Blunami!

 In my last post I told you about purchasing a couple of Blunami sound decoders and promised an installation article. In this post I'll show you how I put the decoder in a Bachmann 4-8-4 Northern and I'll show you a couple of different options during the installation. There are a lot of pictures, so fair warning, it may load slowly.

First, you are going to need a donor locomotive. I picked the Bachmann Northern because it has a huge 52' tender, and also because I have three of them laying around that I've been able to pick up for good prices, and they are all split-frame versions. However, not all split frame versions are created equal, as I will show you when it comes time to install the locomotive wiring harness.

In addition to the decoder, you are going to need speakers. I picked a couple of ESU 50326 speakers, doubling them up to handle the output power of the decoder's amplifier. I also installed a set of tender pick-ups from Richmond Controls and a TCS six wire micro-connector between the tender and the locomotive. The tender pick-ups make the loco run much better and ensures steady power to the decoder, and the micro-connector makes the installation much easier as well as allowing the tender to be disconnected from the loco for any future maintenance.

Richmond Controls includes installation instructions with their pick-ups, so I don't feel very bad about not documenting them. It's pretty easy, you just have to remember to check your wheel set installations when you put them back in to make sure they are all in the right way. I had one of my wheels reversed and it caused an immediate short circuit when I put the loco on the track.

 

Notice that I installed the two-pin connector that Richmond Controls includes in their kit. For the regular DC installation, the other side of this connector is fastened to the engine, which allows the tender to be unhooked from the engine. In this installation, I connected the other end to the decoder track power wires. 

In my previous installation I mounted the speakers to the tender floor. In that configuration the decoder stays with the tender floor when the shell is removed, so the truck wires are connected directly to the decoder wires. In this installation I mounted the speakers in the tender shell, so the decoder will stay with the shell if it is removed, which is why I chose to use the two-pin plug to allow for the complete removal of the tender floor.

The TCS six-wire plug is also connected to the decoder and the connections are insulated. I used a liquid insulation, but heat shrink would work just as well (and be less messy). TCS provides these connectors in a flat 6 wire plug or in a 2x3 plug, and there is also a flat plug version with black wires (one has a white chaser so it will be connected properly). The black wire version might be better to disguise the connection, the colored wires definitely stand out.

There is plenty of room in the Northern 52' tender shell for the decoder, even though it is intended for HO locomotives. There is plenty of room for the speakers in each end as well, and the entire thing fits right over the weights on the floor. 

Since I was using two speakers they had to be connected together. Soundtraxx cautions against using speakers less than 4 ohms, and each of these speakers are 8 ohms, so I wired them in series. Wiring in parallel would drop the impedance to 4 ohms, so that wasn't an option.

The decoder has plenty of wire for the speakers, so I cut some off to connect the speakers together.. I toyed around with several options when installing the speakers. I thought about mounting them on the forward and aft tender walls pointing inward, but I found there was plenty of room to install them on the top of the shell facing down. Later during testing I discovered that the sound was louder in that configuration than in the previous floor mounted installation.

The six wire plug feeds out of a slot cut in the front of the tender shell and the floor installs with no issues. The harness wiring was tucked underneath the decoder, so the only wiring I had to fight with was the wiring coming from the tender trucks. The screws on the trucks have to be left slightly loose so that the trucks will pivot, the Richmond Controls wipers interfere with the pivot action if the screws are too tight.

And with that done, it was on to installing the other side of the TCS harness on the locomotive.

Both of these locomotives are split frame versions, but as you can see the locomotive on the bottom has a couple of extra screws hiding under the trailing truck.They both run much better than the previous plastic framed version, but the one on the bottom runs slightly better than the one on the top. The biggest difference is in the motors.

As you can see, the top version has the old open sided motor that Bachmann has used for decades. The other version has a nice little can motor that is used on almost all of their newer locomotives tucked inside where it can't be seen. The bottom locomotive had to be completely disassembled to electrically isolate the motor and install the wiring harness, but because the brush caps are exposed on the top locomotive the wiring installation was much easier. The only part that had to be removed on the upper loco was the headlight, to connect the white and blue wires.

The bottom locomotive got holes drilled and tapped for 00-90 screws in each frame half so that brass tabs could be used to connect the track power wires to the locomotive. The Richmond Controls kit includes a neat little bit of double-sided PC board that can be inserted between the frame halves for the wires to be connected to, but I felt this would be a more secure connection.

For the top locomotive, the brass strips that connect the motor to the frame were pulled out of the motor brush covers and wrapped around the frame. The track power wires were then connected to them, and the motor wires were soldered onto the motor brush covers. Care must be taken not to overheat these brush covers, otherwise they may separate from the motor and destroy it. Ask me how I know...

Just a dot of solder on the brush holder is enough to secure the wire. Use of a non-corrosive rosin based flux intended for electronics work is a great help in getting the solder to flow quickly. Under no circumstances should an acid based flux be used! The track power wires are likewise soldered to the brass strips that were formerly connected to the motor brushes.

After the connections are made to the motor and frame a piece of thick styrene can be inserted between the top of the motor and the frame to prevent any inadvertent contact. I cut this piece and test-fitted it before connecting any of the wiring.

The head light holder is secured to the locomotive with a single screw under the leading truck, the same screw that holds the cylinders in place. The bulb holder has to be removed in order to connect the wires from the harness to the bulb.

On the bottom locomotive there was a capacitor installed with the headlight bulb, but on the top loco the bulb wiring was just wrapped around the holder. I opted for an LED on the bottom loco, but I simply soldered the wires directly to the bulb on the top one. There is plenty of room for an LED resistor in the space behind the curved bulb holder. The connections are insulated to prevent contact, and then the holder is reinstalled with its single screw.

There is a plastic piece that the shell screws into that has to be modified for the headlight wiring to pass around. The sides of the screw holder are trimmed back with a sharp hobby knife as shown in the next two photos and the wiring is routed around it, one on each side. 

Notice how the headlight wiring is tucked between the frame halves. The screws that hold the frame halves need to be loosened slightly so the wires can be put into place, then tightened back up.

And with that the wiring is done. Reinstall the shell and connect the connector to the tender, paying attention to the color codes to ensure the connection is correct. Reattach the tender and put it on the track to program.

Using the Blunami app on your phone couldn't be easier. It can be used with either DC (turn the throttle knob all the way up!) or DCC power, and all the speed tables, lighting effects, and other CV's can be programmed either through the app or using your DCC system. You can run multiple locomotives in the app as well, in fact I found it easier to do so that way than on my NCE PowerCab system. I had both of my Blunami locomotives running via the app to speed match them and it was much easier than trying to do it on the Power Cab.

I must say I'm pretty impressed with these decoders, and I certainly hope that SoundTraxx can shrink the size of them in the future so they will fit into more N scale locomotives.

Today's Events

 There were a couple of interesting things that happened today.

I installed one of the two Blunami decoders that I bought at Altoona, and I received this car in the mail.

First the car. 

 

This is an NRail Newsletter author's car for 2013, awarded to me from NRail for my article on the restoration of the Cotton Brute in the Jan-Feb 2023 edition. If you are an NRail member, the article is here. I will, of course, be showing this car off whenever I can.

And now for the decoder.

 

It's the relatively new Blunami BLU-2200 decoder from SoundTraxx. I picked up a couple at the N Scale Weekend in Altoona just to see what they were all about. I picked the Bachmann 4-8-4 locomotive pictured above for the installation. Why, you may ask, did I choose this (some would say cheap, I say inexpensive) locomotive for a relatively expensive sound decoder? Simple, it was because of that huge tender. The BLU-2200 is not a small decoder (it is intended for HO or small S scale locos), and so it needs a lot of room, not only for itself but also for the speakers. As to the decoder itself, it is basically a SoundTraxx Tsunami-2 TSU-2200 decoder with bluetooth added, so it has all the sound files and capabilities found on that decoder.

 

I installed a pair of ESU 50326 speakers (the same speaker, incidentally, that was used in the Brute), one in the front of the tender and one in the back, wired in series, to handle the output of the sound decoder. These speakers are rated for 1 watt and the decoder recommends 1.5 to 2 watts (the decoder output is 2 watts), which is why I chose to use a pair of them. The impedance of this setup is 16 ohms instead of 8, but I am hoping this won't end up being an issue for the decoder. There is a warning about using less than 8 ohms, which is why a series connection was used. A TCS 6 wire connector was installed between the loco and the tender so that the two can still be separated.

I didn't take any photos of the installation, so I can't show you how everything went together. However, I do have a second Blunami, as well as a second locomotive, so the next installation will be fully documented. I removed the steel weights inside the tender and replaced them with the cylindrical tungsten weights used on pinewood derby cars to save space, and installed a set of Richmond Controls axle wiper pickups on the tender trucks. The connection to the engine was made by drilling a pair of holes, one in each half of the split frame, and tapping them for 00-90 screws. Brass tabs were installed under the screws so that the decoder track power wires could be soldered to them. This gives power pick ups on six of the eight drivers (two have traction tires) as well as all eight axles (four wheels on each truck) of the tender.

Everything went well, the Blunami sound is excellent as can be expected from SoundTraxx, but unfortunately the headlight doesn't work. I have a feeling the blue wire came disconnected inside the tender, but I haven't opened it up to check yet. For those of you infected with Bachmann hate you won't believe that this locomotive is a good runner, but with the tender pick ups installed it runs every bit as good as the vaunted Kato Mikado; it's smooth and quiet and never missed a beat over turnouts while I was running it. Everything else works well and I am happy with the installation overall.

I tested it on my DCC system, but I wanted to see what the hype for the wireless operation was all about. I found a quick-start guide on the SoundTraxx website, and a limited amount of information about the Bluetooth app on the BlueRail website. From what I was able to gather, the locomotive can be controlled using pure DC voltage between 6 and 22 VDC just as if it was running on DCC. It can also be controlled wirelessly with a DCC system that does not have a radio control or other wireless option. The quick-start guide says the app is only available for Apple phones, but I was able to find it on Google Play for my Android.

I downloaded the app and, following the Quick Start instructions, I opened the app first. I then turned the layout power on DC, turned the controller all the way up (about 13 volts), and the locomotive sounds came on. The app was then able to locate the decoder and I was able to operate it, with sound and everything, just as if I was using the Engine Driver app with a wireless DCC system. I haven't put a lot of time into the app yet, but from what I've been able to find out you are supposed to be able to program the decoder using the app on DC power. I had already programmed it on the DCC system, so I didn't check this out, but if that is the case that could be very helpful. I didn't check out the wireless operation on DCC, either, but I expect it works just as well.

 

This is a very cool option for the people who have DC on their home layout, are hesitant to install DCC because of the cost, but still want to see what it's all about, or wants to run with a club that is only DCC (as most of them are these days). The decoder itself runs about $170, which, although pricey, is still below a DCC sound-equipped locomotive (starting at $250 or so) plus a DCC starter system (starting at $150 or so for the cheap Bachmann sets, around $200 for the NCE PowerCab or Digitrax Zephyr). Add another $10-15 for the speakers and your initial investment is still less than the price of the cheapest DCC sound-equipped engine, depending on if you have to have the decoder installed by a third party (I'll bet someone in the club will do it for a fair price) or if you have the skill to install it yourself. Plus, if you want to run with your club, you now have a sound equipped locomotive that will run on the DCC club layout using your phone as a throttle. And if after all of that you decide it's not for you, you have a DCC sound equipped engine to sell.

I have read on various forums that, like many DCC decoders, it doesn't play well with PWM DC, but with the PWM throttle turned all the way up (duty cycle 100%) the output is pure DC anyway, so it really didn't affect the operation that I could tell. I didn't try the loco in DC mode, which is disabled as a default setting but can be programmed to be on. Since my home "DC" layout uses a PWM throttle I don't think it would work very well in DC mode, but I do have pure DC throttles I could use to test it if I really decided I needed to. As it stands now, I don't think I really need to.

 

I'm looking forward to playing more with it.

Stuff

 I've been acquiring it.

Several modern diesels, I think I may have a problem. My diesel roster is up to 66 diesels, 24 of them modern ones that can be found on rails today. Since my target era is transition (40's-60's) that's a whole lot of modern motive power that doesn't fit my era. I suppose they are really collection locomotives since I can't run them at home.

It all started (as you may recall) because I saw a SD70Ace leading J class 611 on it's way to Strasburg and thought that it would be an interesting thing to model. The main problem is they won't run the same speed on the Digitrax system as they do at home on the NCE (more on that below). After that I found some NS heritage units (three so far; Erie, PRR and Southern), then I decided I needed other road names, then I decided I needed more CSX units to pull a Tropicana juice train, then I got a good deal on a lot of UP C44-9W locos, then I found some KCS units at Altoona...

Like I said, I may have a problem.

I've got them programmed for use in shows, but due to the fact that I run NCE at home and the club runs Digitrax, I really need to take the time to speed match them all on a Digitrax system. The problem with that is my Digitrax system is a starter and doesn't display the speed steps when rotating the throttle, so getting everything just so is going to be difficult if not impossible. I suppose I could invest in a serious Digitrax system, but I don't really want to spend the bones to do it.

I have gotten some steam, too. One Bachmann Alco 2-6-0 with broken valve gear, I got a real good deal on it in Altoona. It runs great, it's just missing the eccentric crank and rod. The main drive rods are in place and functioning fine. I'm torn, I could send it in for repairs (I have been told it would be replaced for a nominal fee because repair parts are not available) or I could run it as-is. It's not a critical part of any infrastructure, so I'll sit on it for a while.

I have also gotten one Con-Cor J3A Hudson in sort-of non running condition; the motor runs great but the gears aren't engaging. Of course, repair parts are not available, but I might be able to get something Kato, but non-Hudson, to work (Kato made the mechanism). Along with the Hudson came a Rivarrosi 2-8-2 in Southern Pacific paint, it has an unusual shell (air pumps on the smokebox face) and a long haul tender. It's a great runner, but I really have no use for it.

And just yesterday a brand-new Rokuhan 0-6-0 switcher in Z scale, decorated for the B&O, arrived in my mailbox. This is Rokuhan's first venture into North American style locomotives, and it's a winner in every department. It's smooth, quiet and strong. The detailing is very nice and it pulls like a mule. I had it circulating a Micro Trains track setup with six cars behind (and in front) of it and it ran with nary a hiccup. I'm sure I could have loaded it up further, but that's all I had on hand at the moment.

Other than locomotives, I've been working on T-TRAK modules. I have three of them in various stages of construction, the track is laid on all of them and now it's time to decorate. I need some paint and I'm waiting on some building kits. I'll be posting a review on three different T-TRAK module kits (Osborne, Klawndike and RS Laser Kits) sometime in the future.

I hope your rail days have been going as well as mine have.

No News

 It isn't that I'm doing nothing.

It's that what I'm doing is nothing to write about.

Hopefully that changes soon.

The Brute Gets Her Voice Back

 This time the ESU sound decoder installation went perfectly. Instead of sending the old one back in right away, John opted to buy a brand new one and have the sound profile loaded into it. I bought a new speaker just to be on the safe side, and when the decoder went in it worked perfectly and sounded great.

Reducing the flanges did make for some problems on my tight radius layout while trying to program it, though. When the loco goes into a curve it tends to derail the idler (un-powered inner) wheel set on the rear truck, and in a left hand curve the wheel touches the truck frame and shorts out. The wheels derail in a right hand curve, too, but they don't short out. This was not a problem with the plastic wheels, of course.

I didn't notice this problem on the large radius NTRAK layout at NRV, but when I tried to run it on Kato Unitrack 348 radius curves when programming the speed it jumped and shorted at speeds greater than about 45 smph. That means it will probably do the same on the 315mm radius T-TRAK curves. I really hope we won't have to reinstall the plastic wheels because the metal ones just look so much better. I may end up having to reduce the truck frames on that side of the loco to prevent the problem, or maybe I can cut a disk of very thin styrene to put on the insides of the wheels.

But that is an issue for another day.

The Brute Gets It's Voice Ba...oops...

I took possession of the Brute last weekend to re-install it's sound decoder.

But first, I installed the newly turned-down wheelsets and ran it around the NTRAK layout at the NRV show that I was telling you about in my last post. It ran pretty good, but in one corner it was hanging up at the junction between modules. The corner module was off level by just enough to cause a hump between it and the next module, and the Brute being as long as it is would high-center on that hump.

After the show ended on Saturday one of the other club members and I leveled that corner out, and Sunday she ran all day at the head of a string of Tropicana reefer cars. Not quite 560 of them, though, so she didn't even break a sweat.

After the show she came home with me, and Monday morning she went on the bench. Everything went swimmingly until I put it on the track to test it out. It sounded horrible! The volume was way too low and when I turned the volume up to full everything was garbled. When I pulled up on the speaker to check the connections, one of them shorted against the frame, and now the decoder is dead again.

I am tempted to say this was the problem all along, especially since I have looked everything over and I can't see any way that suspect weight could have moved forward enough to touch the motor leads. I am reliably informed that this happened in Altoona though, so I guess that was a problem. The center weight over the motor had been removed when the Digitrax decoder was installed, so that may have allowed just enough movement to let it happen.

At any rate, the DZ126 is back in place, the motor leads have been insulated with some shrink tubing, the weight over the motor has been reinstalled, and the Brute is back to silent running. I have so informed Mr. President, and instead of sending the re-fried decoder back to ESU he is just going to procure a new one, along with a new speaker.

I did manage to get the rear handrail stanchions replaced, though. When I put them on originally I had installed them with super glue, and when I got the loco on Saturday I found that three of the four of them were missing. So, when I was done with the decoders, I cut three replacement stanchions off of the Gold Medal Models fret and installed them. 

I soldered them in this time, including the one that had managed to stay on. It's the first time I have ever soldered brass locomotive parts together, and it came out looking pretty good. I'm pretty sure they are on there to stay now. I'll try my hand at soldering brass Nn3 cabs next.

At least that went right.

Motive Po...oh...never mind.

 I bought a couple of the brand-new Atlas Classic Silver Series SD9 locos, undecorated, in the hopes that I could put my Life Like Burlington SD7/9 shells on them. I got the silver series because I really didn't want sound, but this newest release comes with speakers already installed just in case you change your mind.

The good news is I was able to mill the inside of the Life Like shells to fit the chassis. The bad news is the chassis are back in their boxes ready to go back to Atlas.

So what was wrong with them, you might ask? Did they run poorly? No, not at all, they were smooth and quiet and the performance was superb. I was a bit surprised to see the trucks are wired rather than having the normal brass contact strips, but it seems to work well.

The problem is in the decoder boards.

For some reason Atlas has decided that the new SD7/9 should use the E24 connector. This is a brand new proprietary connector from ESU, meaning that only ESU is using it, and as far as I can determine it is only being used on one, and only one, of their decoders, the LokSound 58925.

I have no particular problems with ESU LokSound decoders, other than having to have special equipment to program them with their sound "projects" because they do not come pre-loaded (most dealers can do this for you), but I specifically bought the silver series because I didn't want sound. Unfortunately, with this locomotive, your choices are either DCC with sound using this particular ESU decoder or DC.

Swapping the entire interconnection board isn't an option either, partially because of the aforementioned hard-wired trucks and partially because the board is held to the chassis with screws. This means you either have to remove the light board altogether and replace it with a mash-up of a wired decoder and lights, or you go with the LokSound decoder. 

Either way there is no benefits from using the new chassis when there are still plenty of the older ones out there that will serve the purpose. I was able to mill the LifeLike shells enough to fit, but not well, on older Atlas/Kato SD7's, but it is my understanding that the China made chassis are a bit narrower, which is why I wanted to go that route. 

I'm sure that someone out there is buying the Gold chassis to fit older shells, so perhaps I can find some China made non-sound DCC ready chassis to use instead. But I digress.

To say I am disappointed with the new Atlas SD7/9 is a gross understatement. I don't know who the genius was at Atlas that thought it was a good idea to limit the decoder selection like this, but that decision puts them on par with the Bachmann GP7s and their crappy crippled Lenz decoders at twice the price.

If this is their new design paradigm, I certainly won't be buying any more new locomotives from Atlas.