GE 45t switcher

[richg]

Richg,

Thanks for hanging in with me on this project.

The 13mm would fit, but they are 50 ohm units and are sold by ESU as a pair to be wired in series. That's how they get the 100 ohm impedance. Does anyone know if a 50 ohm resistor could be tied in series and have the 13mm work??

I plan to use a 50 ohm resistor in the 45 ton if I do one. Have not looked into this too much so far.

Another option, go to the SoundTraxx site and look up the specs on the Tsunami Micro and see if it is much different from the specs of the LokSound Micro decoder. If they are about the same size, then you can use a 8 ohm speaker. One site shows a 10mm and 15mm round speaker.

What is the actual diameter of the hole, i, e, maximum size speaker you could install?

Cheers

Rich

[Cted1947]

As close as I can measure, the speaker port is 13mm, stepping down to 9mm. I figured the speaker would replace the weight which fills that space now. The closeness to the ground could let the speaker pick up any Fe materials from the tracks, but I was thinking of placing a piece of sheer cloth between the speaker and the cover grill. That's another reason I am considering the cab ceiling installation.

[richg]

As close as I can measure, the speaker port is 13mm, stepping down to 9mm. I figured the speaker would replace the weight which fills that space now. The closeness to the ground could let the speaker pick up any Fe materials from the tracks, but I was thinking of placing a piece of sheer cloth between the speaker and the cover grill. That's another reason I am considering the cab ceiling installation.

That should work. Here are some photos of a sound installation in a MDC Climax shell that is about the size of the 44 ton cab. I used a 3/4 inch speaker with a small baffle.











I had to fine tune the sound CV's in the Tsunami Micro and it worked out quite well.

Rich

[hotrainlover]

Richg,
Did you spray paint the speaker and area?  Does that affect the sound?

[richg]

Richg,
Did you spray paint the speaker and area?  Does that affect the sound?

I did not spray the paint. It was applied by brush and Not to the speaker face. I painted the speaker metal frame to prevent light reflection. I used flat black paint.
I have a top side photo of the 45 ton and it is almost the size of the Climax cab so possibly a ¾ inch speaker will fit.
To make it easier to fine tune the decoder, I used a device from Micro Mark that allowed me to fine tune on the work bench. These rollers fit on the track and power is transferred up to the wheels.
By enhancing certain frequencies in the decoder, you can get a fairly good sound. It is mostly trial and error. Certainly quite a bit of error.



Rich

[Cted1947]

Well, I got the decoder in and working with the speaker in the cab ceiling. I had to use a Dremel tool to remove some of the inside of the cab to accommodate the decoder. There's not enough room for the main board and the new decoder to lie flat as did the originals. Perhaps a Tsunami is small enough, but I don't know about sound packages. Now I plan to tweak the CV settings to get the sound where I like it. The 72843 Micro does have two generator sounds. It's neat when it starts up.

The wiring of the new decoder was very straight-forward; the diagram that came with the loco was right on the money.

Any suggestions for a good sound for the Bachman 70 ton switcher?

[Mike_AA9ZY]

I've been reading this thread with great interest and I think I will leave mine w/o sound. It's a neat little engine and I will enjoy it.

FWIW, I stand by my original comments that Bachmann should offer this engine with sound.

[Cted1947]

Mike,

Can't argue with the obvious!

[richg]

I doubt that will ever happen. Too small a diesel and not very popular. Bachmann is out to make a profit.

Rich

[Mike_AA9ZY]

It wouldn't surprise me if Bachmann did come up with a compact sound dcc package that could be used in N, HO, and On30. It all depends upon demand of the consumer.

Except for this 45 ton engine, I'm buying engines with dcc and sound whenever possible.

IMHO, dcc without sound is like dial-up internet access.