumped on the E24 bandwagon.  Hopefully in time others will join.

[bigdawgks]

ESU and Zimo come from the European market where they produced products with Next18 plugs. Next18 is an established NEM standard and all European manufacturers are using it, which proves the concept is successful. I imagine the E24 connector was ESUs attempt to start a similar standard in North America. For Atlas it makes a lot of sense, now every product just needs to come with an E24 socket and space for the decoder and they have greatly simplified their supply chain with their partners (and once again Atlas is doing great things for N scale). That leaves Digitrax; to me the why is probably because they saw Atlas and ESU trying to push a new standard and didn't want to be left out of the market (after all a lot of people were probably installing DTX decoders in older Atlas products).

That said, who else do we really need to supply E24 decoders? The two top manufacturers in my opinion are ESU and Zimo. TCS seems not as invested in N scale and I really have never felt the need to try anybody else's. If the NMRA were able to establish E24 as an official standard we may see more companies getting on board. Until then, it's more crucial for rolling stock manufacturers to start standardizing on socket interfaces.

[dem34]

Competition is always welcome with a commodity like decoders. Digitrax has the low end locked down pretty well. And ESU and Zimo the high end. TCS tends to do more specialized decoders for install and a few people out there prefer Soundtraxx Tsunami

[nstars]

ESU and Zimo come from the European market where they produced products with Next18 plugs. Next18 is an established NEM standard and all European manufacturers are using it, which proves the concept is successful. I imagine the E24 connector was ESUs attempt to start a similar standard in North America.

Both Next18 and E24 have their origin in the Rail Community which is the organisation of digital model rail manufactures. Next18 became an official norm RCN118 and E24 was only documented in RCD218. It didn’t get enough votes to become an official standard. Reason for this is that in contrast to for example the Next18 connectors there is only one manufacture of E24 connectors.

FYI, besides ESU, Zimo an Digitrax Doehler & Haass makes E24 decoders.

Marc

[bigdawgks]

I suspected D&H did too, but their relevance in North American markets is AFAIK neglegable.

Good info on the E24 - I would expect though that the supply (and thus demand) is pretty stable if ESU has cosen to use it. It does have the advantage of having a smaller profile than the N18 connector so it's quite suitable for narrow bodied locomotives.

[peteski]

. . . and more pins available for signals/functions than Next18.  E24 is also much more delicate than the robust Next18. I guess in the next few years we should see how this plays out.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think that's the plan. Make something popular only one product will work with -- eliminates the competing products.

I don't think any of the railroad manufacturers are that nefarious.

[bigdawgks]

I don't think any of the railroad manufacturers are that nefarious.

Well, Hornby might be. Good thing I'm not into 00.