Hi
Now I have BLI and sound. I’ve turned to my old non DCC P2K E8 and SW9 and thought of converting them to DCC and sound.
Hopefully there’s a crowd of you out there that have successfuly done the same. Any recommendations for decoder? Any tips that would help? Any helpful thoughts?
Thanks in advance!
Barry [:)][8D]
The P2K E8 would is not too hard to convert as there is room in the rear of the shell to install a reasonable size speaker and baffle. I used a Soundtraxx decoder for this installation, but the one I used is discontinued. Other possible decoders would be Loksound. I would contact someone like Bruce at Litchfield station and see what he suggests. The SW9 will be very hard to convert to sound. I am not sure where you would be able to fit both a speaker and a decoder.
Barry,
Along with Simon, the SW9 isn’t going to have much room for a sound decoder. I have an Proto 2000 S1. And, taking Bruce’s (Litchfield Station) suggestion, I used a Z-scale decoder to convert it over to DCC. It works great! However, the Proto 2000 S1 has to have the motor isolated from the frame so that the decoder doesn’t go poof!
The other good news is that Bruce has converted an S1 over to sound. It’s labor intensive but it can be done. I would think that the SW9 would be a fairly similar challenge. Here’s Bruces web site:
http://www.litchfieldstation.com
Barry, if you want to specifically see the sound installation, click the following:
Installations
Examples
HO scale
Diesel Sound
Proto 2000 S1
Bruce even includes a description of how he did it, all the parts used and links to the part costs on the web page, if you should want to DIY.
Hope that’s a help…
Tom
Thanks Tom, thanks Simon.
Yes I thought the SW9 would be REALLY troublesome. Thanks for the link to Lichfield Station I’ll read up on Briuce’s S1. And I love the idea of using a Z scale decoder.
Thanks you both dear firends!
Barry
No problem, Berry. Last time I looked on Bruce’s site about the S1 conversion to sound, he was having a small issue with the rear LED flickering or glowing slightly when it wasn’t on. It appears Bruce has come up with possible fix for that. He’s got it all written out so it should be pretty understandable.
Berry, keep us posted what you end up doing. [:)]
Tom
I take it your using N scale? Ive about to embark on placing a z scale digitrax decoder into a F40 unit, from the looks it should be faily simple. Just as long as you have over 1v of electricity going to your engine, you should be fine
The rear LED flicker is a known problem with the Soundtraxx DSD decoders. Works ok with a light bulb, but not LEDs.
The problem is, the DSD’s have been discontinued now that the Tsunami is out (even thought here is no diesel Tsunami yet). Gonna be a real trick fitting a Tsunami in there unless the diesel one ends up being much smaller than the steam one. I really doubt you could fit a DSX plus anohter motor decoder in there.
The best option now might be the new Loksound Micro, it’s the one that’s going into the new PCM N scale locos with sound. The motor drive with those should be far superioer to the DSD anyway.
–Randy