Here is a link to the SoundTraxx sound module that plugs into the PC board motor decoder in the Bachmann EM-1. No idea on what the interface wiring diagram is like. No idea if SoundTraxx or Bachmann will release a diagram page. No doubt, some who are hackers will figure it out and post a diagram in the future.
The motor decoder has to be reset back to the defaults if you get the loco without the module to be able to have the proper sync. It sells for about $75.00 at one place I have seen. $70.00 at another place.
http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/products.php?act=viewProd&productId=3924
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Hmm, I presume there are other components on the other side of that board, since all it has there is basically pair of large capacitors.
The whole thing sounds like a reverse Blue Line setup, where the loco comes with a motor decoder and you add sound instead of the other way around like Blue Line. Resetthe loco decoder first so they both end up with the same address, momentum, etc.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Yeah, I saw the caps right away.
Bachmann does not seem to want to say much in the Bachmann forums so I, maybe wrongly, assumed the motor decoder has its own CV's and the sound module its own CV's. IC's have shrunk a lot from the days of TTL IC's.
One person told me in the Bachmann forums, “for the last time, the sound module is not a decoder”. That is a quote.
Go figure.
I would like the loco but no room to run it. Much too large for me.
If it's NOT a decoder then it would have to just be the amplifier and maybe keep alive section - in which case it's overpriced but the loco is a steal because if must have the sound chip already on it witht he sound samples, just no way to play them withotu adding the extra module. I cn;t believe they'd actually do it that way but you never know.
If it's NOT a decoder then there should be no need to reset the motor decoder before installign it, as there would be no CVs to sync. Good thing the discount is high, for the list price you coudl buy a complete full features Tsunami. It wouldn;t just plug right in to the existing board, but it would have more features.
That looks like one half of the Soundtrax decoder they installed in the new Alco 2-6-0
Truck.
The Bachmann rep at the Bachmann forums has said the EM-1 has to be set back to default conditions before plugging in the Sound module.
The SoundTraxx CV settings show many CV's for sound.
Some think the sound IC's are on the sound module. Some think the sound IC's are on the decoder that cones with the loco and the sound module is for sound only.
The decoder that comes with the loco shows quite a few IC's on it.
The sound module might have more IC's on the back side of the decoder.
Right now, it seems you cannot just plug any 21 pin sound decoder into the tender.