Thoughts on the Atlas S-2/ESU sound system

[jdcolombo]

Hi folks.

I finally got my sound-equipped S-2, and took it apart to take a look at the sound installation.

The sound decoder board inside the unit is 8.25mm wide, and runs the entire length of the engine from the front of the hood to the cab (about 50mm).  However, the active components on the board span only about 40mm - the rest of the length is simply to fit the board to the mounting tabs inside the locomotive.  The components are on both sides of the board; the bottom has a number of caps soldered to the front end, some of which may be rectifier caps but some of which are likely keep alive caps (I had literally no sound dropouts on my unit, which is an EL from the latest delivery; I did clean the wheels before putting it on the track).   This leads me to believe that ESU could fairly easily produce a generic board that would fit nearly any hood diesel - you just lop off the extra length (which also contains SMD LED's), and you have a board that is 8.25mm wide by 40mm long, which would fit in nearly any kind of hood diesel including things like the VO-1000, and maybe even an SW switcher.  It would need to be hard-wired (the decoder in the S-2 is all hardwired from the trucks and to the motor) but that's a tradeoff I'd take in a heartbeat.  Let's hope the folks in Germany will go down this route once they have fully supplied Atlas (and I assume Intermountain) with these boards.

The speaker is not a flat cell-phone type speaker, but rather a flat-ish 15mm round that is installed in the molded inner cab detail section and faces the rear of the unit.   The sound is pretty good - not quite as good, I think, as the Rapdio GMD-1, and not as good as what I've gotten out of my custom installs, but pretty darn good.  The "duck" horn is particularly effective, as is the bell.  The irregular "heartbeat" and turbo sound of the ALCO 539T prime-mover is captured wonderfully; the only real problem is that there is no bass or even what one might call low midrange to even suggest bass, but what's there is well-done.  I'm considering pulling out the inner cab plastic shell and replacing the speaker with one of my 8x12mm in a custom enclosure, but that's a project for down the road.

As for operation, it is excellent, although Atlas decided to invert the normal sound on/sound off sequence for ESU decoders.   Normally, an ESU decoder is silent when powered up; you press F8 to turn the sound on.  The S-2, however, is just the opposite: sound is on at power-up, and you have to press F8 to turn it off.   This behavior can be changed in the CV's if you want - I prefer ESU's default of "silent until F8 is pressed" but to each his own.  I suspect Atlas set things up this way so that they wouldn't get people calling them saying "Where's the sound?" because they didn't know to press F8 (heaven forbid we should read instructions; after all, this is still a male-dominated hobby . . . ).  The engine also comes with the default start-up delay, where the engine doesn't move initially when you open the throttle; instead, it waits to "throttle up" the prime mover, and then begins to move.  This is about a 3-second delay, and could be annoying to some folks (and you can disable it by changing a CV).

The rest of the engine is just amazing.  The handrails are so thin I'm afraid to touch them; the unit itself runs very smoothly and pulls 15 of my NRMA-weighted box cars easily on flat terrain.   They would be perfect for yard duty or switching a steel mill or other heavy industry.   I hope Atlas sells a million of them, since that means I'll one day get one in NKP paint!

John C.

[avel]

Very nice! Do you have a picture of the board?

[jdcolombo]

No, I didn't take a photo.  But there is one on Spookshow's web site:

http://www.spookshow.net/loco/atlass2.html

John C.

[peteski]

Interesting...

Looking at Spookshow's writeup I'm actually quite pleased that the gears are fully covered on the bottom of the trucks. While not as easy to lubricate (which should not need to be done often with slippery plastic anyways) that prevents all sorts of debris on the layout from getting into the gears.  Nicely played Atlas!

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks for the writeup, John. I have two "gold" undecs on order, and your review is encouraging. Still, I'll be very interested in your custom speaker install...
Regards, Otto K.

[jdcolombo]

Thanks for the writeup, John. I have two "gold" undecs on order, and your review is encouraging. Still, I'll be very interested in your custom speaker install...
Regards, Otto K.

Well, I went ahead and did it.  This is an 8x12mm speaker in a custom enclosure made from .020 styrene.  The original round Atlas speaker is in the foreground.  The conversion is dead simple - just remove the inner cab detail by pulling straight up; the old speaker is inside this, and once it is free, desolder it from the board.  Place the new speaker short side up as in the photo, solder the wires back on the board, pop the shell back on and you're done.  The new speaker faces the front of the engine (e.g., it fires toward the front), and fits up inside the cab.   The only downside is that without the inner cab detail, you get some light bleed from the rear LED when it is lit.  I can fix that with some judiciously-placed electrical tape or styrene, but for now, it will be left alone.  Photo:



The new speaker is a considerable improvement.   Louder and lower in range (still no bass, but now there is some lower midrange to give the prime mover a bit more body).   I guess I can see why Atlas didn't take this route, but it certainly does improve the sound. 

John C.

[Santa Fe Guy]

Just look how far N Scale has come since the early 60's. Awesome work John and great work Atlas.
Rod.

[Cajonpassfan]

Awesome John! Thank you! Now if I can only get mine to arrive....
Otto K.

[victor miranda]

hmmmm...

it looks like Atlas has a new motor in there!  what size it is?
and flyworms.  interesting...
from what I have read, the trucks are a new style with the gears being covered.

is the gear ratio still 22 to one?

.... I guess I need to read spookshow's review....

and that done...
I am not sure what to say, wires from the truck pickups?
may I be stunned with how well engineered that is.

interesting.  I have plans to get one,  lets see how that goes.

victor

[jdcolombo]

Another advantage to the speaker transplant: there was enough room left in the cab after removing the inner cab detail and old speaker to insert a significant amount of lead sheet to add weight over the rear truck. This both solved the "light bleeding" problem and improved tractive effort significantly (three additional weighted 40' boxcars).   There also appears to be room to add some lead sheet underneath the front of the decoder board, over the front worm.   I think you could do this by wrapping the lead in kapton tape, then taping that to the underside of the board.   I might try that, too - heck, by the time I'm done, this guy might pull as well as one of my Berks!

John C.

[VonRyan]

Personally I think it needs better, longer-lasting capacitors. Even on clean track with clean wheels and live frogs, I get short intermittent dropouts of sound, which causes the engine to stutter. Yet a Kato NW2 without sound does just fine on the same track.

[Cajonpassfan]

Hi folks.

I finally got my sound-equipped S-2, and took it apart to take a look at the sound installation....

As for operation, it is excellent, although Atlas decided to invert the normal sound on/sound off sequence for ESU decoders.   Normally, an ESU decoder is silent when powered up; you press F8 to turn the sound on.  The S-2, however, is just the opposite: sound is on at power-up, and you have to press F8 to turn it off.   This behavior can be changed in the CV's if you want - I prefer ESU's default of "silent until F8 is pressed" but to each his own.

John C.

Hello John, I agree. I had posted a question about resetting the decoder to the ESU "silent until F8 pressed" elsewhere on the 2nd release thread. I can't find any instructions in the manual on how to do that; only how to get it to come to life upon power up. Help please?
Otto K.

[jdcolombo]

Hello John, I agree. I had posted a question about resetting the decoder to the ESU "silent until F8 pressed" elsewhere on the 2nd release thread. I can't find any instructions in the manual on how to do that; only how to get it to come to life upon power up. Help please?
Otto K.

Hi Otto.

From the following link on ESU's web site:
http://www.esu.eu/en/support/faq/loksound/loksound-select/

PLEASE NOTE:
Some Manufacturers have had our decoders factory equipped in their locomotives and have opted to have the sound ON as a default. If you have a locomotive with these settings and prefer our standard settings above you will need to set index CV 32 to value of 2 then set CV 403 to a Value of 16. After this Change CV32 to a value 0 then change CV 13 to 128.
You can also change this with the LokProgrammer Software by changing the function mapping for “Not F8” to be “F8” in the conditions drop down menu.

John C.

[Cajonpassfan]

Thank you John, appreciate your help. I should have gone on line rather than relying on a printed manual that is obviously out of date already... the note on the bottom is missing.
What a great little switcher, isn't it?
Otto