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.