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My 1500 Motor And Sound Upgrade

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  • Member since
    January 2010
  • 208 posts
My 1500 Motor And Sound Upgrade
Posted by WPAllen on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 5:11 PM

I have remotored and added a Tsunami AT-1000 sound system to my Athearn SW1500 switcher. This is one of the older blue box models. I remotored with the NWSL 1220D-9 motor which is 10mm x 12mm x  20mm in size but puts out an amazing .48in/oz of torque.

While running the locomotive I blocked it from moving and the wheels just spin. I have two more of these to do and I will add some weight in the next units. The use of this motor makes the installation of everything very easy and also makes for a clean installation. The capacitor is on the bottom of the motor and held in place with black silicone sealant. On top of that is the motor also held in place my more silicone sealant. And on top of the motor is the Tsunami sound board also held in place by the silicone.  Here are some progress pictures.

IMG]http://i680.photobucket.com/albums/vv170/ParleyBaer/SW1500DecoderInstall001.jpg[/IMG]

 

  • Member since
    January 2010
  • 208 posts
Posted by WPAllen on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 5:14 PM

On more picture I missed.

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 6:12 PM

Nice install but where are you hiding the speaker?

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.

  • Member since
    January 2010
  • 208 posts
Posted by WPAllen on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 6:58 PM

The speaker goes in the top front of the shell. It is in place and I test fitted the shell with the speaker and there is plenty of clearance. It is a 16mm x 35mm speaker that comes with an enclosure. In fact it came out of an Athearn Genesis unit, so I believe it to be made by MRC.  I ran out of 1.5v, 1.2mm light bulbs and I am waiting on them in order to complete the installation.

  • Member since
    October 2006
  • From: Western, MA
  • 8,571 posts
Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, July 27, 2011 8:03 PM

WPAllen

The speaker goes in the top front of the shell. It is in place and I test fitted the shell with the speaker and there is plenty of clearance. It is a 16mm x 35mm speaker that comes with an enclosure. In fact it came out of an Athearn Genesis unit, so I believe it to be made by MRC.  I ran out of 1.5v, 1.2mm light bulbs and I am waiting on them in order to complete the installation.

I have done the same with the 16mm x 35mm speakers. I made styrene baffles. Those speakers also worked very well in a couple Spectrum 44 tonners and a 70 tonner.

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.

  • Member since
    January 2010
  • 208 posts
Posted by WPAllen on Saturday, July 30, 2011 5:37 PM

Just an update. I received the 1.2mm  1.5 volt bulbs and installed them in the head light and back up light holes. I only have a 6" test track but I am quite pleased with the results. I adjusted CV 210 to 8 and CV209 to 13. It started off a little to fast on step 1 with the factory settings for me. I have it set for 28 speed steps and I like how you have to go up a notch when you add to or three cars.

By itself it runs quite nice on step one and even with one or two cars. Add a couple of more weighted cars and you have to go to step 2 to keep things moving and of course the sound of the motor increases like it is working harder. With 6 weighted cars attached I went to step 3 for more speed and I like how the revs of the motor increase to make it sound like it is working even harder. I wished I had a video to show but I don't. The sound is quite good.

 

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