I’m just curious how many of you do your own installs for battery power, sound, DCC or any other electronic accessory? If you don’t do your own work who does it for you?
Jon.
I do my own Jon, started 2 years ago, and have found three guys, who helped me along the way. QSI/G-wire make it easy peasey to do your own, especially in Aristo engines, but I have now found a way to do my own installs thanks to Greg E. in boxcars with USA engines mu’ing the USA engines and setting up QSI/G-wire and Battery/charging system in boxcar that way you only need two boxcars one for Diesel, and one for Steam! With the QSI programmer you can program just about anything they have into the two boxcars for running the next day if necessary! I do have a k-27 that Noel Wilson did a fantastic job of installing the QSI/G-wire in it for me, and I have internal PNP’s of the QSI/G-wires in my Mallet also with a custom speaker setup by 1to1 scale sound out of Oregon! Jim Carter out of Kansas helped me on a Phoenix/OEM Airwire receiver, but ended up selling off the Phoenix board and a couple of Airwire recievers, as I just didn’t understand the installation with those!! I’m sold on the QSI/G-wire products and programmer also the NCE procab is less money and easier to use over the t-9000 throttle from Airwire although both work well. Regal
Hello Jon.
There are basically two types of installations.
On board and trail car.
Trail cars are easy peasy if they are being plugged into locos such Aristo with pigtails out either end.
Otherwise you need to install the pigtails in the locos. Easy with some, not so easy with others.
On board can be ease or not so easy.
Those with a PnP socket can be very easy.
Those without a PnP socket can vary from quite easy to downright complicated. Depending on what sort of installation you are after.
Having Battery only is certainly less complicated than track and battery installs.
If you are comfortable pulling locos apart then most types will be straightforward. Especially the PnP type.
However with some locos the only alternative is to gut the wiring and start again.
If you are not comfortable pulling them apart then pick a good installer who is prepared to explain what they are doing so that you can follow it and DIY for later installations.
If you would care to let us know what sort of locos you have, we could explain with a greater deal of accuracy which methods they will require.
Other things to take into consideration are:
Do you want constant brightness directional lights?
Will you be fitting sound? If so which brand?
I do my own installs, Jon, though I do keep Don Sweet’s phone number handy in case I have a problem(which is often!). I’ve also made up my own battery packs in the past. Since all my engine’s are B’mann and I already had 2 apart when installing the BBT drive, it wasn’t all that intimidating, though the Annies do have a few more parts to loose along the way…
I do all my own, and others as well.
But having said that, there is another installer in our club, Mike Williams, and we help each other out when needed.
I am the Air-wire guy and he does the Revos.
I started out years ago when the first Phoenix sound cards came out.
But I have a background in low voltage, having worked installing bank alarm systems for a while a few years back. I had to apprentice under a journeyman.
I still have problems with certain things such as resistor values and such.
It’s still a learning curve. And I have changed a few ways of installing things along the way.
Ive always done my own installs, and built battery packs. I have jigs and stuff from my RC car days, so packs are no problem. I do my own installs because 1) I’m cheap, and 2) I’m cheap.
I’ve always done my own installs. The difficulty isn’t so much figuring out what goes where in terms of the electronics you’re installing, but what’s already going where in terms of the locomotive you’re installing it into so you can get the right wires hooked to the board in the first place. I really do long for the “good old days” when the wires went from the wheels to the motor and headlights. That was simple. Now, you’ve got to figure out what each of the various PC boards do, if you need 'em or if you can nuke 'em. And since each loco is different, it’s always a new challenge. Seriously, though, once you’ve done a few, it gets quite simple. I don’t like not knowing how to fix things when they break, and the best way to learn that is to do things yourself from the start.
As for battery packs, I buy them pre-assembled. For me, time is money, and the time I’d spend assembling my packs wouldn’t justify the $10 cost savings I’d incur by doing so.
Later,
K
Thanks for the replies guys. I probably should have given you a few details to explain my question(s). We opened a new retail computer and repair store a couple of months ago and I’ve had plans to start doing repairs and installs of sound boards, DCC, batteries, lighting and a few other things. Our target is G, HO and N scales. There’s a few other things in the pipe too but that’s for later… The reason for my question(s) are basically to get an idea of how much business is out there. For the most part I think everyone here would be DIY’s but I thought I’d check before assuming the answer.
Jon.
Actually Jon I think it is likely to be line ball between DIY and paying to have installs done.
Going by how many installs my two agents n the USA actually do, there is quite a good market for the latter.
Certainly for non PnP locos where the installation could be a bit more complicated.
TonyWalsham said:There absolutely is! Jon why not advertise here?
Going by how many installs my two agents n the USA actually do, there is quite a good market for the latter.
Thanks guys.
Once I get going a little more I’ll start advertising more. Right now we are focusing on local business/traffic to see how things work out. This past week the store was so busy we were almost to the point that we couldn’t handle the work load.
Jon.