Atlas Fp9 ?

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colin

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Feb 10, 2005
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My Son And I Just Received Our Prodigy Advance And We Have Installed A Few Sound Decoders With Success. I Have 2 Atlas Fp9 That Are About 10 To 15 Years Old. They Were Made In Austria. I Few Nights Ago I Found A Page On The Net, With A Photo Of How To Install A Decoder. I Did Not Book Mark It And Now After A Few Hours Of Searching I Can Not Find It. If Anyone Has Installed A Sound Decoder Or A Regular Decoder In One Of These And Has Any Helpfull Hints Please Let Us Know. If You Know Of A Web Page That Would Be Great.

Thanks; Colin And Mike
 
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Gary Pfeil

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May 7, 2001
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I can't be of much help regarding locating the web page you refer to. Un less there were multiple runs of this loco, which is very possible, I'd guess the locos are really close to 25 years old. Which is no problem, as I consider them the first release which was a vast improvement on Athearns, which up to that point were the best around. I have several of these locos bu have to say I haven't taken them out of their boxes for 10 years. However, I did install a decoder in the Atlas RS3 which was released only a year or two later. Easy really if you are ok with soldering. Check and make sure the motor is isolated from the frame, I think it was. If I recall correctly, these locos had all wheel pickup and had two wires from each truck connected to the motor. Just disconnect them and install the decoder between them according to the instructions with the decoder, basically red and black leads to the track pickups and orange and grey leads to the motor. Blue and white for the headlight if memory serves right.

Good luck, Gary
 
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colin

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Thanks for your reply Gary; Now for my stupid question; How do I know if the motor is isolated from the frame?
Thanks, Colin
 
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MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
Oct 31, 2002
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If the frame carries electricity, there will only be one wire going to the motor.

Here are a few pages with "how-to's" on decoder install:

http://www.railwaybob.com/Modules/MRIndex.htm (railway bob is a member of the Gauge and often posts in this section; he is also a member of our local modular club www.hotrak.ca)

OK, so that's only one... MR used to have a basic article on their web site (www.trains.com) but no longer. It may be bundled into one of their "Information Station" pay-for-pdf downloads.

Andrew
 
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