Okay, Now that I managed to actually click on the correct forum for this post:
After searching around and not finding what I was looking for I decided to ask here. My knowledge of DCC has only been limited by Aristo-Craft's Train Engineer Revolution in G-Scale and that really isn't true DCC. So here I am trying to understand which direction to go. I was looking at ESU Lok's system which uses the 8-Pin connector and still has a wire output for a speaker. I'm trying to avoid a full circuit board replacement if possible. I don't know when Stewart Hobbies Began using the plug and play boards. Perhaps I did end up with a Bowser model, but I bought this BN F9A&B set for 50 bucks at the local train show. I wanted to add DCC and sound to it. But again, I haven't understood most of what the DCC Manufacturer's are saying or showing.
I don't know what the best DCC options including sound are for the Stewart Units, but any help or instructional information would greatly help me. I was told that the dcc decoders would interact with each manufacturer's systems, but I don't know if that's true or not.
DragonFyreGT aka Snowball aka Nate.
WolfCreek & Iron Mountain (Keeping The Burlington Northern Alive since 1995)
"We took those Cascade Green engines for granted. Every Age. All of us. And in the blink of an eye, the era ended as quickly as it began."
DragonFyreGTAfter searching around and not finding what I was looking for I decided to ask here. My knowledge of DCC has only been limited by Aristo-Craft's Train Engineer Revolution in G-Scale and that really isn't true DCC. So here I am trying to understand which direction to go. I was looking at ESU Lok's system which uses the 8-Pin connector and still has a wire output for a speaker. I'm trying to avoid a full circuit board replacement if possible. I don't know when Stewart Hobbies Began using the plug and play boards. Perhaps I did end up with a Bowser model, but I bought this BN F9A&B set for 50 bucks at the local train show. I wanted to add DCC and sound to it. But again, I haven't understood most of what the DCC Manufacturer's are saying or showing.
I don't know what the best DCC options including sound are for the Stewart Units, but any help or instructional information would greatly help me.
Here is one of my earlier attempts - The sound unit is a Soundtraxx DSX. It is the white blob sitting directly in front of the speaker cone. The black tubing behind the speaker is the enclosure. It is thick PVC piping with a volume area exactly equal to 2.5x the area of the speaker cone.
To install sound into a powered unit will involve trying to get the speakers to port up through the roof fans, firing them down past the trucks out the bottom of the unit, or milling some space out of the fuel tanks.
Bah, I forgot to mention the A Unit does have the 8 Pin DCC PnP Board equipped. I must have forgotten to type that. The A Unit is powered and the B Unit is not.
Hi!
I had a similar situation with two of the newer Stewart / Bowser ABBA sets. The As were powered, the bs were dummies. I took the easy way out (not the less expensive way) and bought the power/sound B chassis for those units. I got them at Caboose Hobbies, and got the best price in town. Oh, they are nice!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
If you want soudn int he pwoered A youw ill probably have to remove the bord and hard wire, just to have enough room. I have 2 B units with sound, one is a dummy that I put an old SOundtraxx LC decoder and speaker in, all I had to do was solder some thign decoder-type wire to the truck side plates to get power, the wheels are metal and the pickups are in place even on the dummies. No issue with room there. I added a couple of pieces of .100 styrene to make the whoel shell into the enclosure.
The other one I bought with sound already in, as a the replacement sound chassis. It was mrked Dummy but it actually is powered and has a Tsunami decoder in it. The stock circut board was removed and the Tsunamu sits over the middle, the speaker is mounted facing down over the rear truck. I forget if it looks like they removed any material from the frame.
Since you have a dummy B unit, look at fitting the biggest speaker adn anclosure in it you can, and just put a motor decoder in the A. I hard wire most of mine anyway, bypassing any circuit board, but a TCS DP2x with plug in to the 8 pin socket on the Stewarts. I also swap the LED - the ones they come with are YELLOW, I install a golden white so it actually looks like a light bulb and not a traffic light.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
So a speaker in the dummy is looking like the best option. As for the decoder, I figured out which one I'm going with. So the speaker in the dummy, will have the wires running to the decoder in the A-Unit then? Or am I confusing this even further?
If you can fit the decoder into the A do so, it will require fewer wires to connect between the units.
For example, if you are not going to use the B for track pick up as well, then you only have the 2 speaker wires to feed from the A to the B. If you do decide on pickup from the B as well then you will need the left and right track wires to go back from the B to the A in addition to the speaker wires.
If you put the decoder and the speaker in the B then you will have to feed the 2 motor leads, the pick up leads and lighting leads.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Ah Okay. That makes sense than. Thank you so much for clearing that up, Simon.
Why not use the SoundTraxx Tsunami that is a drop in replacement board? # 678-828020
See here :: http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/tsunami/tsuBW1000.php
I would install two speakers in the floor of the B unit. Use 4 OHM speakers (28X40) and wire them in series for a 8 OHM load . See here http://www.mrdccu.com/install/hods/Stewart-FTAB-827101.htm