For those of you who weren’t following. My Atlas GP38 that ran so smooth with the factory Lenz decoder runs a lot worse with the SoundTrax LC drop-in replacement. The symptoms are low volume–which I can live with and stuttering and stalling on swithces and dirty track–things that didn’t happen before.
I only go to the club once a week so testing is try something–wait a week. It runs fine on my home layout.
The decoder for the Atlas GP is a little diffferent in that there are 10 connections instead of 8. There are separate pick-ups for the front and rear trucks and left and right.
The two suggestions for improved performance are:
Make sure that all 4 pick-ups are functioning. I soldered them into place The pick-up work, because I was able to clean the wheel of both trucks ucing the cloth on the track technique.
The other suggestion was to wire in a second decoder to run the engine and leave the wheels and lights with the Straxx. I looked at it this week and I can’t see space for it–without whittling on the weights.
Looking for plans three and four. I’d prefer to keep the sound. I have a lot of time invested in this thing and I want it to run right.
You said it runs fine on your home layout? I assume that means it runs fine at home with the STraxx decoder? Maybe the problem is with equipment and/or track at your club.
Is the sound really that important? If it were me, I’d put the Lenz decoder back in and enjoy the smooth running. My imagination can fill in the sound, but not the running characteristics.
SoundTraxx LC decoders are notorious for having poor motor driver circuits – try to cram 2 different decoders into the loco – the Lenz for motor and light control, and the SoundTraxx LC only for sound. They can be on the same address. If you’re really dying to have sound, try a DSX Sound-Only decoder, which should be smaller than the LC.
Mouse, would it be worth asking Soundtraxx to replace the decoder? I ask this because it may be faulty. I have an LC in P2K A/B F2, and it runs very well. Strangely, that same decoder in my P2K 0-6-0 was a real bow-wow. A wet and matted bow-wow.
The Lenz and the SoundTraxx are huge 2.25 x .75 inches. There is absolutely positively no way they will both fit. If I fit a second decoder in may have to be an N scale NCE or something similar.
Selector.
I’ll try the second decoder. I’m semi mad at Tony’s who recomended this lame set-up. They alway steered me toward top-notch stuff in the past even if it cost a little more.
When I worked for HP, they showed us training films regarding the risks of static electricity around IC chips. It doesn’t take a spark, all it takes is an electric field to hose a chip. You can’t see or feel a field usually, but it sure can mess up a device designed to discriminate between subatomic particles.
Chip, by any chance is that the same decoder that caused problems in the other locomotive? Not the same model but the same physical unit? We had a special million dollar floor system at HP’s assembly plant, and tests still showed static discharge problems in the finished devices. Control of fields at home is probably impossible, making any installation of IC driven devices a high risk, hit or miss process. Even so, wrist straps and anti-static methodology are a must. You’d think an anti static bag would make a good platform for an IC device, but the outside of those bags can have fields measured in thousands of volts.
Chip, if you decide to go the 2nd decoder route consider the MC-2 from TCS http://www.tcsdcc.com/decoder/mc2.html It is very small and has great running qualities. Also, if you mess up they will replace it no questions asked!
The Tsunami is quite a different animal than the DSD series. Not only is the sound better, but it has motor drive that is infinitely better than the DSD.
The way I see it, there are two options. One, wait for a diesel Tsunami and use that. Two, put in two decoders, one for motor, one for sound.
The way the wires for the power pickups come up int he Atlas locos doesn’t mean a thing. No one says you can’t connect both left ahnd wires together, and both right hand wires together. That’s what happens in the decoder anyway, if you look there are a pair of traces, one on each side, which link those terminals. It’s just easier to use an Atlas-specific decoder because then the wires already reach. You can leave that one in place and tap wires off either end of the decoder for the second decoder’s red and black wires. I’d think there’s be enough space above the sound decoder for a small decoder like an MC2 - the GP38 is taller than the RS/RSD and has spare space about the decoder, so I’d think the GP38 would too.
Volume is probably because of an insufficient speaker enclosure.