ADDING SOUND TO A BACHMANN N SPECTRUM ARTICULATED STEAM LOCO WITH VANDY VC12 TENDER Can anyone reccomend the procedure to use? It has factory DCC but I have to add sound. Should the tender be changed to a bigger one to hold a sound unit? Should the DCC unit be changed to one with sound or just use the sound of another unit and use the DCC thats in it. It is using the Vandy VC12 Tender. Thanks Ron
I don't do sound effects but unless an articulated locomotive has separate "chuffs" for each engine, it ain't right. Nothing gets me more than listening to a sound equipped articulated which has a steady choo choo instead of the in and out of synch chuff from a real loco. I realize that our little models have one motor to run both engines and both run the same speed, but it would be nice to (for once) hear a sound equipped articulated that actually sounded like a real one! MY OPINION Woodie
Opened it again but to me it looks like the tender is too tiny. Can't fit the cap and speaker in either. Maybe the larger tender http://www.¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤¤.com/product-p/bac-89852.htm Bachmann N 89852 USRA Long Tender Might fit it. Looking inside looks small to me. Ron
Not sure which sound decoders you have heard. With a Tsunami sound decoder you can set CV's for a articulated loco. You can set a CV that will allow the chuffs to be in synch or have a slip rate, fast or slow. So if the loco's decoder is set up correct it will sound like an articulated locomotive.
Like I said in my first post. Get rid of the decoder and the light board. Put a speaker under the coal load, and use surface mount caps for the capacitor.
That does sound good. I see where you want the Tsunami wired into the plug. Usually Spectrum gives a wire code for their tenders. I gotta check some paperwork to see if any wiring is shown. Do you just remove the circuit board from the tender thats there? Won't this take out the light? Is this the light board? How would the wiring go to that plug on the circuit board? I know you told me about surface mount caps before but what was the difference between them and the can type caps? Thanks Ron
Did not you just do a Mountain unit? I bet the light board is the same. Not sure but it looks to be very similar. You would use an NEM 652 male plug to wire to your Tsunami wires. This plug will then plug into the female socket of the loco. Surface mount capacitors are much smaller that an electrolytic type cap. You will have to use two or more as the smaller surface mounts only have about 100Uf. So you wire them in parallel. Two would give you 200Uf. Three would give you 300Uf. You just wire up the rear light using the blue wire and the yellow- DON’T FORGET the resistor for the light and you also need one for the front light too. .
I think you are saying remove the light board and basically wire the 750 into the wires on the female plug. I guess if I were to wire the 750 to the light board, as it does have wire solder sections that are numbered, as in my pic it would take up tooo much room with that light board in it. Than I should wire up the rear light to the resistor and to the 750. Are the surface caps available at Radio Shack? Does this sound right? I Didn't do the light mountain as yet. I did a heavy mountain with a digitrax SDN144PS. Sounds like crap but only $39.00. Did the Spectrum N&W with a Tsunami 750 and sounds great. Trying to do the light mountain and the articulated in the near future with the 750. RON
Radio Shack will not know what you are talking about. One place I know that has them in stock is here. http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=999003122&cat=125&page=1 They will have the plug too. http://www.litchfieldstation.com/xcart/product.php?productid=999003218&cat=256&page=1
