I know there are a ton of very smart people on this board when it comes to dcc and sound so I am hoping someone can steer me in the right direction. I am getting into both dcc and sound at the same time and I am understanding everything for the most part but one question I had is pertaining to a current project I have going on.
I have an older SD60 Proto 2K that I am turning into the Norfolk Southern SD60E veteran's unit and I would like to add Tsunami sound to it. Now the circuitry for the engine was the same as a Athearn Blue Box until the previous owner soldered in a dcc wiring harness.
So the motor has both the positive and negative leads hard wired in and both trucks have positive and negative leads hard wired in as well. So can I just solder these wires to my Tsunami decoder or is there something I am missing. I will also be adding the 1.5 volt microbulbs for both front and rear lights and another set for front ditch lights.
I am modeling HO Scale and the decoder I have is a TSU-AT1000 for the EMD710 prime mover. I just want to make sure I can install this decoder like I did in two of my other engines and not fry a $100 decoder.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Will
This may sound a bit obvious, but before you solder anything I would suggest that you get out your multimeter and prove to yourself that all the wiring is good. There should be no connection between the frame and the trucks, the motor and the trucks or the frame and the motor.
I would also look at the quality of the wiring and the solder joints. Many times several strands of wire will be lost when the wire is being stripped. If the connection looks weak, it is! Also, if the wiring is stiff it is more likely to fail over time than if it is flexible. I have a few Intermountain locomotives and the quality (flexibility) of the factory wire is the pits. In some cases it doesn't matter, such as connections between the decoder and the speaker or the lights, but if the truck feeds are stiff they could be prone to failure eventually.
Also, you may or may not have experienced some slow speed challenges with your previous Tsunami installations. On my last Tsunami diesel sound installation I had a lot of difficulty getting the locomotive to run at very low speeds. If you experience that, let us know and we can guide you through the solutions.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks Dave. I was pretty sure that this would be an installation like the others I've done nut wanted to make doubly sure of it before preceding. If I have any problems with low speed running I will be sure and post it here for help.
Thanks again
The Tsunami decoder you have is not the easiest one to install into your particular locomotive.
Since the previous owner has installed a 9-pin JST wiring harness, it would be much simpler to get a Tsunami that has the JST header on it instead of one made for a particular type of loco -- the plain TSU-1000 instead of the AT-1000; however, are you sure you have adequate vertical clearance in that locomotive so the shell will go back on?
All of the P2K locomotives I have installed decoders into have very little available clearance between the frame and shell. My personal choice in this case would be a LokSound Select instead of Tsunami. I would also use LEDs instead of incandescent bulbs for the lights.
You can cut back some of the shrink wrap from the end of the Tsunami TSU-1000 and remove their wiring harness, and plug the Tsunami into the existing one.
SoundTraxx has said this does NOT invalidate the Tsunami warranty.
Your biggest challenge is going to be finding and installing a suitable speaker and enclosure into your model. You'll have to carefully measure available space and then select a speaker and enclosure that will fit. A speaker without an enclosure will sound horrible.