Track Cleaning Cars, Patience: Atlas (Tomix) Track cleaning car working with decoder

 This is a follow-on to this post from 2009.  tl;dr:

1. Patience is a virtue.  I tried installing an obsure Japanese decoder in an Atlas Track Cleaning Car (rebadged Tomix) in 2009 and failed so gave up.  I recently went through the entire process, including proving it worked on DC, and the decoder works great.  I clearly skipped steps when I first tried.
2. In the comments to that 2009 post ACT6006 track cleaner was recommended.  I never tried it but just ordered it.  ACT6006 may substitute for my current preferred cleaner, Mineral Spirits.
3. Got the CMX Track Cleaning car (mentioned in that 2009 post) working just fine with Mineral Spirits, and now with the Atlas Track Cleaning car working will be running short trains with the two cars over all tracks I'm supporting on a daily basis. 

Track cleaning is always an issue for Model Railroaders.  Back in 2005, when we were still in Kansas, I was experimenting with N scale DCC and was looking for a more modern solution.  The the picture with this post - The small layout was on the side of a garage thus full of dust.

At the time I ordered a CMX track cleaning car and an Atlas track cleaning car.  Along the way in 2007 I ordered an obscure Japanese decoder for the Atlas car.   Atlas was really a re-badged Tomix car from Japan, it regulated the power of the cleaning motor based on power from the DC power supply/throttle, and there was no available US solution for a DCC decoder.

In that post in from 2009, linked to at the start of this post, I finally tried to get the CMX and Atlas cars working but both failed and I set them aside to revisit later.

Well, been doing lots of manual track cleaning lately as it is a big layout and it did suffer from over 10 years of neglect.  Realized that if I'm going to keep newly clean areas clean I'll need to have a regular cleaning regime.  I started with the CMX car.  I can't remember what the problem was.  I think I also experimented with some cleaning liquids that didn't go so well, there is some crust on it from that time. But for me it works fine after I patiently worked with it until I'd figured out a system.  The challenge is keeping the cleaning fluid flowing at a good rate.  

Then came the Atlas car.  All I can remember is that the decoder had no instructions and that it never seemed to work.  I had it in a project box in pieces.  The first rule of converting a device designed to run on DC is verify that it works on DC.  You know, I don't know that I did that with this decoder.  But now that is part of my standard process - my workbench includes an old DC throttle for that purpose.  Low and behold - it didn't work on DC!   Then I tested with the multimeter and figured out that the motor worked fine it was just the contacts weren't contacting.  Then I looked at the parts drawing and patiently put it back together and realized I'd been assembling it wrong, and that properly assembled it worked fine.  Neat.  Played with it a bit on DC then carefully took it apart, deduced how the decoder was meant to be installed (there is actually an internal part that is used for the external DC switch that you have to discard with the decoder - the on/off is controlled by DCC) and reassembled it.  Voila - on the DCC programming track the Zephyr read the DCC number - it was 1 instead of the usual 3 for locomotives.  I think I'll stick with that.  

Decoder Pro had no idea what this was except the manufacturer id, 103.  Doesn't look like this company has made much DCC or makes this decoder any more.  But what the heck, it works.  the Atlas car can do wet or dry scrubbing of the track but also has a vacuum function and that's what I'm starting with.