cats think well of me Hi Richard, Thanks for the response. It looks as if BLI had planned on putting two in there when originally designed, so that aspect should be a cinch. By removing the boards, would that involve hard-wiring the model? Alvie
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the response.
It looks as if BLI had planned on putting two in there when originally designed, so that aspect should be a cinch.
By removing the boards, would that involve hard-wiring the model?
Alvie
Alvie,
Yes you would need to unsolder and then solder in the new board. I don't like going through the OEM board's caps, diodes, etc as it has some effects on performance. Tracing the OEM system and identifying the resistors for the lights is important however. The Soundtraxx decoder TSU 1000 will provide track power to the lights/functions. That won't work for LEDs, so leaving the OEMs resistors in place can be advantageous. Sometimes they are on a seperate light board.
If you've not done much electrical work before this can be a lot to do for a first time. Nothing wrong with just plugging the decoder in. Depending on the OEM board there may be either an 8 or 9 pin plug for a DCC decoder. The 8 pin is usually wired for just two light functions--fwd/rev. The 9 pins normally have 4 functions. You can remove the wiring harness 9 pin connector from the TSU-1000 and replace with a 9 pin to 9 pin harness to avoid almost all soldering. You can buy 9 pin to 8 pin wiring harnesses as well.
Sometimes I replace the Soundtraxx capacitor with a larger one to help even more with stalling.
Richard
I think Soundtraxx has a decent recording of the J's whistle and good sounds overall. I like your selection of speaker, especially the 1.22" You may even be able to squeeze in two of them?
I've done other BLI installs and typically pull most of their boards out.
Hi all,
I recently acquired a BLI Stealth-Series N&W J, for a great price, and would like to convert it to a sound unit compatible with both DC and DCC. Has anyone done this? If so, what components and accessories should I consider? I'd like to use QSI's high-bass speakers and likely either a Tsunami or LOK-sound decoder for the N&W J-class, whichever one might be more accurate.