GP15-1 with loksound and ditchlights.

[Southern1970]

Here is the test subject of the thread

Thanks for posting.  It sounds great. 
I had 2 x GP15s but I ended up selling them as I didn’t like the electrical pickups.  If they had the brass contact strips like the other atlas diesels I probably would have kept them
Cheers

[John]

To the right is the speaker housing (white), left side is the caps (keep alive equiv)

Is the caps assembly home brew? I have a few units I want to add sound to ..

[mu26aeh]

Is the caps assembly home brew? I have a few units I want to add sound to ..

@GM50 4164 , can you provide info here ?

[GM50 4164]

Is the caps assembly home brew? I have a few units I want to add sound to ..

John, these caps in the picture are 3, 16v  220uf I believe. I connect them together and add them to the board. I have the ground attached to the underside of the board after scrapping off a little of the green board paint and the positive is connected to the + pad on the bottom solder pad.

[peteski]

I truly hope that all of you using 16V rated tantalums do not experience any "engine fires" at some point, in your very nice models. 

[GM50 4164]

Yeah most of the installs I'm doing now days have the polymer caps in them, maybe 25v. Among being flatter, they seem to work better as well.

[tehachapifan]

I truly hope that all of you using 16V rated tantalums do not experience any "engine fires" at some point, in your very nice models. 

I'm still yet to add any caps for that reason. I purchased some (25V ones, I believe, and from a trusted source), but in the drawer they sit. I've had folks here reassure and encourage me about using them but the (apparently rare) failure stories and videos are jut too extreme, instant and final. As long as I keep things reasonably clean, I experience very few sound dropouts without them. So, I'm not really missing them too much.

[peteski]

I'm still yet to add any caps for that reason. I purchased some (25V ones, I believe, and from a trusted source), but in the drawer they sit. I've had folks here reassure and encourage me about using them but the (apparently rare) failure stories and videos are jut too extreme, instant and final. As long as I keep things reasonably clean, I experience very few sound dropouts without them. So, I'm not really missing them too much.

While I cannot guarantee a 100% failure-free operation for the life of your loco, using ones rated for at least 20V and doing a burn-in before installation, will make the installation quite safe.  To put your mind at ease, pretty much every decoder I have ever worked with (from all manufacturers) has at least one tantalum cap on it.  ESU puts several tantalum caps on every decoder.  Granted, they are physically smaller than the ones we add, but they could catch on fire just as easily as the ones we install ourselves.

[peteski]

Yeah most of the installs I'm doing now days have the polymer caps in them, maybe 25v. Among being flatter, they seem to work better as well.

That is a good strategy. As far as polymer caps working better, that makes no sense logically. A 100uF cap will work the same (store the same amount of energy) regardless of its internal chemistry.  Well, at least for our application (as a non-critical short term energy storage).  There are differences with certain electrical parameters (liek Q or ESR values) between the chemistries used, but those are really irrelevant when we simply use those caps as small batteries that get charged when track power is available, and get discharged when track power is lost momentarily.

[squirrelhunter]

@squirrelhunter , seen you're doing a GP15.  Check this out if you haven't seen it.

Thanks! I'm hoping to start a thread this week, I've got a GP15-1 and a B23-7 I need to do.

[basementcalling]

While I cannot guarantee a 100% failure-free operation for the life of your loco, using ones rated for at least 20V and doing a burn-in before installation, will make the installation quite safe.  To put your mind at ease, pretty much every decoder I have ever worked with (from all manufacturers) has at least one tantalum cap on it.  ESU puts several tantalum caps on every decoder.  Granted, they are physically smaller than the ones we add, but they could catch on fire just as easily as the ones we install ourselves.

One more reason to avoid sound decoders altogether.

[peteski]

One more reason to avoid sound decoders altogether.

I agree - excellent reason to stay in the dark ages of model railroading.   
You must be the one with your glass half empty.

 Non sound decoders have Tantalum caps on them too. Pretty much every decoder I have worked with has at least one Tantalum cap on it.
Interesting how you took my post in the exact opposite way from its intended meaning.  After all, have you ever heard of a factory-installed tantalum cap blowing up on a decoder?  I have not.  Tantalum caps are used in lots of electronic devices (like smart phones), and they are pretty safe.