Sound conversion.... better left to a pro?

[jacon12]

I have a Kato DCC ready SD-40 and I was wondering how hard it would be to convert it to dcc and sound. By dcc ready I mean it has the socket for the board. Is this a job (the sound part) better left to a seasoned modeler?
Jacon

[rrinker]

Have you done any other DCC installs? I probably wouldn't suggest doing a sound install as your first one. Just a decoder install in that loco should be simple. With sound, there's speaker size and placement, enclosures, and a lot more 'stuff' to shoehorn inside. Depending on the space available, some frame modifications might be required. If you search around various sites, such as Litchfield Station, you will find pictures of decoder and sound installs. If you find one on this particular loco, you can follow the method used there as far as fitting in the speakers.
Electrically, I don't think it's all that hard. It's the mechnical fit and using the proper speakers so it sounds good that's tricky. I don't want to scare you away, but like I said, if you haven't done any DCC conversions yet, it's probably not the best place to start. You might want to find someone to do the first one, and then for any others you can use that as a model to follow for converting others.

--Randy

[AntonioFP45]

Click on this link.

http://www.litchfieldstation.com/s/i/ho/hods/hods.html

[jacon12]

No, I'm going to steer clear of it because of a lack of experience!
Thanks guys,
Jacon

[rainierj]

I dont think you need to be afraid of installing the sound decoder in your kato,
i am actually waiting for my decoder and speaker from Tony's Train exchange.
This will be my third sound decoder install, but you can't really count the first as it was a plug and play decoder for the bachmann 2-8-0
The second was a Soundtraxx DSD-090 into the very tiny Bachmann 0-6-0 saddle tank switcher
The decoder was stripped of its protective cover and mounted inside the cab roof ( you cant see it unless you turn the loco upside down and peer through the windows)
The speaker was placed inside the firebox facing forward - works great !!
If you look at the link from litchfield staton it will be a very straight forward install,
no modifiing of the structures , just adding some styrene
This should be a walk in the park[8D]

[Anonymous]

Have you considered getting a new SD38-2 frame which is sound-friendly? I don't have access to one but the prototype 38-2 and 40-2 shared frames, as does the AC 4000 and C9-44CW. You may want to looking them over. Swapping frames has a better outcome than milling the existing one, because you would loose performance.