ESU LokSound install into Kato SD70ACe

Last year I acquired a used DC version of UP #8450, an SD70ACe from Kato. It was part of a batch purchase (where I was primarily interested in some of the other items), so thought this would be a good project to get me started on installing sound decoders. Well, as some of you may remember, I had a major accident on milling the frame, such that I literally broke a half (there is a thread on this disaster, but I'm not going to point to it -- go find it if you must!)

Anyway, I moved onto other projects, but along the way, @Ryan Wilkerson was able to acquire a new frame for me. This project kept sitting in the box for a variety of reasons, but this weekend, out it came

The frame requires some milling to provide enough room to fit the decoder and speaker over the rear truck, plus a couple of small touches elsewhere, to make life simple. Here, you can see the milled frame (assembled) along with an unmilled frame. Basically, need to take the back shelf down a bit (cutting off the tops of the embedded numbers) and mill up to almost the retention holes for the motor housing. The other touches are to remove the small bump on each side of the shelf over the front fly wheel, and a slight widening of the channel from the rear shelf over to the area over the motor (for wires)


Here is the other side (the weathering on the trucks and fuel tanks were as received).



Here is a view from the top. You can see the widened channel at the read of the motor, as well as my liberal use of Kapton tape to ensure everything is isolated. In the above pictures, you can also see that I made sure to put Kapton where the motor tabs are near the frame, as well. Also, of note, are the two small pieces of PC-board ties I cut and drilled, to give me a mounting spot for power pickup. Since the brass strips are all at the bottom of the frame on this model, I chose to make a soldering point up top, rather than run wires down the side of the frame

 

At first, I thought to put my "stay alive" capacitors in the center cradle, over the motor. Unfortunately, they are just a bit too think for that spot, as the roof line of the shell comes down.


So, I moved them to the front of the unit, and placed my light board over the motor


This photo has everything but the lights wired up. The "light board" is simply a small piece of PC board, with channel milled. There are 3 light connections (white / green / yellow wires), plus the common (blue) wire on it. 1000 ohm SMD resistors are between the leads from the board, and the solder points for the LEDs. To get everything to fit into the shell, one must also sand down the area at the rear of the shell, to permit the speaker and decoder to "just fit". The decoder is actually mounted slanted, to reduce its footprint (headprint?) in the shell.



Since I hadn't realized how yellow the light pipes were in the stock SD70ACe, I am only putting in the front LED (on left) for now. It will illuminate both the headlamp and ditch lights. A separate ditch light LED and a rear LED (to be mounted on the end of the speaker) will be added once I get clear light pipes from KATO. "But Rick," you may ask, "why not put in two LEDs for the ditch lights, allowing them to flash?" Well, this is a UP loco, which did not flash their ditch lights!

Also, you can see the small label I made for the decoder. This is just something I have started doing, since I may have a few decoders out at any given time. I put the sound project number, along with prime mover on the label, to keep everything straight. The speaker is the Soberton 8x11, from Digikey, with the really cool Shapeways enclosure for it.

I will try to post a video of the loco running later today

 

Here's a quick video I made (sorry about the phone handling noise). Shows off just how much volume one can get out of these little guys



^Karl - no, I hadn't thought to do that. Will take a look. This is my last train related project for about a month. Plan to just run some trains in the meantime.

 

I haven't mounted it, yet. As noted, I will do so once I get the clear light pipes from Kato (ordered yesterday). For the rear, I will simply affix it to the rear of the speaker enclosure. I left sufficient room for clearance. I will bring the magnet wire out along the bottom of the speaker. (If, for some reason there isn't enough, I could also just glue it to the rear light pipe, and have magnet wire trailing. Will probably do that for the two front LEDs, too).

 

Just to conclude the build, I received the clear light pipes from Kato this week. I tried to come up with a way to not have the front LEDs affixed to the pipes, but was unsuccessful in preventing leakage between the ditch lights and the headlight. So, with the shell completely apart for the second time in three days, I put shrink wrap tubing around the main sections of the pipes, glued the LEDs to the ends, then used liquid tape to seal. Here is the finished wiring, including the rear light.

 

That is exactly what I used - Bondic. So much easier than using CA for this application. Guess I shouldn't have used the word "glue", since it isn't a glue

I finished up the programming for this loco this morning (speed set, volumes, brake squeal, etc). This loco runs fantastically.

 

It is a piece of blank PCB board, which I mill into alternating strips of isolated copper, and then a cross cut to mount the resistor over. Then cut to size. A dremel, with steady hand, could be used, but the micro mill is more reliable.