Kato F40PH Metra

Scale:
N Scale


This installation uses the following decoder:


This installation shows a Kato N-Scale F40PH Metra with a TCS K5D7 decoder installed.First, remove the shell by gently spreading it at the front left and rear right corner and then carefully lifting it off the frame.

First, remove the shell by gently spreading it at the front left and rear right corner and then carefully lifting it off the frame.
Next remove the central clip (marked in blue in the image above), lift the lighting board out of the frame, and slip the two large gray clips (also highlighted in blue) off of the frame.
Your locomotive should now look like the image above.
Next remove the two pickup bars from the chassis and wrap them with kapton tape where the motor tabs will fold over them. This step is crucial, and without the tape you will burn up your decoder.
Reinstall the pick up bars, the two grey clips, and then place the K5D7 in the chassis as shown above. Fold the motor tabs over the gold pads on the K5D7 and solder them in place. Replace the shell and you are ready to run! NOTE: To setup your red marker lights for automatic operation program the following CV values: CV 35 = 2 CV 51 = 16 NOTE: If your red marker lights remain on in both directions try moving the decoder forward in the locomtive as this is typically caused by light bleeding through from the headlight LED.

Important Soldering Tip

Please do not use any flux either liquid or paste on the mother board. Over time, the acidic properties of liquid or paste flux will begin eating away at the fiberglass PCB and will damage it. Use only Rosin-core solder or no-clean flux approved for electronics use.

TCS recommends the use of Kester "44" Sn63 Pb37, .015" diameter Rosin-core solder. Kester part number 24-6337-0007.

You can order this solder from the following retailers:
Digikey - PN:KE1110-ND
Techni-Tool - PN:488SO6775

Other solder tips

When stripping wire, only strip a tiny little bit of the insulation. Strip no more than a 1/32 of an inch. When the wire gets tinned with solder, the insulation will shrink back more. Try to not expose any more wire than half the length of the solder pad at most. In no case should solder or exposed wire wire ever be outside the boundary of the the solder pad you are attaching a wire to.
Click here for important information on properly Stripping and Tinning wire