Looking to see if anyone has installed a TCS keep alive into the 0-6-0 saddle tank locomotive item 81811 which I believe has the H818X#DCC01 decoder installed.  If no one has installed the Keep Alive maybe someone knows the circuit well enough to advise me how to install one.  Thanks

Would like to install a TCS Keep Alive KA2 into a Spectrum On30 climax that is sound decoder equipped.  Looking to see if anyone has performed this successfully or if the contact points can be identified by someone familiar with the decoder boards in this unit.

Thanks

Steve Kibort
S. Petersburg, Fl

The Soundtraxx .5" speaker part 810089 drops in for a perfect fit. When used with the Soundtraxx Tsunami TSU750 Heavy Steam the decoder and speaker are an excellent combination.  Very pleased with the result. 

I have looked at the postings for installing sounddDecoders and speakers into the tender of the J. I am not fond of the MRC decoder products so using that decoder and speaker (which requires a modification to the speaker chamber) is not my preference.  Has anyone identified a speaker that fits the existing chamber and compatible decoder?  My preference for decoder is Loksound or Tsunami but not sure if either make a speaker that properly fits the speaker chamber.  Thanks

Probably my last update to this thread. I have now done 2 Loksound installations in the light mountain.  Both required the insulating of the motor from the frame.  However,  these locomotives have absolutely no pulling power.  The Heavy Mountain can handle 20 cars on level grade the light mountain is lucky to get 8.  I would not recommend installing sound in these units (waste of decoder money) based on the poor pulling performance. They look really nice, sound is very nice but too much trouble to do the installation with the motor isolation problem and the lack of pulling power.

Couplers are an issue.  My heavy mountain required a retro fit because the factory coupler was too low. The light mountain came with rapidos and the motor on the light mountain was not isolated properly from the split frame.  I agree Bachmann is close to taking the lead in N scale steam but they need to watch quality and design more closely.  Would like to see some more options with split frames (properly isolated motors) and true DCC ready (ideally with consideration for sound) with knuckle couplers properly height matched to standard.  I think there is some real market potential to re-release some of the previous products (4-8-4, etc. ) with DCC ready design and upgrades to Spectrum line.

Thought I would post an update on installing a Loksound Micro in the tender of this unit.  There is plenty of room. Installation is relatively easy and it sounds great. BUT.... and this is a big but..... when the locomotive was designed  there was some flawed thinking.  Although the locomotive has a split frame and it appears the motor is isolated, in reality it is not. There is insufficient clearance and no insulation between the motor contacts and wire leads on the left (Firemans) side between the motor and frame. An intermittent short occurs between the motor contact/leads and the frame. The only solution to this is to disassemble the entire locomotive and then fully isolate/insulate the motor leads from the frame. Not an easy task and not recommended to modelers inexperienced in disassembling steam locomotive drivers and running gear.  The other issue is the tender weight and how the weight is installed. Not the best arrangement for electrical components in the tender.  The new DCC ready tenders would likely make all this easier but still does not solve the motor isolation issue. I have done two of these and both units had the same motor isolation problem. 

I bought the Heavy mountain with the factory decoder (Stupid move since I knew I was going to put a new decoder into it so I have the factory decoder in the parts drawer).  The unit came with the PC board and decoder wired to the board in the tender. I simply unsoldered the factory decoder off the board and then soldered the Loksound to the factory board (the manual has the board/wiring schematic). It works great and sounds great. I can not recall if the board had a pin or not and the parts diagram is not handy at the moment.  I used the Loksound Rectangular speaker (the one that comes on the decoder and had to slight modify the coal bunker to get the speaker under the coal load. The modification also allowed a opening for the sound to escape. This is one of my better sounding (and running) locomotives.

Quote from: Frisco on August 27, 2008, 03:24:02 PM
Does the heavy mountain have a 8 pin plug , 6 pin plug or is the decoder hard wired in?

I have installed a Loksound Micro into the Heavy Mountain tender. This was relatively easy since the PC board and all motor and headlight wiring is accessible in the tender.  I want to install sound into a Light Mountain (do not have the locomotive yet) but understand it is not wired the same (not really DCC ready). Wanted to see if anyone has put sound (Loksound or Tsunami) into the Light Mountain and would have any input to this process.  Thanks