Any one installed sound in their EM-1 locomotive from B'mann?

[rogergperkins]

Probably, I have a spare digitrax SDN144 and there is already an EM-1 sound file available for it. I really want to try a new Loksound Select but they have been on BO forever from the distributor.

from Skipgear

After viewing  YouTube videos of n-scale steam with sound, this locomotive seems like one that would be great with DCC sound added.  I have not idea what decoder or speaker would do it justice.

[jdcolombo]

I pulled the tender shell, and it looks to me like there are two ways to add sound: Hard and easier.

The easier way is as follows.  The tender floor comes with a hole that will accommodate a 15mm speaker.  That speaker will fit in the hole provided, under the current circuit board.  You could then add a Soundtraxx Tsunami (or ESU LokSound) by desoldering the current decoder and soldering the appropriate wires from the TSU or LokSound in its place.  I think there is enough space between the current board and top of the tender shell to do this (though I haven't actually tried it).

The problem is that the sound will almost certainly be terrible, because you'll be using the tender shell as a baffle, which won't provide an airtight enclosure for the speaker.  But it is a relatively easy conversion.

The hard way is what I'm doing now.  I'm mounting a 16 x 35mm speaker in its own enclosure under the coal load.  This will require complete removal of the electronics board, which I have done, and will require hard-wiring the tender wheel pickups using some flexible 30-gauge wire.  In addition, you'll have to trim off the pickup wiper arms that stick up into the tender from the front tender truck to provide sufficient clearance for the speaker and its enclosure.  Then you'll need to hard wire the decoder to the six wires coming from the engine.  These wires, by the way, are as follows: the two outside wires are track pickup (black and red decoder wires); the next two are for the motor (orange and gray), and the center two are for the headlight(blue and white).  You'll have to use a dropping resistor when you wire the headlight, and I'm not sure yet which of the center two wires is the blue common and which is the white DC supply; I'll have to experiment.

The sound decoder would then mount in the back of the tender, with a 3mm LED on top to light the rear pickup light.  This is going to take me a while, but I'll let you know how it goes.  Hopeful to have the installation done by the end of the weekend.

John C.

[rogergperkins]

John, this sounds very ambitious to me, but based on viewing your YouTube videos and seeing your posts on sound,  I suspect it will be all in a day's fun for you.
Thanks for the details.
I guess I will wait to hire someone to add sound for me.
Do not see any notes from Skipgear if he has started on a sound installation.

[rogergperkins]

Is anyone doing sound installation for hire?

[SkipGear]

I probably won't get a chance to tear into one until the weekend. Step one is shorten the drawbar.

[rogergperkins]

I expected step 1 to be replacing the pilot coupler with a MTL Z coupler, i.e. 905.
 

[SkipGear]

I plan to double-head mine so on at least one of them, I would like a stronger coupler. I have had Z's come apart on long trains. The spacing between the tender and cab bothers me the most.

[sizemore]

I plan to double-head mine so on at least one of them, I would like a stronger coupler. I have had Z's come apart on long trains. The spacing between the tender and cab bothers me the most.

I think it could be corrected with a drawbar from another Bachmann tender, switching the contacts over or replacement with hand formed contacts. I'll take a look at it this weekend.

The S.

[jdcolombo]

Here's a thought for steam manufacturers.  I get that you want to be able to tell customers that your engine will run on 9.75-inch curves.  You don't want to cut anyone out of your potential market.  It's why there are two Rapido couplers packaged with the EM-1, even if the Rapido is as dead as a doornail.  So why not package a shorter drawbar for those of us with broad enough curves to support prototype tender-to-engine spacing?  It can't add more than a couple of dollars to the cost, and when you're spending $200 or so already, what's a couple more?  And swapping the drawbar would be a 5-minute job on engines built like the EM-1 or Kato's Mike.

So how about it, Bachmann?  You're doing terrific work; now take it to the next level.  Give us a shorter drawbar option!

John C.

[peteski]

Here's a thought for steam manufacturers.  I get that you want to be able to tell customers that your engine will run on 9.75-inch curves.  You don't want to cut anyone out of your potential market.  It's why there are two Rapido couplers packaged with the EM-1, even if the Rapido is as dead as a doornail.  So why not package a shorter drawbar for those of us with broad enough curves to support prototype tender-to-engine spacing?  It can't add more than a couple of dollars to the cost, and when you're spending $200 or so already, what's a couple more?  And swapping the drawbar would be a 5-minute job on engines built like the EM-1 or Kato's Mike.

So how about it, Bachmann?  You're doing terrific work; now take it to the next level.  Give us a shorter drawbar option!

John C.

Um, Rapidos are still widely used in European N scale. That is their standard coupler.  Yeah I know, they go goo-goo gah-gah  for David Hasselhoff too.   

The shorter drawbar is a good idea though. But that is difficult to execute on models which have multiple wires going through the drawbars.  FVM's 4-4-0 Hiawatha does have a drawbar with 2 holes in it: normal and close-coupling.  Many brass models also use similar drawbars. So, some manufacturers are already doing this.

[Chris333]

I know a bunch of Bachmanns On30 stuff comes with bags of optional parts so it isn't beyond them as a company.

[SkipGear]

I think it could be corrected with a drawbar from another Bachmann tender, switching the contacts over or replacement with hand formed contacts. I'll take a look at it this weekend.

The S.

I've already tried. The drawbar from the VC16 is only slightly shorter. The others are all too short. I've made them before, not a big deal to do another. You can't section the existing drawbars because they are acetal plastic and glue won't stick.

[rogergperkins]

I can add my experience of attempting to "divorce" one Bachmann DCC tender from a locomotive and "marry it" to an different Bachmann locomotive did NOT work well for me because of the draw bar length. On the straight it looked great, but was not correct on the curves.  Not certain how one selects the correct draw bar if they elect to change to a shorter one.