Does anyone have the factory CUFF TRIGER working with a phoenix sound system

[trea916]

Does anyone have the factory CUFF TRIGER working with a phoenix sound system ?

and how ?

does it really just plug in ?

thanks

[trea916]

SORRY FOR THE K 27

[Greg Elmassian]

I will make the following assumptions:

1. Bachmann K27
2. Phoenix 2k2 sound board.
3. No control system specified, i.e. no assumptions on battery, track, dcc, mts, dcs or other control system.

Yes, people have made this work.
You may need to do the "transistor" trick, although it works for a reason different than many people believe (but I could be wrong)
No, it does not plug in, no sound only board plugs into the K socket.
So far the QSI and the RCS boards seem to plug in just fine. Read elsewhere what these are, try the MLS forum, or the QSI and the Remote Control Systems web sites.

Reading between the lines, I'm not sure exactly what you want to put into the loco, the control system used will most likely have an interaction with the sound system you choose, if only mechanical.

Regards, Greg

p.s. was doing my reply when you updated and added the post about K27...

[trea916]

SORRY   

I HAVE AIRWIRE

P5

battery

thanks

[mudhen]

Does anyone have the factory CUFF TRIGER working with a phoenix sound system ?

and how ?

does it really just plug in ?

thanks

I have read as per the instructions which come with the engine that the 2k2 plugs into the air wire board , and the air wire board replaces the factory board in the tender , which is tossed into the garbage. You do have to run wires from the steam chest triggers to the tender and these two wires have a designated spot in the connections ( I think #'s 15 & 16 ) memory only . My say in the 2k2 manual as I recall.
I am working on this myself very soon and I hope it will work. Keep me up to date on your progress. ( Mudhen )   

[Greg Elmassian]

Just to help, you do NOT have to toss the existing board. You can connect your airwire receiver to it. You can also get the chuff working without running extra wires from the loco to the tender.

If you will do modifications, like change the leds, or you have trouble with the chuff, or other modifications, you may elect to remove the board in the tender.

Also if you are tight on space, you might remove it also for this reason.

The bottom line is you are not FORCED to remove it, but it COULD be the best idea depending on your installation.

Regards, Greg

[Superheater]

Gregg

I think he mans the dummy plug not the socket and board.

John

[jimtyp]

I have the P5 working with optical chuff, using the NPN transistor.  Some say you don't need the NPN but I haven't tried it yet.  It works great at low speeds but at about 40% of full throttle (22v) it starts cutting out and by  60% it doesn't work at all.   My understanding is that the trigger (optical chuff) is so short the sound card sees it as noise and filters it out. 

So it depends on how fast you run.  I haven't done any scale mph testing, but I read a review of someone that did (Model Railroad News - does all scales).  Nice review of the Bachmann K-27 and good info on the real K-27.  Anyway, they claim at 22v and full out the K-27 was doing 31 scale mph.  I've heard they typically ran about 20-25 mph, which was about 50% of full throttle.  And the Blackstone site claims the old timers said they could get up to 45 mph on the straight aways and when no one was looking.

I like the look of the K-27 running about 50 - 60% of full throttle (22v), but the chuff doesn't work at that speed so I'm to the point where I'm going to go back to the magnets.

I don't know if the 2K2 works any better.  I'd be curious if it does then I'd swap the P5 for the 2K2.

[trea916]

from what i have heard the 2k2 is for track power stick with the p 5

I WAS TOLD THE P5 HAS AN AUTO CHUFF MODE HAS  ANYONE TRYED THIS YET
AND WERE DO YOU GET THE TRANSITOR  FOR THE CHUFF OR DOES COME WITH IT

THANKS

[Greg Elmassian]

You can buy the transistor, and you should read the other threads on the transistor. You may want to have someone do this for you, rather than do the conversion yourself.

The reason you do not necessarily need the transistor, is that the problem is not "reversing" the sense of the chuff output, but the ground reference on the Bachmann electronics is not the same as the ground reference on the sound board.

Sometimes the transistor helps, sometimes it does not.

Regards, Greg

[trea916]

can you give me the address to the thread for the tranzistor 

and do you have the specs on the  tranzistor 

[jimtyp]

Here is a link to install the NPN transistor to use the optical chuff.

http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/17/postid/6266/view/topic/Default.aspx

I've also tried a 2N2222A NPN and it worked about the same, if anything not quite as well as the Radio Shack one listed in the link above.  Adding a 0.1 capacitor helped marginally.

I tried the DCC mode of the P5, but the K-27 is geared so high that even the slightest change in grade makes the chuff look strange.  The P5 DCC chuff mode works off of the start voltage and then reads the speed step packets off of the rail.  That is, the loco may be moving, slightly down hill with no chuff, or the chuff going and the loco is not moving slightly uphill.  Add rolling stock and it's even worse. 

[Greg Elmassian]

So that's where "CUFF" came from! (on one of the pictures).



Greg