Installing Function Only Decoders into a Eureka HUB Set

Steps involved to install a function only decoder into a HUB terminal car are listed below.  You need to do it to each of the terminal cars.

- Remove the passenger car body from the chassis

 

- Remove the 8 pin plug from underneath the top circuit board.

- Unplug the SW connection (RED wire) into the top circuit board and bend it out of the way.  The switch is now not used.

- On the rear light board, drill a hole through the trace down the middle of the board to the bottom right hand side of the left hand LED labelled LED5. This allows for this LED to be controlled by a separate function in the decoder.

 

- Drill a whole in the middle of the light board about 4mm above the bottom of the board, all the way though the board. This will be where the control wire to come through from the decoder.

- Scrape the top of the protective layer off the trace down the middle of the light board just below where you severed the trace. This will expose the copper of the trace. This is where the new control wire will be attached.

- Take a TCS FL4 function only decoder.

- With the coach sitting in front of you and the rear of the coach on your right, solder the Red wire to the top left plug on the 8 pin plug on the circuit board.

- Solder the Black wire to the bottom right plug on the 8 pin plug on the circuit board.

- Solder the Blue wire to the plug directly above the Black wire. Note this is not where this wire is positioned on a standard 8 pin decoder deployment.

- Solder the Green wire to the plug directly above the Blue wire. Note this is not where this wire is positioned on a standard 8 pin decoder deployment.

- Solder the Purple wire to the bottom left side of the 4 position bridge rectifier (I think that is what it is) to the immediate right of the 8 pin plug. 

- Take the Brown wire to the right hand end of the coach and feed the wire through the whole you just drilled in the light board. Solder the Brown wire onto the trace you just exposed.

- Take the wagon to the programming track and make these changes to the decoder:-

- Change CV51 to 0 for the HFH wagon, 16 for the PFH wagon (with generator)

- Change CV53 to 0 for the HFH wagon, 16 for the PFH wagon (with generator)

- Change CV52 to 32

- Change CV21 to 3

- Set the decoder address to your sets number, or something you will remember. It could be 117 for a short address or 0117 for a long address, or even 9117 if you like. Remember there is no such animal as a 2 digit and 4 digit address in the DCC standard. They are called the short address and the long address, no matter what other “so called” self proclaimed experts say. Also remember that the short address is valid up to 127, not 99 as is also advised by these experts.  I think they only say this as their DCC system does not follow the standard and that is what they spruke.

 

So when you assemble your HUB set, the HFH wagon is at the Sydney end. This is what we will call the rear of the set. So the PFH is at the front of the set (Parramatta End). So call up your address and set it to forward. The rear lights will come on if you select option 1. The internal car lights will come on the front and rear terminal cars if you select option 2. To get the bottom red light to illuminate you need to select option 3. If you change the direction of travel of your decoder from forward to reverse, the red LED on the HFH will extinguish and the ones at the other end the PHF will illuminate.  It is as simple as that.

 

Not a bad couple of hours work for about $40 for two four-function only decoders.

 

I must offer my thanks to Marcus Ammann for his previous articles about the HUB Cars http://members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn/HUBMod.htm and to Ben O'Malley for his article on installing a TCS FL2 decoder into HUB cars http://www.railstore.net/index.php?page=archive&content=dccinstalls

 

I'm off to the shed now to do some scenery.