Sound for an Athearn SW1500
#1
A few days ago I got my new Athearn RTR SW1500. It is a very nice little engine with an incredible level of detail, almost as good as an Athearn Genesis.

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Especially the grill on top of the radiator is absolutely amazing.

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Being the first Athearn RTR with a can motor, it even runs smoothly and quietly ... well, too quietly for my liking. So I decided to put a LokSound decoder in this little beauty. I thought it would be quite difficult, but it proved to be very easy instead. The engine is DCC ready with a 9-pin and and an 8-pin plug on board. I don’t use 9-pin decoders, so I cut off the 9-pin plug to give way for the LokSound decoder.

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I wanted to put a small .640" x 1" mm speaker above the front truck, but found out that it was just .040" too long to fit in between the front of the frame and the pc board. After some contemplation (I am not that quick ... Eek Goldth ) I had the idea to remove the little black clips that are used to attach the wires to the board. I soldered the wires to the board instead and now the speaker would fit in perfectly.

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At the front I placed the speaker on the frame (after cutting off .040" of the frame to make the speaker fit under the shell), for the rear end of the speaker I made a little support from .060" styrene.

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I fixed it by tucking it between the pc board and the frame. Now I only had to glue the speaker with a tiny drop of super glue to the frame.

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Well, that really did not hurt, did it? Goldth
Kurt
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#2
Hi Kurt,

Great how to install ........ i would like to do the same to one of my SW9's 2285_ Big Grin but the speakers are too large i have seen to fit in.
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#3
upnick Wrote:i would like to do the same to one of my SW9's 2285_ Big Grin but the speakers are too large i have seen to fit in.

If your P2K SW9 looks the same as my old SW9, then the LokSound 16 x 25 mm (.640" x 1") speaker I used on my SW1500 would fit perfectly above the front truck if you’d remove (or modify) the weight. Whether you can find a place to put the decoder is still another question ...

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Kurt
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#4
Thanks Kurt,

Have to look into it more then thanks for the tip Big Grin
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#5
Great post, I have one of the SW1000's that's going to need some sound...
Josh
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#6
Have ya considered making a vidio of this SW1500 in action and posting it on Youtube?I have been seriously considering buying the CSX version,and adding a Soundtraxx tsunami 645 non turbo sound decoder to it.I have seen a video of a SW100 BN unit where the guy milled the fuel tank to place a round speaker in it,and it sounds incredible!Here is the video <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYovzfNiFKQ">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYovzfNiFKQ</a><!-- m --> Also check out this guys control stand controller.
Don Shriner
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#7
Great sound! I think in this respect the Tsunami beats the LokSound decoder. As for the speaker, I think a .640" x 1" (16 x 25 mm) oval speaker placed under the hood is the better solution, because the fuel tank of this engine is only .8" (20 mm) long. Hardly enough space to install a big round speaker. The maximum diameter of a round speaker would be about .7" (18 mm). So I think you are better off with the oval speaker, especially as it requires far less milling of the frame.

I cannot do a video of my engine, because I don’t have a video camera.
Kurt
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#8
After looKng at the photos of this install, I think that if the stall current is not to high a persion could use a Tsunami TSU-750 decoder in this.
I would mill off the front weight so a 750 decoder could be mounted there. A 16 X 35 MM speaker could be put into the cab. You will hve to modifiy the speaker and seal the window class in the cab. It would be a tight fit but doable.
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