This kinda got buried in another thread: "is there a sound file accurate for the Sharks?" Or is one of the Loksound chips close enough?
I just finished detailing nad painting a pair of D&H sharks, do I need to put sound units in both or can I just use one and speed match the units, (they will be semi-permanently coupled together)?
Jay
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modelmaker51 wrote: I just finished detailing and painting a pair of D&H sharks, do I need to put sound units in both or can I just use one and speed match the units, (they will be semi-permanently coupled together)?
One is probably going to be enough in this situation. If you have more money than you know what to do with, then put sound in both, but if they'll always run as a consist almost no one will notice. (There are those that really like two sound engines in a consist, though, so listen to them, too. If these 2 will be your "showpiece" engines, then the extra investment might be worth it, too.
Put sound in one, and a simple, cheap decoder in the other. See how you like it. Worst case, you've got a decoder to put in another engine.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
These will not be the Show Pieces" as such, this is what they looked like on the D&H: mine will be wheathered to match.
After giving it some thought, I believe I'm going to run them off of one decoder and put a speaker in each unit. If I don't use both units for track pickup I would only have to run 4 wires between units, with track pickup 6 wires. Even with the extra weight I put in, there's still plenty of room for a speaker in each unit. I've tested the amperage draw, which is less than .4A pulling 50 cars which is about 20 more than they'll actually be pulling when in service on the layout.
So, it comes down to picking the right decoder for the Shark sound, any recommendations?
Hi Modelmaker.
I just went through something simular with my Baldwin RS-12, got some good advice from davidmbedard. I went with loksound. I looked in the diesel spotter's guide to find out what prime mover they used,( example sharknose RF-16, 8 cycl. 608A) and looked at both tony's and Litchfield sta. under Loksound for a (close) match of prime mover and air horns. Baldwin is under standard and micro, although you would probably want to go with standard if you run two locos off one decoder, (never tried it myself). I don't see why you can't use a regular decoder in one and sound in the other, you just can't do it on DC, DCC should be no problem, just run two wires for another speaker in your trailing unit, and that way your all set with your power and reversing headlight. Would Seem to work OK, maybe others had differant experiences. I liked the loksound, good thing as I didn't see any other choices.
P.S. I bought an extra speaker, they are 100 ohm, but they're reasonable and come with inclosers.
Hope I've been helpful, Den.
This is a little O/T, But one modification I highly recommend is to put a solid draw-bar between the two units. I have a decoder (no sound) in both units and still found they would buck against each other intermittently. By installing the drawbar, they stay tight to each other and you are also able to tighten up the gap between the two. This may not be an answer for a lot of engines, but the D&H sharks were seldom split up and were never operated as a single unit.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Thanks for all the input guys.
The stall current was .8A, but they'll never be anywhere near that. I've actually done about 20 pairs of these over the years, but this is the first set for myself and DCC/sound.
I used a pair of short shank dummy couplers, I used them on my PA's as well and they work good.
I had forgoten about the reverse light! so I guess I'll go ahead with the 2 decoders, I've got plenty of D13SRJ's on hand. All or most of my other locos were speed matched before the change to DCC so this will be my first attempt at changing CVs. I'm still going to put a speaker in the non sound unit.
I'll be ordering the Loksound decoder and speakers today. I'll post back here when the project is completed.