DCC decoder and sound decoder install tutorials

[UP SD40-2]

This thread will contain Tutorials on installing decoders/sound decoders into engines .

ANYONE that wishes to add a decoder, or sound decoder install tutorial to this thread IS MORE THEN WELCOME TO DO SO .

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**Tutorials Added by Forum Members**

A BIG THANK YOU!, TO KURT FOR ADDING HIS TWO TUTORIALS , THANKS KURT!

A BIG THANK YOU!, TO UPNICK FOR ADDING HIS TUTORIAL , THANKS UPNICK!

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**Deano's Tutorial:

PROTO 1000 "HARDWIRE" SOUND DECODER INSTALL

BEFORE WE BEGIN...

I am going to show you folks how I do a "Hardwire" install.

What is a "Hardwire" install?

A "Hardwire" install is wiring a decoder, or in this case a sound decoder, into an engine.

We will be doing the hardwire installation because the engine that is getting the sound decoder DOES NOT have a DCC READY "Plug-n-Play" circuit board.

Though i am installing the sound decoder in a Proto 1000 engine, you can use this same exact type of install on ANY engine thats motor is already isolated from the frame, and has a circuit board, but does NOT have a Plug-n-play circuit board .

HOWEVER, you can use this type of install on "DCC ready" engines with plug-n-play circuit boards too, take Athearns "DCC ready" engines for example, their plug-n-play circuit boards are worthless (in MY eyes), and i hardwire ALL my sound decoders into those engines. (i have wrote SEVERAL posts on this )

Using the basic principles i am showing you in this tutorial, you should be able to "hardwire" install a decoder or sound decoder into MANY different brand engines.

ANOTHER REASON to do a hardwire install would be to save space, in many engines there just isn't much room to add a sound decoder, so to save space you might need to take out the existing circuit board thats in the engine to give you room to install the sound decoder .

A SMALL DISCREPENCY...

I am installing a sound decoder into an FM CPA16 engine, Loksound makes real good quality sound decoders, thats sounds are really pretty much "right on" for the engine sound they offer . the problem i am having with this engine is i use 6 resources to get my sound decoders from, and only one of the six had Loksound FM sound decoders in stock, the two FM sound decoders i had to choose from was the H10-44 and the H24-66 sounds, no CPA16/CFA16 sound decoders were available. i wanted to stay with the FM opposed piston sound, so i opted for the H24-66 sounds, its not right for this engine, but at least it has the FM opposed piston sounds .

LETS BEGIN THE INSTALL...

TOOLS NEEDED:
Soldering gun
solder
hot glue gun
4'' piece of fine black wire
4" piece of fine red wire
thin strip of thick styrene
wire cutters
exacto knife
heat shrink tape
electrical tape

ALSO, the decoder or sound decoder of your choice, a set of DCC compatible lights, and of coarse, the engine to install it all in .



OK, now that we have ALL the materials together that we need, this install should only take 30-45 minutes, tops .
get your engine and sound decoder out, and familiarize your self with them...





Now, cut the 8 pin plug off your sound decoder, exactly as i shown in the pic below, leaving plenty of wire still attached to the sound decoder...



NOW disconnect the wires from the circuit board thats in the engine, and pull the circuit board out of it, also take the light/s out of the engine at this time...



Now you see the only wires that are still in the engine are the four wheel power pick up wires, two red, two black, and the two engine power wires in the middle of the engine, one black, one red. (pic below)
At this time i make a little "shelf" out of a thick piece of styrene, what this does is gives you something to put the speaker and sound decoder on so none of it touches the hot motor, and it keeps the wiring from getting into the gears . i put two SMALL drops of hot glue on top of the flat part of the motor casing, let the glue almost dry, then put the styrene "shelf on it, DON'T press the shelf down hard on the motor, the drops of hot glue keep the "shelf" off the motor just a bit so air can get between the two, for cooling purposes . MAKE SURE THE SHELF TOUCHES NO MOVING PARTS.



OK, NOW we are going to take the two pieces of 4'' wire we have(red and black), and we are going to make them "jumper wires" that will go between the left and right side wheel power pick up wires. (shown below)
**NOTE: YOU WILL WANT TO USE YOUR HEAT SHRINK TAPE TO COVER THE SOLDERED WIRES WHEN YOUR DONE, you will notice i don't use the heat shrink tape, i hot glue over my connections , it does the same thing as heat shrink tape, but you have to be VERY CAREFUL and make sure ALL of the bare wire is covered, I DO NOT RECOMMEND doing as i do, PLEASE USE the heat shrink tape, WHY YOU ASK? , well if your reading this your NEW to doing "Hardwire" decoder installs, so don't take any chances, do it right and use heat shrink tape, leave the "tricks" to the pro's .



NOW that we have the wheel pick up jumper wires installed, we will take and bare the ends of the wires on the sound decoder that we are going to use . the wires on decoders/sound decoders are color coded, the codes for each wire color coming out of the decoder are:
RED- WHEEL CURRENT PICK UP #1
BLACK- WHEEL CURRENT PICK UP #2
ORANGE- RIGHT MOTOR WIRE
GRAY- LEFT MOTOR WIRE
WHITE- HEADLIGHT
YELLOW- TAIL LIGHT(no tail light on this install)
BLUE- THE COMMON WIRE FOR BOTH, THE HEADLIGHT AND TAILLIGHT .
GREEN- FUNCTION F1(we wont use this)
PURPLE- a function wire we wont use either for this install.
2 BROWN WIRES- speaker/s

OK, going by the wire codes i have provided, and the pic i posted below this, solder it all up, don't forget to use your NEW DCC compatible light, and use heat shrink wire wrap to cover ALL the bare wires when your done.



OK, now that we have it all wired up, re-install your light, neatly wrap up the extra wiring and tape it in place so it doesn't move around. (see pic below) at this time i take a drop of hot glue and put it on the bottom of the speaker baffle/case(NOT ON THE SPEAKER ITS SELF! ), then place it on the styrene shelf...



NOW place the engine shell back on its frame and...WE ARE DONE!


SEE, not hard at all
Put the engine on your track, program it, and ENJOY IT!

I hope this helps some of you out .

[cnw1961]

LokSound decoder for Stewart Baldwin VO1000

I wanted to have sound for my Stewart Baldwin VO1000 and the only manufacturer to offer Balwin sounds is ESU, so the decision which decoder to use was very easy. The Stewart diesels are DCC ready, that means, they have an 8pin NMRA plug. To install the LokSound decoder, I only had to remove the "blind" plug that is in place for DC operation and plug the decoder in – that’s all, no soldering, no jumpers etc.

The round 0.9" (23 mm) speaker that comes with the LokSound decoder is not suitable for this Baldwin. I ordered a 2/3" x 1" oval speaker that fits perfectly above the front truck, no modification to the frame needed. I glued the speaker face down to the frame. I didn’t use a special baffle for the speaker, I wanted the shell of the loco to act as a baffle. Without the shell, the sound is really weak, but it increases dramatically when the shell is in place. To close some gaps in the frame (and the "baffle"), I glued some styrene pieces to the frame. But I found out that it is not necessary to close those gaps, the sound is just as good without the styrene pieces.



Only the LED retaining clip had to be modified. It touched the top of the speaker and hindered the shell to snap in . So I cut off the rear end of the clip (with the two pins that are used to attach the clip) and glued it to the shell.



The sound is very loud (I turned it down to approx. 40 %) and as good as you can expect of such a small speaker. The motor control of the LokSound decoder is superb, the engine runs smoothly and can crawl very slowly.

So, if you are looking for a very well detailed switcher that runs perfectly and you want to install sound without any problems, the Stewart Baldwin VO-1000 is the right engine for you.

[cnw1961]

LokSound decoder for P2K GP38-2

Besides the quality of the sound, I like LokSound decoders for their excellent motor control. That’s why I wanted to have one for my P2K GP38-2. To put it into the engine is not quite a plug and play installation. Although the GP38-2 is equipped with a DCC plug, it is far from being DCC ready. Before you can plug a decoder in, you have to remove the light bulbs (I replaced them with golden white LEDs). To get the best sound possible, I wanted to use the 1" speaker that comes with the LokSound decoder. The only place to put a speaker that size is the cab and even there it is a very tight fit. I cut the baffle of the speaker down to 7,5 mm (ca. .285"). Then I used a Dremel with a fibre cutting disc to mill the frame at the back of the cab.



The next picture shows the modifications to the shell that were needed to make the speaker fit.

[upnick]

Hi All,

I decided to put into words and pictures my conversion of an Athearn SD40 - 2 Burlington purchased from Trucklover



Getting the body off is easy four lugs on the chassis hold it on careful prising of the body away from the lugs with a fine screwdriver had the body free revealing the chassis.

My choice of decoder for this conversion was a Digitrax Z143 four function type a Christmas present from a friend, i wanted to use a four function as ditch lights will be fitted once housings for them are made or sourced using SMD's.

In my conversions i replace any lighting with LED's so the first thing to go was the bulb fitted atop the front bracket prising the plastic block away from the bracket released the bulb.

The next job was to remove the bar running across the top of the motor connecting the truck contacts as this will not be needed,
( i saved the bar and bulb with its housing for anyone who may need them in the future).
Now with a fibreglass stick i cleaned the top of the truck pick up brackets front/rear and the top of the motor contact till shiny.

When soldering i always use flux to aid solder flow ... with this in mind put a little flux on the pick up brackets and motor top and tin with a little solder ready for the wires.

Now carefully remove the motor from the chassis pulling upwards take note of the direction of the motors removal mark with a permanent marker to show its direction within the chassis such as a cross for the front end..... remove the white motor retainers and put aside, the two motor tabs on the underside need removing with clippers to save shorting out on the chassis the picture shows the left hand one removed already ......



squeeze the area the tabs have been removed from with pliers to make sure any remainder of the tab is flush.

Clean the area to recieve the orange wire and flux / tin as before the decoder is to sit atop the motor when finished measure the length of wire needed to reach the motor underside and a little bit cut to length, tin and solder to the motor contact as here .....



A small piece of tape was applied over the soldered joint and the white mounting blocks replaced ...... engage both couplings into the truck couplings and feed the orange wire up there is enough space for the wire to fit between the motor and chassis push the motor down locating the lug mountings in the chassis holes and check the motor rotates freely and is engaged with the trucks.



The Orange wire fed up under the motor.

A red jumper wire is needed to connect the trucks together and decoder to one side of the chassis cut this a little overlength to allow movement in the trucks ..... again flux and tin the wires



here i have soldered it to the rear truck and twisted the decoder red wire around the jumper ready to solder to the front truck.





With both ends of the jumper / decoder red wire soldered up, in the second picture i have superglued a piece of white 40 thou plasticard slightly wider than the motor contact strip to mount the decoder on to with double sided tape.
The Grey wire has been soldered to the top motor contact shown circled in Green.

Now all that remains is to sort the black wire out ...... the front Bracket picks up from the other sdie of the chassis and needs a good clean with the fibreglass stick tinning and the black wire soldering on shown in the final picture.



After a test on the programme track i now have an Athearn SD40 fitted with DCC i hope this helps show how easy this install is.

Next time i will fit the front and rear LED lighting.

[upnick]

Hi all,

As promised here is the lighting for the SD40 ....... Sorry the pictures are a little out of focus.

I use 3MM LED'S on HO installs though smaller ones can be utilised ........
First off install a 3MM LED holder in the square hole of the front plate shown here where the original bulb lived these are cheap at you local electrical supplier.




Next place the LED in the holder and measure the length of the white lead cut strip and tin it in readiness now you need a jumper wire from the postive side of the LED (the longer leg of the LED) tin and solder a blue wire to it keep with the decoder wiring code long enough to reach the rear LED positive leg.
Thread a length of heatshrink onto the positive lead and shrink down, now add a resistor between the other leg of the LED and white wire solder up remembering to use heatshrink.
Some 3.2 heatshrink over the LED will lessen any light seepage a tiny amount of contact or latex adhesive holds everything firm in the bracket but allow removal later if you wish .



Front LED with jumper wire and resistor installed.
Repeat fitting a resistor with the rear LED inline with the yellow wire this time as here ...... the decoder /front jumper blue wires can be seen .



As before with the red jumper wire tin and twist the decoder/front jumper blue wires together and solder to the positive leg of the rear LED, a drop of glue again will hold the rear LED to the truck pick up top (circled in green) leave enough length in the LED/wires to bend the light up to the body underside, again some 3.2 MM shrink over the LED to finish.



While doing the lighting install i always test the LED's are working at each stage, remember use heatshrink wherever a bare joint occurs and insulate especially where any joins can come into contact with metal parts.

Finally test and enjoy your newly converted loco

[upnick]

Hi All,

This conversion is for the Kato / Con Cor chassis N scale loco .... a simple one to do as the chassis has three componenets upper block and the bottom half split into two halves with a plastic isolating plate seperating both top/bottom.

The body pops off easily prised either side releasing the battery box, next undo the screwws hoding the chassis together lay them out in the order they are assembled on the loco to allow correct placement later.

The orginal light can be discarded if you choose to replace it with an LED.

Remove the motor and clip the contacts a little shorter ensuring they cannot come into contact with the chassis once reassembled though long enough to solder to ..... line both areas where the contacts sit with thin tape as a precaution (kapton tape is a good source)
Now two grooves for the motor wires need to be cut in the chassis one each side with a slitting disc in a dremel tool, smooth with wet and dry paper ensuring no sharp edges remain there, i always blow out the chassis with an airline to clear out any metal bits from the slitting process.
Mounting the decoder TCS M1 can be done easily on a piece of plasticard toward the rear of the chassis ...... after soldering the motor wires reassemble the loco .... track pick ups next ...... the front red wire soldered up to the contact tab for the original light ... the black wire being trapped between the chassis bottom and isolating plate loosen the screw there just enough to fit the wire in and tighten holding the wire firmly while doing so.

Here are the pictures of the installed decoder .........



The black plastic insulating plate can be seen running the length of the chassis, also the slits cut above the motor for Orange/grey wires.



Opposite side showing the black wire trapped between chassis /plate



Better shot showing the location of the black wire along with the plasticard support attached with a spot of Superglue and thin double sided tape for the decoder.



The chassis moulding on top either side allows a good route for wires though well taped down as the body is a close fit.

Lighting wasnt fitted to this loco when the conversion was done hence the blue/yellow/white wires not wired up .