ESU LokSound 5 58721, 58731, 58751, 58941, LokSound V4 and Atlas boards decoded

[_trainski]

Brilliant!
I will track down the 58741’s and get to work on my installations. Thank you once again for the SpookShow link, I have been to this amazing detailed website, truckloads of great information and pictures too! Thank you for your kindness and wisdom, greatly appreciate your insight.

Cheers

[Dwight in Toronto]

Brilliant!
I will track down the 58741’s and get to work on my installations. Thank you once again for the SpookShow link, I have been to this amazing detailed website, truckloads of great information and pictures too! Thank you for your kindness and wisdom, greatly appreciate your insight.

Cheers

@_trainski - If you don’t already know of this Toronto area train shop, check him out:

https://www.thescuderia46.com/

The vendor is Marc Bruno.  I’ve ordered oodles of ESU decoders from him over the years.  If he has them in stock, he ships them out quickly.  And for some reason, he never adds GST to his website price.
He does have a small physical retail location (Woodbridge; Pine Valley Drive & 407) but it’s a bit chaotic … seems to perpetually be undergoing renovation! 

[_trainski]

Thank you Dwight! I have been a regular customer of Marc Bruno’s The Scuderia 46 online web-store, and purchased many amazing items. Unfortunately not many ESU LokSound 5 sound decoders are in stock, may be due to the recent imposed trade tariffs, but not sure. I have other Canadian resellers to tap, I’m sure I’ll get my parts somewhere. Hope you enjoy the OWS 9x16mm speakers,

Cheers

[cbroughton67]

Hi @peteski , any chance you've been able to map-out the 58781, yet? I can't find any documentation for this decoder on ESU's website or anywhere else online. Even the pamphlet that comes with the decoder has board diagrams for multiple other decoders, just not the 58781.

I also noticed another new decoder from  ESU: 58781 for Kao SD90.  That one has a reshaped circuit board.
https://www.esu.eu/en/products/loksound/loksound-5-micro-dcc-direct-kato-usa-sd90/

[peteski]

Hi @peteski , any chance you've been able to map-out the 58781, yet? I can't find any documentation for this decoder on ESU's website or anywhere else online. Even the pamphlet that comes with the decoder has board diagrams for multiple other decoders, just not the 58781.

Yes, ESU's documentation for new decoders is notoriously late.  I do not own any of 58781, but other than slight difference in the shape it appears to have the same component and pad layout as 58741 (I have the write up for 58741 one almost ready - got distracted with other projects).  As I see it, you should be able to use hookup information for 58741, since that one is documented in the board diagrams.

[BCR 570]

Do you have any information on how to access additional functions and add stay alive capacitors for the ESU V5 decoders which plug into an analog board via 21MTC interface? 

These are supplied with the current production EMD SD9, GE B36-7 Gold Series.


Thank you,

Tim

[peteski]

Do you have any information on how to access additional functions and add stay alive capacitors for the ESU V5 decoders which plug into an analog board via 21MTC interface? 
These are supplied with the current production EMD SD9, GE B36-7 Gold Series.

Thank you,
Tim

Tim, 21MTC connector and the associated decoder are too wide to fit into narrow-hood N scale locos. I did do writeups for couple of the current Atlas boards which accept LokSound 5 nano decoder with the E24 connector. Those are used in the narrow hood locos.

Links to those are on the bottom of the initial  post in this thread.

[TechnicalATSF]

I don't know about others but I find the listings for the Loksound decoders confusing. Narrow hood, early model Atlas, late model Kato, NEM 652. I have a large collection of 24+ Kato F7's and 12 Intermountain F7's. I tended to buy a set every time they were released, so they cover late 90's to now. Since the F7/F3's tend to be one of the models with the least space under the shell, does anyone have a specific list of which Loksound decoder will fit in which model? Nothing more frustrating than ordering a large number of items only to find they won't fit.

Also, I notice that most people seem to wire their decoders in directly, but in larger scales it seems to be usual to add an additional board like the NEM 652 etc. so that the wiring is done to the board and the decoder is simply plugged into this board. Also means that the shell can be popped off and the decoder unplugged and tested on a ESU 53900 decoder tester. Is there enough room in, for example, a Kato F7 to fit the additional board?

Edit: Just seen jdcolombo's post, Railwire is really a useful source of info, just need to know where to look.