Harry Potter train conversion to DCC

Started by daveatllrc, July 01, 2011, 10:10:01 PM

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daveatllrc

Has anyone been able to convert the Bachmann Harry Potter Engine from DC to DCC?  If so how did you do it and what problems came up while conversion.

richg

I did a Google search for harry potter dcc and found out a few have done the conversion.

Isolate the motor contacts from the frame halves. Install metal wheels and pickups in the tender.
Use a Miniatronics 4 pin connector between the loco and tender.
Follow the NMRA DCC wiring code. Some use a Digitrax DH123 decoder which handles 1.5 amp. A DZ124 decoder is quite small and can handle 1 amp.
Take your multimeter and measure the motor current at 12 volts DC. If your first DCC install, expect quite a challenge. Isolating the motor usually require separating the frame halves and putting the frame halves back together will be a challenge. Insulating spacers have to be put back correctly.

Rich

Jim Banner

A small typo in Rich's posting - that should be a DZ125 decoder.

Jim
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