Decoder Selection by Loco: Life-Like Proto 1000 and Proto 2000 Diesels

Retirement Sale

Decoder Selection by Loco:
Life-Like Proto 1000 and Proto 2000 Diesels


Retirement Sale: Save An Additional 20% Off of Our Normal Discount Price On Most Items - Excluded Items are Highlighted in Orange Click here for the list of remaining items. Where applicable, our site now includes links to products available from our recommended dealers.

Bulbs: Most Life-Like locos have been plagued with dim lights after converting to DCC. Life-Like has tried many things to resolve the problem, but has not come up with anything promising. In fact, the instruction in their latest locos say to replace the bulbs with 12-volt bulbs - which is also wrong. For HO scale, they should be replaced with 14-volt bulbs. Using a 12-volt bulb will require a suitable resistor to keep the bulb from burning out prematurely. If the Life-Like bulb didn't draw so much current, you could use a suitable resistor with itt and not replace the bulb at all.

Mars Light: If the model you have has a Life-Like Mars light, and also has an NMRA plug, then pin 3 of that plug usually controls the Mars light. If you have a decoder with Function 1, you can solder the green wire into pin 3 of the NMRA plug that came on the decoder and control the Mars light with Function 1.

Solder Pads: Some Life-Like locos come with solder pads instead of an NMRA socket. To install a wired decoder in these, you simply cut three traces (marked on the PC board with an "X") and solder the wires to the numbered pads - Orange wire to P1, the Yellow to P2, the Black to P4, the Gray to P5, the White to P6, the Blue to P7, and the Red to P8.

The bulb may be dim and need to be replaced. If replacing the bulb, it needs to be wired directly to the decoder. Connect one lead of the front bulb to the white wire, connect one lead of the rear bulb to the yellow wire, and connect the other lead of both bulbs to the blue wire. If not using 14-volt bulbs, be sure to use suitable resistors: one on the white wire and one on the yellow wire. With all this in mind, it may be just as easy to remove their board all together and hard-wire the decoder directly to the loco's wiring.


C-Liner Proto 1000	Any wired decoder can be used by hard-wiring or "Solder Pad" installation. This loco wasn't designed for the DH165A0, TCS-A1XX, or NCE-DASR, but they make a great retrofit installation. Our P1K F3 (same chassis) application note covers this.	Drop-in Fairbanks-Morse sound units are not available yet, so if you want to do this right away, you must use one of the DSX sound units along with a decoder as described at left.
DL109 (Alco) Proto 1000	Any wired decoder can be used by hard-wiring or "Solder Pad" installation. This loco wasn't designed for the DH165A0, TCS-A1XX, or NCE-DASR, but they make a great retrofit installation. Our P1K F3 application note covers this.	Because the drop-ins work, the TUADA drop-in decoder will also work.
Erie-Built A and B Proto 1000	Any wired decoder can be used by hard-wiring or "Solder Pad" installation. This loco wasn't designed for the DH165A0, TCS-A1XX, or NCE-DASR, but they make a great retrofit installation. Our P1K F3 (same chassis) application note covers this.	Drop-in Fairbanks-Morse sound units are not available yet, so if you want to do this right away, you must use one of the DSX sound units along with a decoder as described at left. With a little extra enclosure work the 3/4" oval speaker can be mounted in this unit, which will provide the best-quality sounds possible.
E6 & E7 Proto 2000	Life-Like changes things from time to time, so you will have to scrutinize the inside of your model to determine which decoder will fit. If the PC board has the NMRA socket toward the rear, then the TCS-DP5X, D-DH163IP and NCE-D14SRP will fit. If your model has an operating Mars light that you want to control with Function 1, use the TCS-DP5X. If the PC board has the NMRA socket toward the front, then any wired decoder with our WHPE harness with NMRA plug will work. The other three decoders will also fit, but will require a socket extension or board reversal to make them fit. Click here for E6 installation information. Click here for E7 installation information.	No recommendations.
E8 Proto 2000	All older E8s are hard-wire installations. As such, any wired decoder will do. If your model does not have a working Mars light, remove the PC board and do a normal decoder installation. If it has a Mars light you wish to use, ask for our E8 application note when ordering your decoder. Or, you can do a normal hard-wire installation and use the decoder's Mars light simulation. Some later E8s have the E7 PC board with an NMRA socket. If yours has that, refer to E7. Click here for installation information.	No recommendations.
FA Proto 2000 (early)	Any decoder with an NMRA plug on the harness.	No recommendations.
FA1/FB1 Proto 2000 (2001)	TCS-DP5X or any decoder with an NMRA plug harness. TH150DP requires the provided socket extension, and needs the diode on the loco's PC board to be bent over a little.	No recommendations.
F3 Proto 1000	Any wired decoder can be used by hard-wiring or "Solder Pad" installation. This loco wasn't designed for the DH165A0, TCS-A1XX, or NCE-DASR, but they make a great retrofit installation. Our P1K F3 (same chassis) application note covers this.	No recommendations.
GP-7 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder (1.125" or shorter) with our PK NMRA harness. See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
GP-9	Any wired decoder. The advantage of smaller decoders over the HO sizes is that they can usually be installed without removing the weight or PC board. Installation of the HO-size decoders requires removal of the PC board or weight - we recommend removal of the PC board for a hard-wired installation. We have an application note available for the asking when you order your decoder.	No recommendations.
GP-9 Phase II Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder (1.125" or shorter) with our PK NMRA harness. See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
GP-18 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder (1.125" or shorter) with our PK NMRA harness. See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
GP-20 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder (1.125" or shorter) with our PK NMRA harness. See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
GP-30 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder (1.125" or shorter) with our PK NMRA harness. See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
GP60 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder (1.125" or shorter) with our PK NMRA harness. See the Life-Like Bulb note above. If not replacing them, the front and rear bulbs in this loco need a 270-ohm resistor for the HO-scale setting, or 220 ohms for the N-scale setting. This loco has a number- board-lighting bulb that needs a 270-ohm to 300-ohm resistor for the HO-scale setting, or 200 ohms for the N-scale setting. This bulb comes wired to pins 4 and 5 on the NMRA socket. This MUST be removed or it will fry the decoder. Connect one lead to pin #7 (the blue common), and the other lead to whichever function you wish to use to control it.	No recommendations.
PA Proto 2000 See the Mars Light note above. There are two versions of this loco: high current and normal current. During the first couple of runs, this loco had motors that draw 3 amps or more on a stall test. Subsequent runs draw about 1-amp. The only way to tell which is which is to do a stall test or disconnect the motor, measure the winding ohms, then do an ohms-law calculation.	High-current-draw PA. Re-motor it so a standard HO decoder can power it, thus saving current so more locos can run on a single booster district - contact Life-Like (1-800-638-1470) for a free replacement of the motor. Normal-current-draw PA: any wired decoder with an NMRA plug.	No recommendations.
RDC Proto 1000	Any wired decoder can be used by hard-wiring or "Solder Pad" installation.	No recommendations.
SD7 Proto 2000.	Any wired decoder with an NMRA plug. This loco had light-board problems on the first couple of production runs. They used one resistor for both lights (front and rear). Consequently, if both lights are turned on at the same time, they are both so dim as to appear to be off. And even when only one is on, it is dim. We have an application note on how to correct this problem. Even on subsequent runs where they used two resistors, the lights are dim with DCC and require a resistor or bulb change. See the Life-Like Bulb note above about.	No recommendations.
S1	DH163LO, DZ143PK, TCS-M1PK, or NCE- P2KSR. Test fit the shell before installing the decoder. It's likely to need trimming. And if you rewire with a wired decoder, be aware that the chassis is used to power the (+) motor terminal.	No recommendations.
SD9 Proto 2000	Any wired decoder with an NMRA plug on the harness. The lights are dim with DCC and require a resistor or bulb change. See the Life-Like Bulb note above. The DH165A0, TCS-A1XX, and NCE-DASR are not exact drop-in replacements, but can be retrofitted by mounting them with two-sided foam tape. We have an application note describing the installation, free for the asking when you buy your decoder.	No recommendations.
SD45 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder with our PK NMRA harness. The bulbs do NOT need to be replaced if you use the DH163L0, but DO need to be replaced with our GOWs with any other decoder.See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
SD60 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder with our PK NMRA harness. The bulbs do NOT need to be replaced if you use the DH163L0, but DO need to be replaced with our GOWs with any other decoder.See the Life-Like Bulb note above.	No recommendations.
SW1 Proto 2000	DH163L0, NCE-P2KSR, or any decoder with our PK NMRA harness. Installation of the NCE-P2KSR or any decoder with our PK NMRA plug harness requires the addition of a resistor or replacing the lights with our GOW bulbs (bulb replacement preferred). Installation of the DH163L0 is plug-n-play without resistor or bulb replacement.	No recommendations.
SW8/600/900 Proto 2000	DZ143, TCS-M1, or NCE-SW9SR. See notes for SW9 below.	No recommendations.
SW9/1200 Proto 2000	DZ143, TCS-M1, or NCE-SW9SR. Wired decoders can be installed in this loco a couple of different ways: using the existing PC board to pass power to the lights (our recommendation) or removing the PC board. The NCE-SW9SR is a drop-in decoder that requires soldering. It doesn't use the light contacts inside the shell, so requires hard-wiring the lights to the decoder.	No recommendations.


Products Listed by Manufacturer • Products Listed by Type • Search • Loy's Freight Yard • OzRail About This Site • Contact Us • Consignment Items • DCC Topics •Turnout Topics • Final Inventory • How to Order • Surplus Sale • What's New


	Entire Site Copyright © 2007 Loy's Toys All rights reserved.	Last Revised Friday, November 23, 2007 11:52 PM


This site is best viewed with Firefox 1.4/Internet Explorer 5.0 / Netscape 6.0 or higher and at 800x600 resolution or higher.

Retirement Sale: Save An Additional 20% Off of Our Normal Discount Price On Most Items - Excluded Items are Highlighted in Orange

Retirement Sale: Save An Additional 20% Off of Our Normal Discount Price
On Most Items - Excluded Items are Highlighted in Orange