I am thinking about purchasing a set of Genisis F-7s and installing the DCC and sound my self. My questions are not really technical as i have done several sound installs but i have not had a Genisis loco apart. Where does the speaker go and how much room is there. Same question for the decoder and the cap. Is there any need to machine the frame or the weight. My other locos have Soundtraxx or QSI decoders. Anyone done this or have suggestions on a decoder. thanks mike
Genesis F7s come apart by removing the front coupler, and gently prying the sides open at the bottom. you should take the rear portion of the frame out of the body first so that you don't mess up the headlight wiring.
A one inch round speaker will fit in the rear, you may need to make minor alterations to the weight, depending upon exactly what enclosure you use. The cap will fit between the Decoder and the speaker or you can put it in the cab. I put a Tsunami AT1000 in one of my F7s and couldn't be happier.
Athearn has announced that they are transitioning their Genesis line to Tsunamis, I believe. So, if you're patient, you may find that they're planning to do the job for you. In looking just at MSRP, I think it's actually cheaper to buy a sound-equipped engine than to buy a non-sound engine, decoder, speaker and enclosure and then still have to do the work yourself.
I just put a Tsunami in a Proto GP9. "Couldn't be happier" is my reaction, too.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Thanks guys. i had a look at the Athearn web site and they are not making CP F-7s with the tsunami just yet, but i am going to take your advice and hang tough for a bit. The price of an A-B set of locos and two decoders in Canadian $ will be quite expensive. As you say, with their buying power, they will most likely be cheaper and a factory install is most times a neater job as they make the frame to fit the the speaker. thanks mike
Well i guess i forgot to add in the P as in FP-7. Mike
I just installed 2 MRC 1821 sound decoders for the Genisis F7 the other day. A couple of things you will have to take note of on the Genisis are A: their pick ups at the wheels leave something to be desired. I had a lot of problems with the sound cutting out and the loco stopping and then restarting. I know it isn't a track issue so I called the tech at MRC and he informed me to inspect the pickups and he was 100% correct. Cleaned them up and did a little tweaking and so far so good The other issue was I have four of the Athearn F7 loco's and two of whihc had the pick ups wired backwards. If you look at them from the top the engineers side pick up went to the opposite side of the board and same on the front. So not knowing this I wired up the new deccoder exactly as it as and it ran backwards. I knew I had the motor hook up correct so I cracked the shell on another Athearn and it was wired the correctly, both pick ups wired to the respectively correct side of the brard. I opened up the remaining two loco's and one was right the other wired wrong. Just a little something to save you from pulling your hair out like I was last week.
Well then I must have a couple of one of a kind decoders then because until I started both F units up this afternoon to show my son being he was away for the weekend neither of them were run since last Firday do to the fact that I had the layout shut down to install a trestle bridge. Hit F* once and they each came alive and all CV functions were just as they were when I shut them down, Lucky me. Sorry but I'll put my money on the MRC tech thanks
Well the actual problem was with dirty track, as he mentioned to me which made perfectly good sense if you have a loss in power you will hear it before you see it. Unless it your either watching the train to notice the hesitation or in the case of a big loss of power you see the entire train jerk you don't notice it as much as when sound drops out. All I did was take a rag with methenol and wipe down the rails as far as I could reach with and then wipe them down with a clean dry soft rag. All engines now run & sound fine. I never got the impression that anyone was trying to pass the buck. If I wished he would have gladly taken a look at the eninge and the decoder no charge. I also confirmed with Athearn that they had some pick up issues with earlier models