Hi all,
Just currious. What is the most affordable sound only dcc chip and where can I purchase it? Is it worth the money? What do you all recommend?
Sound only? For what type of locomotive? A Digitrax SoundBug may be the only one currently available.
I’m actually planning to make a rolling stock with the sound chip in it, so…no locomotive, but I want it to be the sounds for deisle locos. There are a lot of sound only devices out there. I bought one from MRC that was very good, but it was also 40 dollars.
You’re not going to find any sound decoder for less than that. Here’s a link and data about the Digitrax sound-only decoder:
First of all, no such thing as a sound chip. There are sound decoders. The chip thing was thought up my non electronics types.
The Digitrax sound bug is about the lowest cost sound decoder. If you do not count all the rivets, it may be good enough for you.
Go to the Digitrax site and read the specs. The manuals are there also if you into reading instructions.
Rich
Yeah…I’m a non-electric type.
Some possible DCC groups you might like.
I have no idea on your knowledge of DCC so below are some useful links you can store in Favorites for future reference. Take your time as there is a lot to DCC as comapred to DC.
http://www.siliconvalleylines.com/dcc/presentations.html
http://www.digitrax.com/menu_sounddecoders.php
You might have to put a 100 ohm, 1/2 watt resistor across the two decoder motor leads for a load. From what I know, the decoder usually needs a load on the motor leads. I had to do that with the SoundTraxx decoders. Good luck. Make sure the rolling stock trucks have all wheel pickups for track power. You can do that with all metal wheels and Kadee #5 coupler springs as I have. I have details on that issue if interested.
Rich
The slang term “chip” is used all the time, particularly outside of the US, It appears on forums and is even a commonly used term in the print media like the UK’s Model Railway Magazine. It gets used both as a noun and also a verb for example “I chipped a loco to convert it to DCC”
Yeah really confused me once when I was buying a camera lens. The person told me they had,“chipped it for use on a digital camera”. I thought they had actually done something to the glass optics to accomodate the sensor rather than film. They had to explain it to me. [:$] Well sort of. One should not expect others to understand slang.
I would disagree with that statement on two counts. 1. I would never call MRC units good. 2. I would never say $40 was expensive. Other than clearance or super sale I’ve never seen a sound unit for less than $40. I believe that is the current price point.
The original sound only Soundtraxx DSX were closer to $150.
Why wouldn’t you call MRC sound units good? I’ve had no troubles with mine. The sound is good. The sound FXs are pretty accurate. I mean…it’s not top of the line, but it is certainly not crap. It does its job and I have found no fault with it.
A fellow in our club can only afford the MRC diesel decoders and has had only one bad one and MRC replaced it for free. He knows DCC and was careful on installs. I believe MRC uses digital modification of the sounds to keep the cost down. But as I said before, you can count the rivets, just don’t count all of them. Rivet counters who count every rivet want everything as accurate as possible.
Don’t get drawn into a discussion about MRC decoders.
Don’t forget, model railroading is an analogy of the real thing and all analogies breakdown somewhere.
If you are happy with your layout then there is no problem with that.
Rich
The Digitrax Soundbug would be good for this. You said diesel sounds in rollign stock - so I’m thinkign you mean things like mechanical reefers. As luck would have it, there is a fellow on the DIgitrax SOund group on Yahoo making exactly this as a sound set to load into Digitrax. On Yahoo go to the Groups and look for Digitraxsound. To repalce the default sounds you will need a PR3. Soundbugs are usually under $40 if you shop around and include a speaker - too big for many locos but in a house car like a reefer there should be no problem makign an enclosure and fitting it in.
–Randy