I finished installing an ERR cruise / railsounds Alco board in my Williams diesel.
Video could be better, check out the engine sounds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-jGhv_zIyU
Paul
Very good video. Does your Williams PA1 have a sound board in it from Williams?
I have two sets of F7 diesels by Williams, about 7 years old, and they have QSI sound units in them. As far as using remote control I run them with variable voltage output from my DCS base unit. I would think that you could do the same with Lionel's TMCC and not have to spend the money to upgrade to TMCC. I tried to upgrade a K-Line GG-1 to either TMCC or DCS a few years ago and was shocked at the cost to upgrade it, so that is why I am mentioning using variable voltage output from either the TMCC base or a TPC 300 or TPC 400, you can control more trains with less cost.
Lee F.
My Williams PA is an older (tho new) engine with the larger none flywheel motors. It had a motor control board only, no sound. I do run conventional engines on the inner loop with a tpc300 & Legacy. Just felt like adding tmcc & sound to it.
Nice work. I think it's great when you can create your own custom loco by giving an existing favorite a technology overhaul.
SoUniCalTrain Nice work. I think it's great when you can create your own custom loco by giving an existing favorite a technology overhaul.
Ditto to that.
And that is why I have been buying more Williams and then doing the electronics overhaul with ERR. I will be doing another one in a few weeks, so I will try to post photos for everyone to see an easy conversion to TMCC.
Celebrating 18 years on the CTT Forum.
Buckeye Riveter......... OTTS Charter Member, a Roseyville Raider and a member of the CTT Forum since 2004..
Jelloway Creek, OH - ELV 1,100 - Home of the Baltimore, Ohio & Wabash RR
TCA 09-64284
Buckeye ... does it give you the railsounds / tmcc controls complete ? I think it is well worth it at a descent cost . Sold my only Williams as some read and was supposed to receive another .... cab forward .... but guy tried to keep the engine and my money ! Am shopping now for another and WILL be wanting to upgrade her . Can I contact you later when I get one ? Was going to get it done but if it's not all that hard will attempt it myself . You're not the guy outbidding me on Williams engines everytime on ebay are you ... LOL ?
Buckeye Riveter SoUniCalTrain Nice work. I think it's great when you can create your own custom loco by giving an existing favorite a technology overhaul. Ditto to that. And that is why I have been buying more Williams and then doing the electronics overhaul with ERR. I will be doing another one in a few weeks, so I will try to post photos for everyone to see an easy conversion to TMCC.
After a REB told Buckeye about it. Buckeye is right. Can take a cheapo MPC or K-Line with can motors in the trucks, add ERR Cruise Commander Combo [gives sound too] and add some weight. Got a nice engine with less $$$$.
God bless TCA 05-58541 Benefactor Member of the NRA, Member of the American Legion, Retired Boss Hog of Roseyville , KC&D Qualified
Jason
B&O = Best & Only
I used a Railsounds FA/PA board from Digital Dynamics. The ERR sound commanders do not have tower/crew talk. However, I read a post from Jon at ERR mentioning they may start selling RS boards some time in the future.
If you don't mind a short stroll over to another forum, there are more details on the ERR & Digital Dynamics combination here:
http://ogaugerr.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/54860292/m/19710314
Ole Timer Buckeye ... does it give you the railsounds / tmcc controls complete ? I think it is well worth it at a descent cost . Sold my only Williams as some read and was supposed to receive another .... cab forward .... but guy tried to keep the engine and my money ! Am shopping now for another and WILL be wanting to upgrade her . Can I contact you later when I get one ? Was going to get it done but if it's not all that hard will attempt it myself . You're not the guy outbidding me on Williams engines everytime on ebay are you ... LOL ?
Ole Timer....
The ERR board provides you with all TMCC controls only I think the motors run smoother than even the factory installed Lionel TMCC controls. With ERR my locomotive can creep down the tracks.
The ERR sound board is not Lionel Railsounds 4.0. There is no crew talk. From the ERR website:
Command & Conventional Mode Sounds: - Horn / Whistle - Bell (diesel or steam) - Coupler Clank (activated by Bell button in conventional mode) - Air Release (activated by Bell button in conventional mode) - Diesel - Prime Mover revs - Steamer - Idle steam, compressor pump
Notice they do not mention crew talk or brake squeal.
Counting wires, you will have two from each motor and two from each pickup. I did my splices with wire nuts and then you take a single wire and connect it to the ERR board as indicated in a very clear drawing provided by ERR. There is a place for the headlight to be connected to the board. If you have a small screw driver, a small wire stripper and wire cutters, you should have the majority of tools needed. I use electric tape to hold wires and boards snugly in place. (I need to post a photo to show this trick I learned from TAS.)
ERR will send you a manual with the product, but you can always see and print a color copy from their website.
One suggestion, listen to the sounds on the ERR website prior to purchasing. If they are a weak sound on the website, the sound is weak in real life. I would not suggest the FM sound chip. I traded mine for something that had some volume.
If ERR begins offering better sounds, we will have it made. Their cruise system is very good.
Make sure you look at total costs. ERR Cruise + ERR Sound + Williams Locomotive is sometimes just slightly less than a new Lionel at street price with TMCC, Cruise and Railsounds. I know if you add Digital Dynamics sound to the mix, the cost could exceed a new unit in some cases. Just add the numbers up and compare.
You can see video of my Williams B&O Sharks and Wabash Trainmaster with ERR at:
http://s173.photobucket.com/albums/w79/pfoh/?action=view¤t=MVI_0002.flv
As to the Chief, I was putting TAS units in locomotives while he was running trains on his rug.
What's wrong with the forum? The spacing is not staying in place as I type.
I really don't want all that crew talk ... just some engine sounds ... steam . I thought if nothing else on the steam sounds ... just get a car with them and keep her coupled to the Williams . Sounds like an easy install ! I have one engine with all the sounds ... that's more than enough for me .... LOL . I can just have her on the track and fire up the RS on the cab1 .... that gets old after awhile anyway .
I don't use the crew talk all that much either. I use the horns/whistle and bells all the time to distinguish which locomotive I'm controling a specific time.
If they made a locomotive sound system where I could record the crew talk or other appropriate sounds, I would be very interested.
What I really want to do is record the yard sounds and play them via a speaker system hidden on the layout . Of course if I could play the sounds through a good set of speakers with descent bass also .... had a radio shack mini amp ... will have to look for it or buy one on ebay . I figured out you can use a regular little cd player with an adapter fed into the amp and have backround engines and yard sounds .... but as with the rest am way behind on everything . Now that you can download 100's of sound effects and mix them together with software and burn them to a cd .... something years ago not available .... it is'nt hard and adds a lot of realism to a train setup . With the sound software you can adjust the volume output to sound like they're close or far away .
in the future I plan to do this to my williams FM trainmaster. I bought this set back when it first came out and always thought of doing this to it. I like to know thou do you hook the twin motors up in seriers as a lot say you should with williams to get realisic speeds or do you leave them the way they are?
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
RT...I wired my Williams' in parallel and they work just fine. They are DC can motors. If someone has wired them in series and they work better, I'm all ears.
Gives them slower low end running but loose top end speeds. I find they are going fast enough to leave the track [072 curves] anyway. Done that to several.
Buckeye, I was doing Digital Dynamics boards before ERR came out and as soon as I was running on the "rug". Want me to send you a copy of the OGR article expaining how to wire and how it helps with low end speed?
Wiring motors in series works for both permanent-magnet "can" motors and for traditional universal motors (although the rewiring is a little more complicated). I have a couple of 623 switchers rewired that way. With the can motors, you get the bonus that any speed difference that the motors might have had that caused them to fight each other goes away. (Universal motors don't have this problem to begin with.)
Bob Nelson
I don't use the tower / crewtalk much. I used the RS board to get the Alco engine sounds & that horn, man what a horn. I like the E7/E8 horn sounds too.
I originally was looking for an E7 or E8 but then decided to get an Alco engine since I have F7's, one of which I upgraded with an original ERR ac/dc commander & sound commander.
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