Quote from: Greg Elmassian on October 25, 2023, 04:07:40 PMI did not think the smoke unit is fan driven? Modulating the heater will not make it puff... it's a resistor that has thermal mass... it will not switch on and off rapidly like an LED.

I pulse a fan motor, leaving the heater pretty constant, lowering and raising the heater current with speed somewhat.

Thanks for the clarification Greg. Actually upon further investigation, there is no fan unit in the Bachmann to "pulse" the smoke unit anyway. It's just either "on or off".

Click here for Bachmann 4-6-0 Smoke Unit

In this case I will just wire it to an FX terminal. Then I can remotely turn on the smoke unit through the app.



Thanks,

-Todd

Quote from: StanAmes on October 24, 2023, 10:43:01 AMAll the function pins on the socket used by bachmann (including the smoke pin) are low current control function pins and have all the protection circuits inside the locomotive.

Using the smoke unit as an example, the smoke function pin is low current while the power to actualy produce smoke is consumed through the + and - pins.

Hey guys, after re-reading through the responses, I got a crazy, longshot idea. Looking at what Stan (and others) have said about the "low current function pins", I was wondering of I could bypass the decoder and wire the "chuff sensor" pin/wire directly to the "smoke unit" pin/wire?

The thought would be every time the optical chuff sensor detects a revolution, it would "trigger" the low current smoke unit. So essentially the smoke unit would be timed with the "chuff".

This of course excludes the chuff SOUND, but the decoder can be programmed to match the motors feedback and I can offset it to match the chuff sensor. Worse case is I can wire the smoke unit to one of the FX connections and just turn it on and off, but really like the ide of a "synchronized chuff".

Obviously I can just do an experiment and temporarily tie the two connections together, but I don't want to make a costly electronics mistake by frying something.

Let me know what you think.




Thanks,

-Todzilla

Thanks everyone for the responses! I'm glad Bachmann decided to go this way with the logic board socket. It makes it easier to not have to worry about adding individual resistors for LEDs and other accessories.

Quote from: StanAmes on October 24, 2023, 10:43:01 AMIn your wiring diagram you have neglected to connect the + and - connections to the locomotive.  Without these connections there is no power being provided to the locomotive to operate the functions. The total current of all the functions and the smoke unit draw goes through this connnection so do ensure that your product can support the load.

You are absolutely right Stan! I realized after I uploaded my picture and looked at it later I was missing those connections. I have since fixed it:
Click here to see the UPDATED 4-6-0 to Blunami Wiring (feel free to give it a once over to see if I missed anything)

Also George over at Soundtraxx says the BLU-4408 is a 4amp maximum decoder so I'm crossing my fingers this should be fine.

Quote from: StanAmes on October 24, 2023, 10:43:01 AMPlease also note that your locomotive had an excellent chuff unit.  I do not believe that the product you are using can take adadvantage of this feature.

Yes George also did state that the BLU-4408 does not have a chuff trigger. The decoder has an internal digital cam in that it can watch the motor power using BEMF and know a rotation of the motor. You can adjust the chuff in the decoder to match the motor rotation. Although I agree, it would be nice to use the optical sensor in the Loco.


I appreciate everyone's feedback.  I will hopefully post pictures of the upgrade (assuming it is successful )


-Todzilla

Hello all, I just received my D&RGW™ Flying Grande 4-6-0 and I am planning on putting a Blunami (BLU-4408) DCC decoder in.

My question is when using the the supplied jumper wire board, to wire in the Blunami, is there a need to wire in an inline resistor for the Front & Rear LEDs & the Firebox Flicker LED? Or since we are using the plug in jumper board, the 4-6-0 motherboard already takes care of voltage, basically doing the part of the resistor?

Also does the smoke unit on the D&RGW™ Flying Grande 4-6-0 draw more than 300 mA? If so, then I can NOT use one of the FX outputs on the Blunami as it would exceed the 300 mA limit. If that was the case, do you recommend wiring the smoke unit into the track pickups? Or the the motor outputs?

Click here to see the 4-6-0 to Blunami Wiring

I appreciate any advice, or opinions you may have.



Thank you,

-Todzilla