My Atlas GP-38 used to be my favorite engine. It had a factory Lenz decoder and ran very smooth and over some of the roughest, dirtest track on the club layout.
Since I installed the Soundtrax LC, the engine stalls at turnouts. It has “fits and starts” as if it momentarily reversing current, and stalls if the track is only slightly dirty. In addition, with the sound volume at full, it is about a quarter as loud as the Broadways, which are the club favorite.
The Soundtrax in my 2-8-0 and Shay don’t have these problems.
But you have to remember that info on this decoder has been covered here at length.
LC stands for: Low Cost.
I’ve heard them before and was not impressed. The DSX is the decoder that impressed me.
A poster a while back claimed that the DSX and LC were virtually the same, which was incorrect. According to DCC experts the DSX combined with a Digtrax, Lenz, or TCS decoder offers better performance than an LC.
A better option may be just to wait for the Digitrax or Tsunami decoders to hit the market.
Are you sure you soldered the electrical pickup wires from both trucks to the decoder? It sounds like one truck may not be properly connected.
As AntonioFP45 said, leaving the Lenz decoder to control the motor and lights and using a DSX sound-only decoder may have been a better choice, because the SoundTraxx LC decoders are notorious for having poor motor control circuitry; however, space within any diesel engine is going to restrict what you can use.
I use DSX decoders in my G-scale engines, slaved off of a CVP Products’ AirWire900 Wireless DCC receiver/decoder, and have had very good results with them.
I have to admit I expected more. All the equipment was recommended by Ken at Tony’s. The decoder was a drop in replacement for the Lenz.
The connectors were slide on caps, so maybe there is a poor pick-up connection. I’ll try soldering them all and see if that improves performance. The performance difference is the biggest issue for me.
Another thing I did not mention is that the speed is a lot slower with the Soundtrax.
The Soundtraxx LC’s have HORRIBLE motor drive, not even silent running. Compared to Lenz which has one of the best motor drives - no wonder it seems to run like junk now. I’d do just what Antonio says, use two decoders. The LC I picked up at Timonium is going in a dummy loco - I’m only using it for the sound.
Alternatively you could pick up a Loksound decoder - they also have excellent motor control. But a lot more expensive than the LC, and you still have the old Lenz decoder, right?
Randy, offhand, can you recommend a Loksound decoder, or even another maker, that would fit in a P2K 0-6-0? My installer has it and is demuring about what to replace the LC with. I told him Tsunami if it will fit, or Loksound.
Is this an 8-pin plug or have wires? On an 8 pin plug, pins 4 and 8 are track power.
The Lenz would go back exactly like it was. The LC would get track power (red and black wires) just like normal then only use the purple wires to the speakers just like now, but then cut off or ignore the grey, orange, yellow, blue, and white wires. Cuting them off would leave more room.
The Lenz and the SoundTrax are a different sort of critter in that they are about 2 1/2 inches long and an inch wide. NO way would they both fit. However, I have a few Digitrax sitting around (and even a couple N scale NCE’s) that might fit on top of the SoundTrax.
The drop in decoders–Lenz and SoundTrax–have ten pins. On one end are the power pick-ups for the front trucks and the front lights. On the other end are the power pick-up for the rear trucks and rear lights. In the center, are the motor leads.
So assuming I follow you, I would jump a couple wires across the front and rear leads on the SoundTrax and attach the Digitrax decoder to the power. I would disconnect, the motor leads and and attach them to the Digitrax. The Digitrax would control the motor and the SoundTrax would handle the sound and lights (since the lights work fine).
Hopefully that would solve the performance problem and give more power to the sound functions.
When I was auditioning a Genesis F7 consist at the LHS, I wondered if getting one with sound might be a good idea. To demonstrate why it was a bad idea, they ran one F7 with no sound. It took about 40% throttle to get it moving, on an MRC Tech IV 220, same as I use.
The same F& with sound didn’t start moving till near 60% throttle. Sound eats up a lot of power.
As to whether some decoders manage power use better than others, I’ll leave that to DCC experts, but I suspect adding any sound decoder will cause some level of a performance hit on the locomotive, regardless of brand. or model.
I don’t see why. I would think every decoder has a programmable CV2 that lets you set your V-Start, and that should take effect at speed step one if you do it correctly. I’m not sure how this would play out with DC, but I think it might be a problem with a non-programming system like that. But with DCC, sound is one output, and speed control is another. Total power usage would surely rise with sound, but your loco will get all the juice it needs to move your trains via the decoder.
Strip out the included circuit board and associated bits and pieces (do they still have those big grey plastic things in like the Atlas/Kato models? Big waste of space… then you should have plenty of room. I’d consider using a little 2-pin plug and socket on the track input of one of the decoders to remove it for programming, or use one of the Digitrax decoders with the decoder lock. Or a TCS - the M series should be small enough to coexist with the Soundtraxx.
Crandell - the new Loksound Micro might work, it’s small enough to fit in N scale, so it ought to fit in the HO 0-6-0. You may have to shave some weight, or fill the cab, but that’s the smallest sound decoder out there right now.
Thanks, Randy. [^] Otherwise, that fine little beast is the only one that growls when it moves, and it spoils the experience for me. With a smaller decoder, my installer should be able to upgrade the speaker assembly as a bonus. I’ll let you know how it all turns out.
Chip, yes the system draw will be higher for sound, but your motor requirements will be unaffected by the installation of a sound decoder if you set CV2 to begin the drivers turning at the lowest possible voltage output. Once that is done, dialling up your throttle will get the same performance out of that loco as if you were running analog throughout.
In other word, the sound decoder will take the DC requirement plus sound requirement, give the DC requirement to the motor as you direct, and sends the rest to lights and sound. All it means in the end is that you might have to run one less loco overall, and that is obviated by adding even two amps in boost somewhere down the line.
That’s exactly what I did on my BLI SD40-2 recently. the QSI decoder runs the sound and cab lighting, a Lenz decoder runs the motor and direction and ditch lighting. The decoders are just wired in parallel across the track pickups.
Since this is a plug-in replacement, have you tried just putting the Lenz back in? If that cures both the speed problems and the pickup problems, then the LC decoder is your problem.
However, I’m a bit suspicious about having 2 sets of power pickup leads going into the decoder. First of all, I don’t see why they would do that, but assuming that they did, it might mean that one of those 4 wires has become loose and intermittent. The engine would still run, but one set of wheels wouldn’t be getting good contact so the other set would have to carry the load. When you go over a plastic frog with the one good truck, you’re going to have a problem.
I’ve occasionally had problems where the decoder wasn’t seated well in the socket. Once I wiggled it around a bit, it never caused a problem again.
Since this is a plug-in replacement, have you tried just putting the Lenz back in? If that cures both the speed problems and the pickup problems, then the LC decoder is your problem.
However, I’m a bit suspicious about having 2 sets of power pickup leads going into the decoder. First of all, I don’t see why they would do that, but assuming that they did, it might mean that one of those 4 wires has become loose and intermittent. The engine would still run, but one set of wheels wouldn’t be getting good contact so the other set would have to carry the load. When you go over a plastic frog with the one good truck, you’re going to have a problem.
I’ve occasionally had problems where the decoder wasn’t seated well in the socket. Once I wiggled it around a bit, it never caused a problem again.