Does anyone know anything about installing sound on Trix or Ibertren models? I have a 21 pin Econami that’s been through 3 speakers now and none have emitted sound. I don’t know what’s wrong. When i contacted Soundtraxx the guy spouted gibberish. At least I didn’t get it. The last two speakers were ESU, this one is a TCS, the only sound I get from it is a small pop when power is applied.
This is what Soundraxx said, and I don’t understand it: Is the factory board following the NEM standard or the original NMRA P standard? The 21P decoders were discontinued when all of the manufacturers switched to the NEM standard. Pins 9 & 10 on this decoder would handle the audio output. You can tie your speaker wires in here.
Did this particular decoder come with a bunch of wires attached, or is it a board to which you have to solder the wires? There are a bunch of wiring diagrams in the Econami manual; http://www.soundtraxx.com/manuals/Installation-Guide.pdf
Again, there are no wires. You can see in the link that there aren’t any wires. I’ve seen the manual multiple times, it provides no information. It says install it on the “factory installed board”. That’s what I’ve been doing and nothing happens. The locomotives move and such, but there’s no sound.
Both the NEM and the NMRA pin assignments are 9 and 10 for the sound output.
There were different pin assignments as the “standard” developed over the years. You can read about it here and try to make some sense of it. Of course, the intention was to have a decoder with all the extra functions needed, to be able to plug in to the motherboard with… NO wires.
The NEM standard was developed by Trix. It was even called the 21 pin MTC for Marklin Trix Connector.
Is it possible that you have the decoder plugged in upside down? I’m just grabbing at straws here. I have actually done that with some 21 pin WOWsound boards.
Took me a while to figure out that the pins went through the PC board and then into the plug. Even with pin #11 being blanked out I could still get it in upside down. [:$]
What locomotive and tender is that? A Trix model, I assume. I’d like to look up the “Motherboard” where the actual speaker wires attach. WAS there a decoder previously installed that you are replacing?
The text in the link is half cut off, lol. So it’s kinda unreadable. The tender loco is a Trix db10 and the tank engine is a Spanish 4-8-4t from Ibertren. Econami says the black part faces up, so that’s how I’ve been installing it. Doesn’t seem to fit right facing the other way.
And I’m not Ed unless you weren’t referring to me there.
They’re about $50 and worth every penny, IMHO, unless you only have a handful of DCC locos. I use it pretty frequently.
I’m beginning to wonder if the output amp in the decoder isn’t toasted?
I found this photo of what should be your board. You can clearly see the two traces coming from pins 9 and 10 leading to white wires. Of course, these should be your speaker connections.
Read through this thread and see if anything helps?
Again, the decoder and the motherboard are two different things. The speaker wires should not have to be soldered on to the decoder. Just the motherboard (that was already in the loco, I assume).
I am not at all familiar with the Econami decoder you have but just looking at your pictures the speaker (TCS) appears to be hooked up correctly. If it still pops when the power is applied that is an indication of a working speaker. It looks and sounds to me like you have done everything correctly and that the decoder is either defective or programmed incorrectly.
I checked all the posts on this thread and didn’t see any mention of programming. Could the sound be turned off or the volume set to 0? Another question, is this a new decoder? If so it might be covered by the warranty if it is defective.
I only have two Soundtraxx decoders and they worked great first shot out of the package. They didn’t come with speakers either, I prefer 1” full sound deep bass speakers in my HO locomotives. I use JMRI Decoder Pro for programming and it shows all the sound settings under the Sound Tab.
I’ve never had to contact Soundtraxx for technical help but I would give that a second try. If it is a new decoder ask them if you could return it so that they could see if it is defective.
I’ve played with the CV volumes and reset the decoder - nothing. And yes this is a new decoder. I won’t hear from Soundtraxx until Monday, maybe. Im beginning to think it’s the decoder.
If Afrostream didn’t have a short fuse before, she ought to have on after starting this thread.
As someone prone to snarkyness, there is quite a bit going on.
What seems to have been missed is that there are two different locos and two different circuit boards that the OP is asking about.
For the first picture I would look on the manufacturer (of the loco) website for info on where to put the wires.
On the second one, is there any possibility that solder from one of the pad’s at the speaker attachment is touching the other pad? I can’t see it that well.
Sorry I have nothing else for you except that the discussion on the first page is highly uncharacteristic of this forum and of Ed #1. I expect our moderator will wack some of his responses Monday.
On the board that I see where the decoder is plug into is where you attached the two speaker wires. I can’t See if these two points were IDed has speaker outputs? What lead you to attach the speaker wires at these two points? We’re these marked SPK-or some thing like that?
On the decoder board at the 21 pin header- find the blanked off pin- the two pins just above this blanked pin are the speaker outputs.
do a google search for 21 pin DCC pin out- it will ID the pins.
that may help you- BTW THE speaker out puts are VERY sensative to shorts- a breif touch of the two will blow the AMP, causing no audio .
Back again-Look at post from Afrosteam- look at the link listed, go to page 15 it will show pin out for decoder- also look a post About 27 from GMpullman he shows a photo of the PCB the decoder plugs into and the two speaker connections on that board. I am guessing that the first photo you show is the locomotive- the second is the tender where the decoder is to be pluged in.
just a second ID note- the 21 pin header is really a 22 pin- just the number 11 hole or pin blocked for keying the DCC decoder board to be pluged in one way.
top left pin is #1 and goes down to pin 11 ( which is not used) then pin 12 is just to the right of the 11 pin then you go up from pin 12 to pin22.
Yes the photos are of two different locomotives. I apologize for getting upset but when i have to tell someone the same thing over and over and they keep telling me do something I keep telling them i can’t…
Anyway, neither manufacture say anything on installing sound. Ibertren’s manual says to attach the speaker wires to the red and black ones provided. I did that and nothing happened. Trix says nothing, someone on Reddit had to look at the Marklin sound version of the model to find where the speaker wires should go, but that provided no solution either. Im starting to think the decoder’s busted.
@woodone it’s two different locomotives. The speaker isn’t blown at least this one isn’t. I tried soldering the wires to pins 9 and 10 and it did nothing. All other decoder functions work. For the tender locomotive i had to look at the 3rail sound version to see where the speakers should go but that didn’t work.
The speaker might be OK, but the audio amp of the decoder could be bad. They don’t like shorts ! You don’t by chance have the sound muted? Try hitting F8 that is the function for munting the sound.It might be turned off?
