After several months of production delays, my Athearn SW1000 arrived today. Took me all of 2 minutes to get the body off, install a D12SR and program it. First thing I notices was how quiet it is compared to other Athearn locos, especially at low speed which is what it will be doing most of the time. Since the JST connector is now empty, any suggestions for sound? Cheers David
What is inside? You have had the shell off. What does the light board board look like? If it looks like a Atlas light board you could get a Tsunami decoder in there. Speaker will have to go into the cab I would think. A 16MM X 35MM might fit with a little work. Also Soundtraxx's new Genesis series decoder might work, the caps are on the new board so you will not have to find room for the cap.
Now that I looked, I guess they don't come from the factory with sound (otherwise you could get parts). When I put sound into the previous version of the SW-1500, I put a small oval speaker where the radiator grille is, facing down. I mounted a Soundtraxx DSD in the rear of the hood, and part of it and the wiring sticks into the cab area (it's painted black in that area). Of course, the internals (including your detailed cab interior) may be an obstacle. And a turbo-V16 sound isn't too accurate for these engines. There is a fellow on this board who put sound into a P2K SW1200, and he ended up putting the sound decoder completely into the cab. Is there maybe some room for a speaker in the fuel tank? ---jps
I don't have any Atlas locos so I can't compare. The SW1000 has interior cab detail, but there is room around the radiator. A DSD-1001LC might fit. Can I just plug it into the JST connector with a suitable harnass? Or should I change decoders to something like a Lenz Gold on the JST connector and put the DSD in the 8 pin socket? Cheers David
I used a Digitrax SDN144PS I slipped a Digitrax SDN144PS in one that I recently bought. The fit is a little tight, and I had to make one modification: I removed the 9 pin harness from the adapter board, the SDN plugs into the 8 pin socket, and the 9 pin harness gets in the way. The sound is decent once I constructed an enclosure. I actually made a few enclosures before I made one that fit. Without the enclosure, you can't here the motor sounds, and the other sounds are real tinny. The motor and light functions of the decoder are great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOGVdPUYN7w It's also, possible to fit a Tsunami with some modifications. http://www.soundtraxx.com/documents/appnotes/SW1000&SW-1500App.pdf http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B7nkTqwqTE
