Are they any good ?

Has anyone got any experience of the Lais range of DCC products ?

I have ordered a Lais 21 pin to 8 pin adapter for peanuts to run an Oxford Rail J27 on one of my spare Zimo MX 600R decoders.

Am I risking anything to either my loco or my decoder ?

I could buy a Lais 21 pin decoder very cheaply but prefer to stick with Zimo.

The plan is to fit sound but as yet, I can't decide whose project to buy - Youchoos or Digitrains.  Each of their online "guides" seem to require some butchery to the loco or decoder neither of which will happen "Chez Petermac" ………….

Purely from a user basis Peter ( I'm not getting into the ' are they an Ethical manufacturer or rip of merchants' )
I've used a few on older Hornby and Lima locos with reasonable results. Some say they are cheap rubbish, some say they are good cheap Chips, I think it depends on what you are using them for. I may be lucky but out of 20 ? 30 ? I've used for me, and other people I've hard wired them for I've had one fail and that was MY fault. I've NOT used their Harness but think I will in the future as it makes swapping out chips less of a hassle for minimal extra cost. . . Actually thinking about it I HAVE fitted a harness for my brother who I think then put in a Hornby generic chip, that was over two years ago and I've not heard he's had any problems with it. I know a few people who have used their stay alives as well 

Quality of the chips, wired or straight plug in seems fine

Cheers

Matt

I remember the fuss over this. Accusations (which were well founded) of pirating proprietary firmware (EPROM programming which included the manufacturers' NMRA code) if I remember. Strange that we go to great lengths to make sure copyright is acknowledged and protected, but will buy a product that has violated copyright and proprietary know-how.

I'll stick with basic decoders from recognized manufacturers.

Nigel

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

Has anyone got any experience of the Lais range of DCC products ?

I have ordered a Lais 21 pin to 8 pin adapter for peanuts to run an Oxford Rail J27 on one of my spare Zimo MX 600R decoders.

Petermac - do you mean the adapter or decoder - 2 different things ?
The adapter is purely a means of using a 8 pin decoder on a DCC ready loco that has a 21 pin socket

Spot on Sol.   :thumbs

It was indeed the adapter I was mainly asking about because I've already ordered one.

It was then that I noticed their decoder prices so thought I'd ask about the overall product quality.

I know a few here in Oz use them & are OK with them.

I have used both Zimo and Lais in a variety of types without issue.

Tim