New LokSound V.5 replaces Select, old V.4

[Jbub]

From Rick's measurements we're talking about .5 mm. Pull out a piece of .02 styrene and that's the extra height. Not insignificant but it's not much either. I wish the ribbon cable was 1/2 or even 1/4 the length it is, then I would cut the pins of the plug and solder to that. That way I'm not adding to the height of the decoder with solder and wire

[RBrodzinsky]

From Rick's measurements we're talking about .5 mm. Pull out a piece of .02 styrene and that's the extra height. Not insignificant but it's not much either. I wish the ribbon cable was 1/2 or even 1/4 the length it is, then I would cut the pins of the plug and solder to that. That way I'm not adding to the height of the decoder with solder and wire

You shouldn't be adding any extra height to my measurement - since there are already three soldered wires on the top (Aux2 and Speakers) that were included in the measurement.


Out of curiosity, I decided to play with the new decoder this morning, loading the Alco 244 file (S0510).  I have a Select with the similar file loaded, ready for an install. I simply wanted to see the difference in sound between 16 and 32 bit.  Instead of using the speaker on the LokTester (which really isn't worth much at all), I have created my own "test speaker", an old cheap Bachmann plastic box car (their low end line), with an ESU speaker (the 16x25mm oval speaker shipped with the V4 Micro) placed in it. Simulates being "under the hood".   

Well, playing the two decoders, side by side, by my ear, I could not tell the difference. 

[woodone]

Not sure where the measurements are being taken. This is what I measured today.
Total thickness at the plug on the decoder is about 4.20 -4.54 MM depending on how the purple wire is routed.
Good ol ESU Again stuck that wire where it is a problem. (IMO).
If you remove the plug with its flex cable that goes to the 8 pin , you should now see a thickness of about 3.00 MM.
Now let’s remove the socket that is on the board, now you should see about 2.00 MM.  That reduces the height by about 2.50 MM. Now when you add wires you will lose some of that but not too much.
You should note:  pins on this plug/socket is only rated for 1/2 amp, so they doubled up the connectors for the track power coming to the decoder by using two pins for each track feed. These are across from one another- pin 1-pin18
Pin 9-pin 10. So if you hook up wires direct to the board jumper pins 1 and 18, and also pins 9 and 10.
I am in the process of doing this right now.
The soldering is going to be very tight, has the pin spacing is only 0.050MM.
When I removed the plug, I had to cut the shrink wrap. I only cut at each side and then bent the shrink up so I could in-plug the harness connector.
After the wires are soldered to the board I plan on taping the shrink down and holding in place with Kapton tape.

[Jbub]

You shouldn't be adding any extra height to my measurement - since there are already three soldered wires on the top (Aux2 and Speakers) that were included in the measurement.


Out of curiosity, I decided to play with the new decoder this morning, loading the Alco 244 file (S0510).  I have a Select with the similar file loaded, ready for an install. I simply wanted to see the difference in sound between 16 and 32 bit.  Instead of using the speaker on the LokTester (which really isn't worth much at all), I have created my own "test speaker", an old cheap Bachmann plastic box car (their low end line), with an ESU speaker (the 16x25mm oval speaker shipped with the V4 Micro) placed in it. Simulates being "under the hood".   

Well, playing the two decoders, side by side, by my ear, I could not tell the difference. 

That's not surprising to me. The difference between 8 and 16 bit can be huge due to what we're able to hear even on small crappy speakers.  The difference between 16 and 32 would be noticeable also if listening to it on a nice sound system. Those 16x25 speakers are decent but not audiophile level and probably can't recreate the finer detail in 32bit sound.

[nightmare0331]

just to stir the pot...

These showed up today...

Enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[peteski]

just to stir the pot...

These showed up today...

Enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

So you found some V4s Micros (or maybe even Selects)  out there - good for you! 

I bought all remaining ones at MBK few months ago. At least remaining at the time I was ordering.  But as the time goes by, they will become non existent.

This V5 thing to me seems like a solution looking for a problem.  They should have kept on producing both V4 and V5. Unless of course the component availability is actually real.

[Jbub]

So you found some V4s Micros (or maybe even Selects)  out there - good for you! 

I bought all remaining ones at MBK few months ago. At least remaining at the time I was ordering.  But as the time goes by, they will become non existent.

This V5 thing to me seems like a solution looking for a problem.  They should have kept on producing both V4 and V5. Unless of course the component availability is actually real.

Those are v5 with the wired adapter.

[nightmare0331]

So you found some V4s Micros (or maybe even Selects)  out there - good for you! 

I bought all remaining ones at MBK few months ago. At least remaining at the time I was ordering.  But as the time goes by, they will become non existent.

This V5 thing to me seems like a solution looking for a problem.  They should have kept on producing both V4 and V5. Unless of course the component availability is actually real.

Peteski...look again. 

Those are V5 micros. 

Enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[woodone]

Well if those are micro V5's, I don't think that I will be trying to solder wires to my V5.
What part number was on the box those came in? 

[RBrodzinsky]

Kelley,

Are those the 6 pin configuration? What do you measure for the height?

[nightmare0331]

Kelley,

Are those the 6 pin configuration? What do you measure for the height?

These have wired harnesses plugged into the 24 pin socket.

I don't have a set of calipers handy...I'll take a look when I get home (if I can find them...there's lots of buried stuff right now).  it's offset a bit, however I think with the wired harness attached it appears that things may be a hair thicker than a select/v4 micro, which is mildly annoying (and I'll have to recheck fitment on several projects now however I do know they fit in the Kato F3/7)

From what I understand, this harness so far isn't available as either attached to a decoder or as a seperate piece although I would certainly hope at some point ESU offers it.

upper image is a poofed select micro for size comparison.

Anywhoo...enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[RBrodzinsky]

I figured no height issue with any of the Kato E / F units

[nightmare0331]

I figured no height issue with any of the Kato E / F units

Right, but there's others that are a bit tighter where that extra thickness *may* make an annoying difference.  The PA1/PB1 was a pretty tight fit the way I was installing them previously, so this may complicate things.  Same goes for the F40PH.

Good times!

Enjoy!

Kelley.
www.dufordmodelworks.com

[woodone]

Again, part number on the box?
And they are plugged into a 24 pin socket?
Be nice to see just one decoder in a photo so we can see it better.

[RBrodzinsky]

So, this is the “single wire” harness which is only available on the 58813 multi protocol decoder. I wonder if we could lobby Matt to make this harness available on the DCC only version, or make it an option. Doesn’t solve the height issue, but would be less soldering.

Of course, for the rest of my personal fleet, I probably will go with the multi-protocol, simply to be fully compatible with my Select/V4 and LokPilot installs wrt to the accel/decel factors.