No longer a rumor: ESU's new sound board and other DCC news from the NTS

[jdcolombo]

John,

Do you know about the wiring on the new Loksound N board? 8-pin like the select micros?

There were no wires on the Intermountain board I saw, just solder pads and power pickup pads. The board is flat and looks like a drop in DCC board for split-frame diesels.  I'm assuming that the generic board will have solder pads for front and rear LEDs, two additional functions, speaker wires, etc.  in other words, I'm assuming it will have all the functionality of the current Select Micro, just in a different form factor and with solder pads rather than actual wires.

John

[wmcbride]

I guess the power-pick-up/frame pasds were sized to the tunnel motors so I wonder if they are doing different length boards for short/long frame diesels like Atlas offers. Probably too costly.

[jdcolombo]

I guess the power-pick-up/frame pasds were sized to the tunnel motors so I wonder if they are doing different length boards for short/long frame diesels like Atlas offers. Probably too costly.

My conversation with Matt left the distinct impression that there would be just one generic board.  He seemed pretty confident that this board would fit the vast majority of split-frame hood diesels, although I think I heard "maybe not Kato."  (Not sure about that).  We'll have to wait and see, but the wait shouldn't be more than five months.

John C.

[woodone]

Boy that is really exciting!! New product and still 5 months out. And that is if they don't run into any problems?

[jdcolombo]

Boy that is really exciting!! New product and still 5 months out. And that is if they don't run into any problems?

Well, not exactly.  My understanding is that the boards are in production, but the Intermountain version comes first.  The generic board is the same, but without front and rear LEDs.  So the time frame is really just a matter of production run times and then shipping.  I don't think there will be delays at this point, and if anything I may be too pessimistic on timelines.  Matt just said "November."  It could be that he's expecting them November 1.  That's 4 months, not five.

John C.

[skytop35]

This is really good news. I hated shaving down the inside of narrow body diesel shells.

[milw156]

My conversation with Matt left the distinct impression that there would be just one generic board.  He seemed pretty confident that this board would fit the vast majority of split-frame hood diesels, although I think I heard "maybe not Kato."  (Not sure about that).  We'll have to wait and see, but the wait shouldn't be more than five months.

John C.

And yet, isn't the Kato-Cobo shops SDP40F supposed to be coming out with a Lok Sound version???

[wmcbride]

This is really good news. I hated shaving down the inside of narrow body diesel shells.

And you and John are masters at it. I and my moto-tool are sometimes shell destroyers...

[jdcolombo]

And yet, isn't the Kato-Cobo shops SDP40F supposed to be coming out with a Lok Sound version???

The SDP40 is a wide body that easily can fit the current Loksound Micro.  No new board needed.  The board would be for narrow-hood diesels.

John C.

[jdcolombo]

This is really good news. I hated shaving down the inside of narrow body diesel shells.

Yes.  I hated it too, which is why I quit doing it after getting enough sound units to spread across my consists.  But with the new board, I might just convert the rest of my fleet.  You don't really NEED more than one sound unit in a consist, but having them is sometimes fun, particularly with different prime movers - in my case, an all-sound lashup of two GP9's and an RS11 in the middle is considerably different than seeing that same group with just a single EMD 567 humming along.

John C.

[BobRunty]

Yes.  I hated it too, which is why I quit doing it after getting enough sound units to spread across my consists.  But with the new board, I might just convert the rest of my fleet.  You don't really NEED more than one sound unit in a consist, but having them is sometimes fun, particularly with different prime movers - in my case, an all-sound lashup of two GP9's and an RS11 in the middle is considerably different than seeing that same group with just a single EMD 567 humming along.

John C.

e

And from my initial understandings, in order to take advantage of the new Full Throttle features, all the units in a consist need to have ESU sound decoders, but I haven't played with it enough yet. Just been too busy this summer.

Bob