Has anyone installed a TSU-1100 sound decoder in an Atlas GP-38? I tried last night but was unable to get the shell on the model. The decoder is instilled in the rear of the frame with the speaker in the front under the cut off light board. The wrapping/insulation is still on the decoder to a void breaking the warranty. I was not able to remove the rear lense because Atlas glued it in. Any thoughts or suggestions? Peace be with you, Arthur
The speaker is not the problem, the with and length of the decoder is the issue. Is it possible to mill the Atlas frame and shave the rear? I will try to post pictures this evening Peace be with you,
I am guessing that this is an N scale locomotive? If so you will be hard press to fit this decoder into the loco with out doing some machine work, Even then you will have to venture out of the box to make work. The Tsunami 2 1100 is the same size has the Econami series decoders. I have installed several of these into loco's similar to this one. I first had to cut off the heat shrink- OPPS there goes the warranty! Then I removed the wire harness and then removed the socket from the decoder PC board. Then I hard wired the wires from the harness right to the board. This will reduce the height of the decoder a bunch, I also removed the 4 pin socket on the other end to help with height reduction. Now where to put the capacitor? The one furnished one will NOT FIT ! I use surface mount caps. 20 volt 100uF wired in parrallel and place them where ever there is room . Sometimes I will have to split them up to fit.
First, You have to grind out part of the inside of the shell to get it to fit. Second, you have to mill out the chassis to get the decoder to fit. This will create enough space to get the decoder, speaker, and capacitors to fit. In my GP38-2, I was able to fit mine in the N scale locomotive, plus four, yes four, SM 16V 220uF capacitors in there, along with a sugar cube speaker.
I want to say thank you for all the replies that have been given. I can see that I do not have the skills for this install. Even before I read the replies I removed the decoder and I'm currently attempt g to install a LokSound decoder. There was still an issue with installing the decoder as I know these decoder do not have trouble in longer locomotives as in SD-50 and 60s. I as to install the decoder in the shell above the real light board. The board did not go in easy but it is holding steady. Peace be with you,
The OP was about an Tsunami 2 decoder- the photos you show are of an LocSound Micro Select? Again, I cut off the heat shrink, The locSound is too wide to fit an narrow N scale loco. BTW a Tsunami is a bit narrower and will fit with out grinding the shell or have to remove the heat shrink, but it is way too tall. With the LocSound I also remove the purple wire and the green one too. I have found that you don't really need capacitors with the LocSound decoders, If you have the room fine, if not, no big deal (IMO) . If you add caps you will need to solder a ground wire the decoder board. If the light lens does not come out, use a Dremel and cut the light lens back to make more room.
I was glad to come across this thread,since I was wanting to get info on sound installation in my GP38-2's,but since I just found out that ATLAS just announced a new run of Nscale GP38-2's that will come with and without Loksound,I will just wait on those to complement my SD40-2'S. JMO,but I have to wonder if that will be the start of a whole new series of Nscale hood units with sound already installed.If so,YAAAYYY!
I was also happy to see this as well, but I continue to have some thoughts. The application of such a board would be a great benift to the Atlas N scale models. However are there any thoughts to the extra functions to the "LOK Sound decoder" that will be installed? I have look at some of the photos from the SD40-2 board and I'm not sure if that decoder has extra functions. All we can do is hope for the most that we get the best they have to offer. Given our space restrictions. Peace be with you
Hopefully, Atlas will opt for all the bells and whistles (literally) of the full blown LokSound decoder, that folks try to install now. If they go for an "econo" version, folks will be ripping them out, to get the functions, they want. Yes, they cost more, but that cost is incremental. People replace low end decoders, in decoder equipped locos, all the time. Put a "good" one in and I'll spend the replacement decoder money, on my next loco, instead of a replacement decoder. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
There aren't any "econo version" LokSound decoders. While Atlas has not yet made a specific announcement, the GP38 will likely come with either the same board as the IM SD40-2 or the "replacement" board that fits older style frames. Either way, these boards come with six auxiliary (e.g., function) outputs: one for the headlight; one for the backup light and four additional ones. On the SD40-2 board, these six outputs already have LEDs wired to them on the board; however, there are also soldering pads for auxiliary outputs 3 and 4 (Aux1 and Aux2 are generally used for ditch lights, either alternating front ditch lights or non-alternating front and rear ditch lights). Go to the following link, download the 2017 Product Highlights PDF, and then go to page 8 of that PDF for more info. http://www.esu.eu/en/downloads/catalogues/ John C.
