RailPro and Decoder Buddy

[Jeff1022]

I was talking with Nick of Nix Trainz at the recent St. Louis RPM meet and he told me that his "Decoder Buddy" board would work with a RailPro module.  I'm just getting my feet wet with RP, but his boards have a 21 pin receptacle and I believe the modules are a 9 pin.  So, how can this be true per him?  Has anyone been able to make these work together in some manner?  I also inquired about his "Stay Alive" capacitors and he said he had never tried it, but he did use another brand stay alive with a RailPro module once and it worked.  So, give it a try and see is all he had on that. 

Any thoughts from the group will be greatly appreciated.  Thanks. Jeff Youst

[G8B4Life]

Ring has both 21 pin and 9 pin LM's  available. The 9 pin LM would require an adapter harness to use the Decoder Buddy board, the 21 pin LM would fit directly.

As for "Stay Alive" devices, never used any so I can't answer that but in theory any Stay Alive should work however some that are built into factory motherboards in models do not work properly without the specific DCC decoder they were designed for seemingly due to a mismatch in control voltage levels. Ring has their own Stay Alive, the PBM which they try to spruik as the only safe Stay Alive for RailPro.

- Tim

[sieggs1]

Hey all,

I use the Decoder Buddy with RailPro LM-3S-21. Yes, you can use a Keep-Alive with the pins on the Decoder Buddy. RailPro's own works but I have also been making my own keep-alives for much cheaper and they last longer.

Rob S.

[Tom]

I recently bought a DCC ready loco with a 21-pin plug but want to use an LM-3S module.  Is there such a thing as a 21-pin to 9-pin adapter?

[LVRR1856]

Here is a 9 to 21 adapter, not sure why it's called "European", for $12 .... maybe worth a shot ?

Just google 9 pin to 21 pin dcc adapter ....

[gregeusa]

21 pin standard started in Europe I believe

[snowdog]

I've used several 21 pin - 9 pin adaptors

[cws]

Which decoder buddy did you choose, Mini, V1B, V5B or V8B and why? 

thanks!

Carl

[faithie999]

Hey all,

I use the Decoder Buddy with RailPro LM-3S-21. Yes, you can use a Keep-Alive with the pins on the Decoder Buddy. RailPro's own works but I have also been making my own keep-alives for much cheaper and they last longer.

Rob S.

Rob--can you post details on your DIY keep-alives?   i went down the DIY road some time ago and wasn't happy with my results. 
thanks

Ken

[sieggs1]

Hey Ken,

I recommend watching the following videos on YouTube from Larry Puckett. His design is far superior than my experience with RailPro's own PBM-2 and much cheaper to build. This is what I use.

   

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All parts are available on Amazon and the cost per unit to build is less than $10.

The two wires connect to the pads on the Decoder Buddy specifically for the keep-alive.

I put these on ALL my locos, especially my SW1500s. My locos NEVER stall, even on my unpowered frogs and my double crossover.

I use 5x 3.0V, 2F capacitors to get to 15V total. He uses only 4 capacitors so I don't think that would be enough for HO scale.

Rob