Ihv just opened my bachmann doodel bug to find its alreadt for a D C C chip but has the following warning if using an advance polarized D C C DECODER THE GREEN JUMPER WIRE MUST BE CUT what to hell that all about any info welcome mikewarning
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Ihv just opened my bachmann doodel bug to find its alreadt for a D C C chip but has the following warning if using an advance polarized D C C DECODER THE GREEN JUMPER WIRE MUST BE CUT what to hell that all about any info welcome mikeThis was posted for me on another forum hope it help http://home.neo.rr.com/mrwithdcc/doodleb.htmlp others
cidchase
Active Member
Hi Mike, 
I would suggest that you go on the Bachmann website and ask "The Bach-man"
He always seems to be real helpful, and there's nothing like getting it straight
from the horse's mouth!!!
I would suggest that you go on the Bachmann website and ask "The Bach-man"
He always seems to be real helpful, and there's nothing like getting it straight
from the horse's mouth!!!
Thanks to you all for the good advice just sent a fax to bachmann U.K with one hell of a complaint hope it will do some good if not for me then others .mike
I don't know if you are going to get the response you are looking for from Bachmann. A lot of so-called DCC ready locos are not "DCC ready". It requires some knowledge and a bit of work to make them DCC ready.
The problem with the Bachmann doodlebug lies with the 8-pin NMRA plug that you see on top of the printed circuit board. If you hard-wire a decoder and don't remove that plug, you will have a short as Pin 3 is connected to Pin 7 in the plug. If you trace the copper traces on the printed circuit board, you will find that Pin 3 and Pin 7 on the plug is used to connect the lights back to common.
However, Pin 3 and Pin 7 on a decoder have different functions. If you don't "cut" the copper trace on the plug between Pin 3 and Pin 7, you will blow some of the functions on your decoder. So, if you are hard-wiring a decoder, simply take your Dremel tool, a sharp X-Acto knife, a file, or whatever and cut that copper trace between Pins 1 and 7. Then hard-wire in your decoder.
Note that you will also have to add some resistors to those lights as they are designed for about 3 - 6 volts and the voltage from the decoder will blow those lights.
And, if you use a plug-n-play decoder like the Digitrax DH163L0, which is already set up to deal with those lower voltage lights, you will find that the front light will work but the interior lighting won't.
The best thing to do is to cut off all of the diodes and lights from the printed circuit board, install some 12 volt g-of-w lights with appropriate resistors (you can use the PC board for the wiring) for the front headlight and the interior lights, after you decide which type of decoder you want to use - hard-wired or plug-n-play.
The problem with the Bachmann doodlebug lies with the 8-pin NMRA plug that you see on top of the printed circuit board. If you hard-wire a decoder and don't remove that plug, you will have a short as Pin 3 is connected to Pin 7 in the plug. If you trace the copper traces on the printed circuit board, you will find that Pin 3 and Pin 7 on the plug is used to connect the lights back to common.
However, Pin 3 and Pin 7 on a decoder have different functions. If you don't "cut" the copper trace on the plug between Pin 3 and Pin 7, you will blow some of the functions on your decoder. So, if you are hard-wiring a decoder, simply take your Dremel tool, a sharp X-Acto knife, a file, or whatever and cut that copper trace between Pins 1 and 7. Then hard-wire in your decoder.
Note that you will also have to add some resistors to those lights as they are designed for about 3 - 6 volts and the voltage from the decoder will blow those lights.
And, if you use a plug-n-play decoder like the Digitrax DH163L0, which is already set up to deal with those lower voltage lights, you will find that the front light will work but the interior lighting won't.
The best thing to do is to cut off all of the diodes and lights from the printed circuit board, install some 12 volt g-of-w lights with appropriate resistors (you can use the PC board for the wiring) for the front headlight and the interior lights, after you decide which type of decoder you want to use - hard-wired or plug-n-play.