Hey guys,
I'm on to my next DCC project, adding sound to a Bachmann DCC on board GS4 Daylight. I have the Soundtraxx TSU-1000 Heavy steam decoder, 1" speaker and enclosure kit all ready to go. I also got the exhaust cam kit, but I don't think I'll use it. It seems like more trouble than benefit. I opened up the tender and loco to have a look inside. Noticed it has LED headlight and back-up light, which is nice.
So, the question is whether to (A) get the 8 Pin NMRA to 9 Pin JST harness, carefully remove just enough purple shrink tube from the Tsunami and just plug in the new decoder, solder the speaker wires, etc. OR (B) completely remove the Bachmann board and hard wire the new decoder adding my own resistors for the LEDs. I have read that there is some power savings with the later option, not mention a lot more room for the speaker enclosure. I think I'm leaning toward option B.
Any thoughts? Thanks for any info.
Casey
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You should have enough room with the A option. Look closely at the PC board and cut out the devices with a C prefix. Those are caps you do not need. The two green devices are inductors and with the caps gone are not an issue. They are essentially two straight pieces of wire at the frequency of the pulse power from the decoder. when the caps are gone.
Many have gone with the A option. I have seen this in quite a few DCC forums.
The PC board will not reduce the power to the loco. The ones who say that do not know what they are talking about.
The LED resistors are on the PC board. Some complain that the LED;s are not bright enough and possibly think the PC board robs power. Bachmann is known for having quite high resistance in their DCC locos for LED's. I have found that with my Bachmann locos that have on board PC boards.
The SoundTraxx cam option can be a challenge though. Your choice.
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.
I'd go with removing the decoder's eight pin plug and plugging in the Tsunami. No reason to remove the board.
Even with the Stay Alive cap there will be room.
Curious about the baffle though. No photo.
Here are a couple more picts. The tender has lots of space inside, but the Bachmann board is mounted to plastic stand-offs which hold it about 5/16" over the bottom of the tender, exactly where the sound holes are for a speaker. They also run all the wires under the board which which will make the speaker install even more cramped. If that board was gone, I could use the full speaker baffle set with plenty of space. I was planning to double stick the Tsunami decoder to one of the weights for a little added heat sink.
The speaker and baffle set are from Soundtraxx and you can assemble the baffle with all the segments or just one depending on your space restrictions. From what I read it was a Soundtraxx tech that recommended removing the Bachmann board and hard wiring the Tsunami. Also, when I test ran the loco I did notice that the LEDs are a little dim for my taste. I thought I might be able to improve that if I use the Tsunami decoder and use my own resistors.
Thanks for the input everyone.
Hey everyone,
I called Soundtraxx this morning and they said just what I had read... that you can replace the Bachmann light board with the Tsunami TSU-1000 decoder. You just have to be sure to add resistors for the LEDs.
Also, I discovered why the headlamp is dim. Bachmann uses one bulb to light both headlamps using a clear plastic light diffuser with the LED placed in the middle. Would love to add the MARS light effect, but will be difficult with that set up. If I could get the diffuser out and mill the headlight LED mount a bit, I may be able to add a second LED in the nose, but extra set of wires between the tender and loco to deal with. Will see if I try that or not.
Thanks again for the great advice!
Does the light board snap into place, or is it held by a screw?? It may be you could leave it wired in but just move it a bit. Also, you could try putting the speaker in without the baffle that came with it and see how it sounds with the tender body shell in place. May be the speaker by itself will fit in the space. My BLI Hudson has an unbaffled speaker in the tender, facing down. Sounds awful with the tender shell removed, but great when it's in place.
Hey Stix,
The Bachmann decoder had two screws holding it, but I simply replaced it with the Tsunami. I managed to use the full enclosure for the speaker and it sounds great, maybe even a little too loud! Thanks anyway for the suggestion.