I am just getting into model railroading and I have purchased my first 3 locomotives. First, I would like to add dcc and sound to my Kato SD45-2 which is dcc ready. I pulled the body off and noticed a very extensive lighting system that routes the light to the headlight, rear light, and ditch lights. I removed the small circuit board from the light board and am sitting here staring at the chassis. I really like the sound from the soundtraxx tsu-1000 (828041) for emd645 and would like to add it to this locomotive. Would this work on this model? Could I simply purchase the decoder and an 8-pin connector and plug it into the Kato light board and add a speaker? Thanks for any help you can provide.
-Levi
Soundtraxx item no:828063 fits this model but needs to have the headlight and ditch lights LED's installed.It originally fits the SD45 wich has a differently placed headlight and no ditch lights thus the required modification.However,the decoder is ready for it,it's just a matter of soldering the new LED's on.
Visit Soundtraxx's website and click "decoder selector" then "Kato" then "SD40-2".The mod is well detailed.If you can't do it or know of no one who can,email me,I'll let you know of a supplier who will have one "prepared" for you at a very reasonable cost.
I knew this...I assumed the gentleman has mis-typed...or he doesn't have a Kato.Stronger odds he's confused the model than the brand.
I have 4 of these mid-production SD40-2's with sound. Leave the light board alone and put it back in the engine. This runs the ditch lights. There is an 8 pin NMRA plug on the back of the light board. If your SoundTraxx decoder does not have an 8-pin plug, get a harness so you can plug it in. The fuel tank on the model will take a 1.1" round speaker(there is a baffle/enclosure down there as well.
In my case, I used the Digitrax SDH164D decoder and a DHWHP harness. On the frame of the engine is a plastic rail that is press fit - remove it so you can route the speaker wires. My sound decoder included a 1.1" speaker that fits in the plastic enclosure provided with the model.
When you program the engine address, that Kato light board will program to the same address, and your ditch lights will also work. This is a really good solution for ditch lights and there are no wires to any of the lights!
It takes me about 5-10 minutes to install the decoder/speaker once I have the shell off of the model. In the case of the Digitrax sound decoder, it comes with a default of an SD38-2 for the diesel sound. I have a Digitrax PR3 programmers, so I down-loaded the SD40-2 sounds into the model. The only issue I had with the install was that there was NO sound after I down-loaded the new sound. The decoder comes with two default sound packages in its memory - Sound 1 is a steam engine, and sound 2 is a SD-38-2. These are sort of in two partitions in the memory. Flipping a CV will select the steam or diesel sound. After you down-load a sound project, it clears out all of the memory,and you are at the #1 sound starting address. I had to go back into Decoder Pro and select the steam option so that I could get my new sound package to operate. As far as sound quality, It is no Tsunami, but only cost me $43, including the speaker! It is rather loud at the 15 setting for overall volume, so I have set it back to the default of '9'. I had read that the Digitrax sound decoders were not loud enough, so I had changed it to max(15) - no need for that.
The only issue with the fuel tank mounted speakers are picking up anything magnetic - spikes, bits of wire, etc. A friend had his Kato SD38-2 sort of lose it's sound about two weeks ago The speaker cone was clogged with 'junk'. After cleaning it out, the sound came back. He now places two layers of facial tissue between the speaker face and the slotted 'grill' on the bottom of the fuel tank.
BTW, the sound 'experts' had a hard time deciding if I it I had a Soundtraxx or ESU sound decoder in the model - I had to show them the cheap Digitrax '8-bit' sound decoder! They key is finding a good sound package to down-load into these decoders. The Digitrax SoundFX Yahoo group has a lot of good information if you use these decoders. BTW, you can use a 8 ohm speaker with these decoders, just turn down the volume. I have a TDS small oval speaker in one of my older SD40-2's that did not have the fuel tank speaker feature.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
The Kato board is a fun idea if you want to use this loco on DC or with a silent DCC eight pin decoder but is worthless if you want to add sound,at least with a Tsunami since the Tsunami readily offers ditch lights anyway.
But still,let's say you want to install an eight pin plug to a Tsunami and use F5 & F6 outputs for some other light feature,you still have to configure CV35 (F1) wich is different for both decoders.The Kato board needs a value of CV35=4 for the ditch lights to blink while the Tsunami needs a value of CV35=8 for the bell.A value of CV35=4 to the Tsunami triggers the horn.It is possible to program them separately I suppose but would one want the bell and ditch lights to work together with F1?The bell can be re-mapped to F5 & F6(F2,3 and 4 are used and aren't toggle functions) but since both these functions work together for some light effects,it might not be practical.I've tinkered with the idea for a while to finally decide another loco would have sound so I haven't really tested this.What do you guys think?
jrbernier I have 4 of these mid-production SD40-2's with sound. Leave the light board alone and put it back in the engine. This runs the ditch lights. There is an 8 pin NMRA plug on the back of the light board. If your SoundTraxx decoder does not have an 8-pin plug, get a harness so you can plug it in. The fuel tank on the model will take a 1.1" round speaker(there is a baffle/enclosure down there as well. In my case, I used the Digitrax SDH164D decoder and a DHWHP harness. On the frame of the engine is a plastic rail that is press fit - remove it so you can route the speaker wires. My sound decoder included a 1.1" speaker that fits in the plastic enclosure provided with the model.
I have two of the Kato SD40-2 Mids, and three Kato SD38-2's that use a similar (if not the same) chassis.
The SD40-2's got Digitrax DH165K1A's with the SFX004 "Soundbug", and the SD38-2's got Digitrax SDH104K1B+FN04K1 combo's.
They were all easy board replacements, and the DH165K1A's preserved the SD40-2 Mids' ditch lights. In both cases the supplied speakers were an easy press-fit into the cavity Kato thoughtfully provides.
jrbernier BTW, the sound 'experts' had a hard time deciding if I it I had a Soundtraxx or ESU sound decoder in the model - I had to show them the cheap Digitrax '8-bit' sound decoder! They key is finding a good sound package to down-load into these decoders. The Digitrax SoundFX Yahoo group has a lot of good information if you use these decoders. BTW, you can use a 8 ohm speaker with these decoders, just turn down the volume. I have a TDS small oval speaker in one of my older SD40-2's that did not have the fuel tank speaker feature. Jim
I have to agree that the Digitrax sound decoders I put in these locos are not bad at all, especially considering that they only cost about 60-70% of what you'd pay for a Tsunami or Loksound plus a speaker. They aren't top-line sound decoders, but they don't have top-line prices, either.
Jacktal,
The KATO SD40-2 mid - production models do NOT have any lamps or LED's in the ditch lights. The have 'light pipe' that runs from the ditch lights/from headlights/rear headlights. The LED's are on the KATO 'light board' - which is a DCC decoder(for the lights). All the OP has to do is plug his decoder into the provided DCC 8-pin socket and program the address. KATO provides instruction to program the decoder - the default is to flash the ditch lights when ringing the bell or sounding the horn. You should be able to 'decoder lock' the Tsunami - Right?
I really like the 'wireless' scheme KATO has devised - There is not a lot of wires under the cover. I just programmed the KATO light board decoder, and programmed the sound decoder in my 'test' stand - no conflict when programming this way. I agree that it would be nice to if all the manufacturers got together in features/sounds for sound decoders, but I do not expect that to happen. Just having F! for the bell and F2 for the horn is all I need.
I am now working on a light pipe solution for my Atlas GP38/39 fleet so I can have working ditch lights both fore and aft. I have built a prototype fixture that will glue into the to of the Atlas shell. LED's will plug into these fixtures and two 4-pin min-connectors will connect them to the decoder function outputs. I am tired of 'stuffing' wires into locomotives and having to disconnect them for servicing. It still will be two small 4-wire cables, but at least they are maintenance friendly. At this point I am waiting for Details West to get their ditch lights available again(a note from them indicated they had to make now tooling for both the ditch lights and the clear lenses).
Jim:
Since I am not familiar with the Kato lighting system you have described I would love to see the "wireless solution" that you are working on. Perhaps some photos when you get it finished. It sounds like a nice solution to me.
Joe
Joe,
I should get started on the project about mid-month. Details West claims they will have the new ditch lights back in production then. What I plan to do is mill out a small 'groove' in the metal chassis for the flex light pipe to pass through. It will enter the platform mounted ditch light from the bottom. The other end will run back to the fixture withe LED's mounted in them. Right now the current fixture is designed to use 3mm LED's, but 1.8mm or SMD LED's could be used. 4 wires,(comm, DLR, DLL, & Headlight) will run in about a 1.5" cable with a 4 pin micro-plug to the function leads on the decoder. The same will be done for the rear of the engine. This will allow me to have working ditch lights on both the front and rear of my engines. I am modeling BNSF engines, so basically the big road engines only have front ditch lights, but the GP's have ditch lights on both ends. BNSF is not required to have 'flashing' ditch lights, but I think they are cool and am allowing for them. Without flashing ditch lights, all 3 light pipes for each end of the engine can terminate at a single function light source(FOF or FOR). I'll upload some pictures when I get the prototype installed. I have 11 GP's that will need this done to them.
In these engines, there is no conflict with the KATO light board decoder like Jacktal mentioned.
No argument there...I didn't say there were LED's in the ditch lights...it's like you said...LED's on the Kato board.And they're not regular LED's either...they're very small rectangular LED's that match with light pipes.
I had the installation of a Tsunami in mind wich would have made that board useless but since decided to go with an eight pin TCS decoder so yes it is a fun option.Not too thrilled with not having them controlled independently from the headlight but the blinking feature is fun.What I really don't like though is the yellow lighting these supply.
Thanks for the info Jim. Looking forward to your pics.
Those small LED's are Surface Mount LEDs(SMD) - They are quite popular for circuit boards, and some of my friends actually use them(soldering magnet wire that small drives me nuts). I have been using Evans designs LED's They have some very nice 1.8mm LED's that fit in top a diesel headlamp. The come with pre-soldered limiting resistors and a rectifier so you cannot put them in backwards - not cheap, but very slick. They also have pre-soldered SMD's.