Fitsr, I apologize as this is in some way a duplicate question to my first post in this forum. I have recently acquired an ATHEARN GENESIS DCC SOUND HO SD70ACe locomotive from an auction. I am impressed by the detail and beauty of this model.
I still don't have a DCC controller so I decided to test it in DC. The manual says the Tsunami Sountraxx decoder is able to tell DC or DCC automatically.The relevant levels described in the manual are:5V -> the sound starts7.5V -> the loco starts moving
Well I actually measured with a meter, the sounds kick in at 7-8V and the motion at 11-12V....It seems normal that the decoder is eating up something but here I have 3-4 volts difference. Is this normal or should I ask for a return?
(The seller says he tested it succesfully in DCC with a Roco Multimaus)
Thanks
What you describe is very normal. Sound eats up a lot of power, so when running a DCC-sound engine on DC, you have to turn the power way up to get the engine to move. A regular (non-sound) DCC decoder doesn't do that, it will work pretty much the same on DC or DCC.
If you don't plan on ever doing DCC, you could remove the sound decoder. That could be as simple as unplugging the decoder and plugging in a jumper so it runs on DC. Depends on how the engine's decoder is installed.
You might then try selling the sound decoder on Ebay or some other way. Sound usually adds around $75-100 to the price of an engine, so you could get a decent amount for the decoder (and speaker). Or I guess you could just sell the engine altogether, and use the money to buy a non-sound version - and have some money left over.
However, since you have a very nice engine with one of the 'top of the line' sound decoders, you could maybe invest in a DCC starter system (like a Digitrax Zephyr) and get all the benefits of your engine. Short-term, you could add a DPDT toggle switch (I'd use a center-off one) so you can run your layout as a DC layout or as a DCC layout. Long-term it wouldn't be that hard to convert your other engines to DCC.
Voltage specifications are misleading and really should be removed from their advertising. It's the current that is important. Not knowing what DC power system you have. It could be that at five volts you're not getting the full one amp of current needed to overcome the decoders needs. Also some DC systems will put a pulsed DC current out that is confusing to decoders. I have an old MRC system that puts out pulses of current to help motors start moving. This would confuse the heck out of early decoders to jump start and never really get slow operating control.
Hope my explanation is clear.
Pete.
wrench567 Hope my explanation is clear. Pete.
It is indeed, thanks