So I bought a Bachmann (Soundtraxx) DCC sound board $99 to put in my Thomas which I had already converted to battery power with an Airwire G3 decoder. The instructions from Bachmann were lacking so I emailed Soundtraxx customer support. They have no idea how to wire up their board. I then emailed CVP Products and they recommended buying one of their converters for $138. Bachmann customer support had no idea either and suggested I ask the question on their forum. I'm asking here first as you guys are the best.
Rex
I'm answering my own post after further research. The Soundtraxx board is not a stand alone sound board like Phoenix. This Thomas "board" is also a DCC motor controller board and as such conflicts with other DCC boards. In order to use the Thomas board I have to remove my AirWire G3 decoder and replace it with a "converter" that takes AirWire wireless signals from any of the CVP throttles and converts them into something that Soundtraxx uses as DCC input from "rails". I'll let you all know if it works.
Rex in Pinetop
The AirWire converter does as advertised. I have it working now. The sound quality from the bachmann/soundtraxx board is poor but then I've only run sound systems from Phoenix so I guess my expectations were too high. I get chuff based on voltage versus actual speed so I have to run it very slow else it's too fast to be chuff. The whistle is a toot which is okay. The only other sound is a blowdown which sounds like a hiss. My Phoenix boards have 6+ recorded sounds that are engine specific. My Shay is significantly different than my Connie. Oh well live and learn.
Yes, I bought a Bachmann-branded OEM Soundtaxx decoder for my Emily to get the "custom sound".
Very disappointing, the only thing besides the whistle being unique, is the fact that Soundtraxx removed the chuff input, and the decoder will stop with a brief power interruption, and will not resume. (Soundtraxx also removed the connections for the keepalive)
Very disappointed, but honestly this is not the first time Soundtraxx has "gutted" a Tsunami for a Bachmann OEM.
Also your issues with support are typical. You cannot blame Soundtraxx as they sell the decoder to Bachmann as OEM to Bachmann WITHOUT support.
And as in the past Bachmann is clueless about the OEM'd decoder and tells you to call Soundtraxx, which violates their agreement, and Soundtraxx (rightly so) tells you to call Bachmann.
Very disappointed I bought the decoder in the first place. Will record the Emily whistle from the show and put it into a quality decoder.
Greg
Visit my site: http://www.elmassian.com - lots of tips on locos, rolling stock and more.
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I have Phoenix Sound P8 boards in several of my loco's. Two of them are now producing a great deal of static while running. How do I trouble shoot this problem? I've tried calling Phoenix Sound several times but they don't return my calls.
Yeah they don't return many calls.
Did you entertain filters for the motor?
What locos? What is the R/C system in the loco?
The two with the most problems are my Pola and my new Bachmann C-19. I'm pretty sure the C-19 is doing speed sensing from motor voltage so would it help to go to a regular sensor on one of the axles? RC system is CVP.
Rex, did you remove the noise caps and inductors from the motor on the C19?
When you say static, can you be more descriptive, under what conditions, does it change when the loco speeds up/down.
"Static" is not a typical complaint of a Phoenix system.
C-19 did not have static problem for first two months of running but then showed up making me think I broke something. Static is constant when sound is turned on even with RC power turned off. Level of static does not change with speed. It does change with volume control but still is on top of regular sound.
Same problem with Pola 2-6-0. I thought maybe the speaker blew so I replaced it but didn't solve the problem either
Where are the noise caps and inductors? I don't recall those in the C-19 installation instructions although I did remove a ton of stuff as directed.
I'm also having issues with volume control using the CVP controls - F7 and F8. Sound goes to max when turned on so then I have to set it back down.
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