Quote from: Fred2179 on September 02, 2025, 11:58:37 AMI think you'll need a multimeter and to learn how to use it.

Hi Fred, thanks for your reply. I checked the electronics with a multimeter and all seemed to be flowing as it should based on what I could tell and by following the paths.

I saw the suggestion of Loco Bill Canelos on another thread to short or jump the connection to test the tender speaker electronics. All I heard was a bit of a click, but I didn't hear the  static "chuff" sound constantly. I assume I would hear it constantly since the circuit was fully closed and not alternating open close synced with the spinning drum on the axle.

So if they click is expected, then I believe the electronics are working fine if I should hear what sounds like constant radio static (constant chuff) then perhaps things aren't in working order.

Thanks for your reply. I have modified my original post to remove rookie mistakes. Using my hobby to learn more about electronics. Gotta start somewhere. 

DC operator/operations for now. My goal after chassis swap is to simply restore the old chuff, light, and smoke functions (if possible) all running DC track power. Later on, I plan to learn and convert to a full wireless protocol with battery power.

Quote from: Greg Elmassian on September 01, 2025, 04:00:19 PMSigh, you have a lot of questions, but you actually need some fundamentals.

First, that is not a PNP board, PNP normally means you can plug in a decoder. So, you want to stop using that terminology just so you don't get a lot of strange suggestions that will only confuse you.

Your questions about how to connect various things really depend on where you are going with this... if your goal is to run just plain DC to the rails, that is one set of answers.

But if you will fit some sort of control system, then there is a different set of answers

And if you are going battery, some more answers/suggestions.

On top of this, I'm the kind of guy that does not answer "just tell me how to do it, I don't want to understand why"

So, some education of how the basic components work is also in order.

Therefore, I suggest the best way to proceed is do your "look ahead" and determine your final destination, and we could proceed in that direction.

Now, this is just my personal opinion, and my "rules"... I have a very large and detailed web site that takes maintenance and I get a lot of requests for help, so I don't have the luxury of going in several directions at one time.

There's many other people with other motives/strategies/time allocation, and they should chime in here too.

Hello world,

I recently ordered a replacement chassis for my 4-6-0 big hauler steam engine.

Hook ups to the electronics board were very easy, and I confirmed that the locomotive runs well in forward and reverse.

I've documented my rebuild so far. It's on YouTube here and covers the written background info below.


Background and current state:
I'm looking for advice on how to reestablish connection of smoke lights and sound. My locomotive shell came off of a generation 4 chassis so I'm assuming late 1990s to early 2000s model (based on posts by Loco Bill and others). It has a switch for the smoke unit behind the smoke box door. One black and one red wire lead from the switch, and was previously soldered to the motor block in the old chassis. A small black and white wire lead out of the middle of the switch to the headlight.

As for the chuffing sound, no chuffing sound is heard even with 9V battery plugged in where it's supposed to be in the tender and the proper G2 plugs in their respective ports on the electronics board.

Questions/advice requested:

For the lights and smoke, should I simply splice the red and black wires into the track pick up wires before they reach the board? It was suggested that I also solder a J2 pigtail immediately onto the board where the power enters the board. Is there any other thing I should consider, and is it possible to completely separate both components so that they can be controlled by the PNP board?

For the sound and the tender, I am fine restoring the factory, plain old chuff sound. Should I open the tender and bypass any electronic boards that are there and instead, reroute the wire that connects to the locomotive directly to the speaker unit?

Thanks, and happy rails. (Original post edited to remove some incorrect references).

-nrrtx86

https://youtu.be/HPBaNU6aH4k?si=AF1v0wqMiBWmlaFH