Installing a TCS KA3 in Athearn DCC Ready Genesis GP38-2 with a bridge rectifier

[William Brillinger]

Hi everyone,

I updated my Genesis GP38-2's with TCS Keep-Alives yesterday.

These units are DCC ready and my LM install consists of simply plugging the Module into the socket on the locomotive's internal circuit board.

To install the Keep-Alive, I simply spliced my DF04S Bridge Rectifier into the wiring harness on the board.

I snipped the black and red wires, and installed the DF04S so the positive terminal was on the red wire leading into the module.

I soldered the positive (blue) wire for the KA3 to the positive terminal and the black/white wire to the negative terminal.

I like this package for the DF04S because it has a fair bit of room to work with it and fits this situation nicely.





Wiring Diagrams:

[William Brillinger]

I'm happy to report that I just got back from a 6 hour ops session on a layout that is a bit finicky as far as trackwork and power is concerned and my KA equipped Trio performed flawlessly for the entire time.  The DCC equipment on the line did not fair as well

I had a fantastic time! ...and my enjoyment of my RailPro locomotives just went up 2000% 

[nodcc4me]

That's good to hear Bill. Did you try linking one of your KA engines with a non-KA to see how they get along? I received my KA's yesterday, and need to figure out which engines are getting them.

[William Brillinger]

I found that the units definitely get along better if the entire consist has KA's installed.

Before I installed the KA's in my GP38-2's they just wanted to drag the Kato SD40-2 with the KA around.
The LM's don't realized that each one is seeing a different voltage and so they are not applying power equally.

Don't forget to reset the Max Current Draw after installing KA's too.

[nodcc4me]

Very helpful. Thanks Bill.

[CPRail]

I too was at the same session as Bill yesterday (Saturday). I arrived earlier than Bill so had more play time. While the DCC units were having some issues, I was running one KA equipped unit, with 2 non-KA equipped units. All played well together, but the KA-equipped one was the happiest. I eventually pulled one of the non-KA units - mostly due to a particularly finicky collections of turnouts that I had to traverse a gazillion times in my switching moves. The other two will be getting their KA's tomorrow if all goes according to plan.

After spending an hour and a half speed matching 2 Rapido GMD-1s on this layout the previous week (blarg...), I'm SOOOOO happy I made the decision to embrace RailPro, especially now that installing KAs is doable.

Now to get some 21 pin connectors to RailPro those GMD-1s...

[Antoine L.]

I got my KA3 and bridge rectifier yesterday from Bill because I was intrigued about this so I bought one just to see. (I only have Lm-2S)
Installed everything in a P1K F3A.

Wow.

It runs flawlessly. Like Bill said: Power interruption is now a thing of the past. I cannot believe why I did not do that simple modification before. It is amazing.

Antoine