I work on a very tight hobby budget. (family and bills come first). I have managed to put a few hundred dollars to the side and want to upgrade my fleet to sound. I have not had sound in any locomotives before. My current fleet consists of two proto (something) rs-18s and a athern rs-3 (all painted for PGE). I live many hours drive from the closest hobby shop so I am going to have to order everything online. Any suggestions for cost, ease of installation and ease to getting everything at once with out having to wait for weeks for that piece I did not order. tsunami and Loksound seem to be the most common recommendations. Is there one that is more beginner friendly?
Assuming HO scale.
Are the loco's running with non sound decoders?
Running on DC, no decoder?
Not really sure from your post. I want to assume running on a non sound decoder.
There are mnay ways to install decoders, hard wire, 8 pin, 9 pin, 21 pin. Some might be plug and play or why did I ever try. lol
No idea your level of experience.
There are lower price sound decoders also.
I do know from experience the LokSound cost more than Tsunami but been some years since I bought decoders.
Check Litchfield Station and Tony’s Trans for the different decoders.
It might be nice to post a picture of the loco with the shell removed.
The TCS decoder site has many installations of non sound and sound decders that might show you the inside of different locos. Below is a RS-3-L.
http://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Athearn/RS-3-L%20WK/RS-3-L.html
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.
The SoundTraxx site has suggestions for the RS-2, 11 and 27 but not yours. All hard wire. Soldering required.
bigcreekcowboyIs there one that is more beginner friendly?
Mike
I'm also assuming HO scale.
I really love the LokSound Selects. Not the cheapest unfortunately. I'd consider the TCS WowSounds also basis others comments here. I've had mixed experience with the original Tsunami. In a GP9 the horn sound was awful and the motor sound so-so. Better in my Genesis steamers. Note most prefer LokSound or TCS for motor control over the early Tsunami, not sure how the Tsunami2 performs.
The Selects have three formats; i.e., the "Direct" which fits on as replacement to the original board on many diesels, the "6Aux" that is an encapsulated circuit board with 8-pin plug, and the smaller "Micro", that can help out in the tightest applications. Note that the 6Aux is smaller and cheaper than the Direct. I just ordered another 6Aux for $87. I like to remove any circuit board when in the loco and hard wire the 6Aux. I also replace bulb light with LEDs when in there, and ensure the truck wiring connections are robust, usually soldering any simply physical connections.
For speakers, in a wide body such as an E unit I use 1.1" (28mm) conventional HiBass speakers. The Selects work well with 4-8 ohms so I use twin $12 for what I find is my best setups so far. You can save space and $ with micro (also called sugarcube or iPhone) speakers, and build your own enclosure with 0.040" styrene. The Knowles Grand below is rapidly being discontinued but is a great value. I've put 2-4 in diesels with happy results. Note you can often enhance ease of installation by modifying the loco (diesel) weight somewhat, at the expense of some traction.
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/knowles/2403-260-00071/423-1200-ND/4376274
You will want to accumulate supplies, including heat shrink tubing, LEDs, resistors for the LEDs, decoder wiring, Kapton tape, soldering items. A luxury is a $55 soldering station, but with care a low wattage small iron can be used.
A lot depends on whether you want to only do plug a play. In that case definitely check out the TCS site as they often sell complete kits for some locos.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
Install process is pretty much the same no matter the brand of decoder, there's not much of a "user friendly" approach to getting it all installed. You need pretty much the same thing no matter what - decoder, speaker(s), some spare wire, heat shrink tubing, solderign iron and solder, some kapton tape, basic tools to take the loco apart, LEDs adn resistors to swap out the incandescent lights, or resistors for the light bulbs sicne they will be low voltage bulbs.
When it comes down to it, there are 9 wires to hook up - 2 track pickups, 2 motor wires, 2 speaker wires, a headlight wire, a rear light wire, and a common to both lights. All wires come from locations inside the loco where it is pretty easy to determine which ones they are even if not properly color coded.
The Loksound Select Direct will be a board swap for the Athearn RS3. The Proto locos you will need to hard wire. If you fo Loksound, be sure to specify the correct sounds to be installed, otherwise you will get a blank canvas decoder with just some test sounds on it and would need to find someone with a Lokprogrammer to load the proper sounds for you. The well know shops like Litchfield and Model Train Stuff will install the sounds of your choice before shipping the decoder. Loksound has the proper prime mover sounds for both locos, the 244 for the RS-3 and the 251 for the RS-18.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thank you for your help. Yes I model HO scale and the locomotives have budget decoders in them already. I see some speakers come require a baffel kit and others do not say. Do they all require a baffel or just certian types?
All speakers should have a baffle. The baffle is there to stop the sound waves from coming out of one side of the speaker. If the speaker is not baffled the sound waves coming from both sides of the speaker will partially cancel each other out so the sound volume will be reduced and the sound will be fairly poor quality.
Some speakers like the sugar cube speakers must have a tightly sealed baffle or all you will get is static. I primarily use sugar cube speakers but in the past I have used the bottoms of plastic pill bottles as enclosures for round speakers. .040" styrene is good for building your own baffles, but if you don't want to bother most speaker suppliers have matching baffles available as well. Some speakers come with the baffle already installed.
Here are a couple of good explanations about speakers in general and sugar cube speakers in particular:
http://www.sbs4dcc.com/tutorialstipstricks/sugarcubespeakernotes.html
http://www.sbs4dcc.com/tutorialstipstricks/wiringmultispeakers.html
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Some really good advice I read on here in regards to sound, try to stick to one brand of sound decoder so that your controls stay the same. Otherwise F2 on one decoder is different to F2 on another, etc.
i really like the TCS Wow sound, both diesel and steam are excellent. You have a menu to allow you to scroll through various prime movers and horns.
They do require a little extra room for the Keep Alive. You will find that the Athearn Blue Box are tight on room in my opinion but not impossible. I have even reduced the weight to make room In some situations.
You may have to isolate the Athearn units motor from the frame, that would be the brass contact strip on the bottom of the motor from digging in to the frame. But if you are running DCC now, that should be taken care of at this time.
basementdwellertry to stick to one brand of sound decoder so that your controls stay the same.
I have a hodge podge of different decoders and it is a royal PITA to try to remember what key does what with what decoder. My personal choice is Loksound but I hear great things about TCS too, and TCS has some very nice, cost effective drop in replacement boards with keep alive included that are designed to fit a lot of different locomotives. I'm sorely tempted to try one on my next installation. The TCS installation tutorials are excellent!
Have fun!!