Hello,
I have a Zimo  MX645P22 sound decoder, according to the Zimo instructions (page 9) there are two pins for a stay alive capacitor. Would it be correct if I followed the Zimo pins through the loco PCB tracks and fitted the Stay Alive to the pads on the locos PCB?


http://www.zimo.at/web2010/documents/Small_Decoders.pdf


I have been shown a pair of pads on the decoder itself by somebody, but there is nothing on the Zimo instructions to confirm this that I can see. I have asked the manufacture of the model and they do not know where a SA would be fitted to their loco PCB board.


Hoping to get a solid reply here as I don't want to blow up my decoder.


Thanks,
Rob.

Hi Rob

I have bought quite a few Zimo (non sound) decoders and stay alives from Youchoos. You might like to look at theie web site. I have always found the owner, John Gymer, to be extremely helpful.

Hope this helps

Hi,
I have bought products form John a few times in the past and he is indeed VERY good, but I can't ask him to give his time in this case as he has no vested interest. The loco and decoder was bought from the maker and the stay alive was bought from Digitrains. 

I also can't ask Digitrains as I've already done that, but I'm uncomfortable with their suggestion and I can see no evidence of their suggestion in the Zimo instructions. 

I'd rather come off the loco PCB, but the manufacturer does not know how to do it (a slightly odd situation!)

I wondered about that!

If it were me, rather than risk blowing the sound decoder, I would sacrifice/use elsewhere  the SA you have and buy an SA and Lifelink from John.

Good luck

That is indeed a VERY good idea !
I didn't think of that ! 

I will have a chat with John on the phone tomorrow and buy the SA from him.

Thank you !!

This from my own experience (x2) with the MZ645 series, both were supplied by Youchoos, fitted with an onboard 470uF Cap. These connection points are shown in the manual.

TBH for larger locos it is is all I've ever needed as all wheel pickup does a good job if you keep the track clean. My understanding (usual health warning) is that the 645 series can have a direct connected Stay alive up to a certain size. Larger Capacitance requires a stand alone SA control chip between the DCC and the Capacitor, different connections AFAIR.

On my smaller Zimo Sound chips, a separate SA control device is the only way to provide a stay alive as there's no on-board SA management. So, I'm used to fitting a SACC16 or more recently the Lifelink. Wiring is to indicated points on the relevant chip.

The source you quoted looks to be a very old version of the ZIMO manual, this is the current one e

http://www.zimo.at/web2010/documents/MX-small-decoders_EN.pdf

with updates in 2022, yours had last update reference in 2013, not sure if much has changed but newer additions made.

I think there's a separate download for the new generation of decoders. I hope this is helpful.

THANK YOU !
That was the info I needed, page 11 has the confirmation I was looking for. 
The instructions I was working from had my decoder listed, but not the information listed that is in the new instructions, this was the whole reason I'd been having so many problems.

So thank you, now I can just fit the SA coming from Digitrains and not harass anymore traders.

Thanks again :-)

P.S,

I did end up ringing John at YouChoos anyway as I was worried about the stats on the SA I'd bought as I couldn't find any info on it! I told John my whole situation and was more than ready to buy another SA from him. As always, John totally had my back, he gave me all the assurances I needed to know and declined my offer of buying one of his products and told me the SA I had coming form Digitrians was a very good product and match for my decoder. 

I think I'll just use Youchoos from now on as they take the time to make sure the customer understands what they are doing. Decoders are way too expensive to just blow up !!

So a big thank you to you Colin and to John at Youchoos.