JBConn, welcome aboard.
I'm guessing you've got a case of IE9. You may need to locate the "compatability mode" button and check it to make your posts visible here.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Go for it. There's nothing to prevent you from putting a high-quality sound decoder in your locomtives at a later date. One big advantage of Sound Bugs is that they can be re-programmed, so if you decide you no longer need it for one engine, you can re-assign it to another, regardless of type.
I have never been close enough to my operating train to be able to tell whether the sound is coming from the engine or the tender.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
mreagant Primary one is that I have several custom painted, one-of-a-kind Athearn locos that would be simple to convert with a basic motor function decoder, but could turn into difficult installs with a full sound package. A revenue car with a diesel sound bug could be switched amongst them and be fine. I also have some brass steam locomotives also custom painted that would not lend themselves easily because of space constraints to to sound installation.
Primary one is that I have several custom painted, one-of-a-kind Athearn locos that would be simple to convert with a basic motor function decoder, but could turn into difficult installs with a full sound package. A revenue car with a diesel sound bug could be switched amongst them and be fine. I also have some brass steam locomotives also custom painted that would not lend themselves easily because of space constraints to to sound installation.
Well, let me throw out one observation for your consideration. When watching steam locos with sound operate on the model railroad I always find it disconcerting to hear the sounds coming from the tender, which is where the speakers are normally located, rather than from the engine. It just sounds "wrong" to me.
With diesels the speaker is normally located somewhere in the body so the disconnect between the action and the sounds are not (as) noticeable. If you go with the sound car idea, I think the disconnect between where the "motor" is supposedly located and where the speakers might become problematic.
In addition, you also have the issue of that same car always being located in the same position in every train, but I presume you have already come to grips with that reality.
Thanks for all the input, guys. I realize that there is a feeling among some that this is a poor substitute for going with a whiz-band, top of the line decoder, but i have my reasons. Primary one is that I have several custom painted, one-of-a-kind Athearn locos that would be simple to convert with a basic motor function decoder, but could turn into difficult installs with a full sound package. A revenue car with a diesel sound bug could be switched amongst them and be fine. I also have some brass steam locomotives also custom painted that would not lend themselves easily because of space constraints to to sound installation.
I'm going to give this a try and see if it work at all.
Mike
Soundbugs are 8 ohm speakers, no odd speakers needed. Mien came with an 8 ohm speake.r Volume is MORE than sufficient.
Check the digitraxsound group on Yahoo, there are a few people there who have gone way beyond what comes reprogrammed in the Digitrax decoders. Better sound samples, notch transitions, etc. Some did a mechanical reefer, in case you have a train of those - a nice subtle low volume works best there.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, or, in this case, the ear. I've got a few Sound Bugs, and a couple of Digitrax sound-only decoders with function outputs. I put one in a trolley, which doesn't need big sound, and most of the rest in old Athearn Blue Box engines, mostly reclaimed rubber-band-drive locos that have been "neutered" and run as dummies. I wasn't going to put a hundred-dollar decoder in a ten-dollar engine, so they're fine for this. I also have a Bachmann 0-6-0T tank engine, where installing sound would be a challenge. Since this is only used in a small dockside area of my layout, I put a Sound Bug in a building and let the viewer's imagination put the sound into the engine.
For a decent engine, though, I would recommend a Tsunami. If there's any significant effort involved to install the system, you'd might as well do it right.
mreagant Train Modeler: The sound bug was my first experience at installing sound a few years ago. It was awful. If you haven't purchased the unit, my personal opinion is don't. It is probably fine for a horn and bell. Richard So what do you suggest that is sound only so as not to have the cost and problems of competing full function decoders? What, specifically, was "awful" about it? Mike
Train Modeler: The sound bug was my first experience at installing sound a few years ago. It was awful. If you haven't purchased the unit, my personal opinion is don't. It is probably fine for a horn and bell. Richard
The sound bug was my first experience at installing sound a few years ago. It was awful. If you haven't purchased the unit, my personal opinion is don't. It is probably fine for a horn and bell.
Richard
So what do you suggest that is sound only so as not to have the cost and problems of competing full function decoders? What, specifically, was "awful" about it?
Mike,
I don't know of a good sound only decoder since so much of the cost of good sound in a chip is in the sound processor and it's algorithms/processor associated with control. For example when a loco starts moving or stops the associated prime mover notching changes. 4 chuffs per revolution on a steamer, etc--these things need to be tied together. Sound decoders are quickly evolving and some (Titan for example) are going to stereo. BTW, I usually put 2 speakers in each diesel. The biggest problem I deal with in full function sound decoders is increasing the keep alive capability to deal with dirty track/dead spots--and that's not that hard really.
As far as what was so bad--it sounded tinny, the prime mover sound synthetically driven, and it didn't associate well with loco movements. Also to add better (high bass) and more widely available 8 ohm speakers didn't really make sense with it's 32 ohm requirement(as I recall--32 ohms). Simpler to just put it in the parts bin and chock it up to experience gained.
Train Modeler The sound bug was my first experience at installing sound a few years ago. It was awful. If you haven't purchased the unit, my personal opinion is don't. It is probably fine for a horn and bell. Richard
Yes, that will work. The Sound Bug comes pre-loaded with a steam package and a diesel package. I think the diesel is an SD-40, but I could be wrong. You switch between them by setting a CV.
The supplied speaker is a 1-inch round one. If you're in N-scale, it might not fit in the car, so be prepared to buy a speaker in that case. It should be no problem in HO.
The Sound Bug, like other Digitrax sound decoders, only has 8-bit sound encoding. If you're used to the 16-bit sound you find in a Tsunami or Lok-Sound, you'll find the Sound Bug won't come up to that level of quality.
What scale? Are you going to use it for the sound of the loco? If so yes this will work. RMC had an article a while back on using one in a dummy B unit for this purpose. If you want different loco sounds you need a Digitrax PR3 and the sound files. The problem is getting the 2 decoders to match up the sound to the speed of the loco. If you are going to use the sound bug on one loco only,programm them to the same adress and adjust the cv's for speed and momemtum the same on both decoders. Joe
Any good reason that a Digitrax Sound Bug will not be adequate for an install in a cattle car or box car to work head-end behind a non-sound locomotive provided that it gets proper track power?