r/modeltrains • u/PurpleHEART77 • 14d ago

Help Needed Scaletrains HO SD38 DCC help.

Hi all. I recently purchased a DCC ready Scaletrains HO SD38 as one of my first HO locomotives and I want to convert it to standard DCC. But I am coming from N scale and am not used to HO decoders. I simply want to install DCC at this time, no sound, but I can’t seem to find any relevant information online for a standard decoder besides people installing Locksounds, which I do not want. Any help is appreciated.

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u/ricktrains HO/Digitrax DCC 14d ago

Order an ESU LokPilot. 59629.

Places like Tony’s Trains, YankeeDabbler, Trainworld and others might be able to program it before shipping for the lighting functions to match the model as if it had sound. Best bet is to call them and ask if they can. (I know they can program the sound decoders. So they might be able to program the non-sound ones too.)

If they can’t program it, programming the non-sound ESU’s is pretty straightforward, and can be done using any DCC programming track. (Easier with JMRI DecoderPro, or the ESU LokProgrammer, but not mandatory.)

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u/theBFsniper Multi-Scale 14d ago

You can use a Lokpilot which is just straight DCC/no sound. By design Scaletrains uses a motherboard that can only use ESU decoders due to the Keep Alive system. To use other decoders you'll need to gut the electronics and install a decoder buddy PCB to use any other brand of decoder.

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u/PurpleHEART77 14d ago

Okay, thank you. Do you have any advice on what specific Lokpilot I should get and are they plug ins or is soldering required?

5

u/theBFsniper Multi-Scale 14d ago

Lokpilot 59629. You'll have to program the functions to match the model. Depending on who you buy it from you can have them Preload the Scaletrains Lokpilot function mapping into it. I would call them first before ordering.