I have read some posts by different folks that say they install a Tsunami sound decoder, for sound effects, and then a piggyback Digitrax or Lenz for excellent motor control. Can someone direct me to a thread that addresses this install or very simply tell me how. I have installed 3 Tsunamis and several hard wired DZ-125's, so am not totally ignorant of methods but I am not smart enough to figure out the dual install. I think I would want to wire the non sound decoder to the motor and pickups as a normal install. Then the sound decoder would be wired to the pickups and speaker and that is all. Am I close yet? Will the JMRI recognize the loco and how would it and I program the two decoders? Advise, please! Carl
Carl, This thread has some good information on duel decoder installs: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine...scale-steamers&highlight=duel+decoder+install Some of the information about the sound decoders is dated IE: speaker ohm rating and 8 bit sound files but the advice is still very good. Hope it helps. Harold
Carl, I think that you will need to have a resistor (100 Ohm) wired to the motor leads of the TSU-750. Then you must set the speed values to zero so you don't have the decoder heating up the resistor all of the time. The resistor must be there other wise you will not be able to program the TSU-750. Let me know how you handle the programming of the dual decoders so you can work with bout decoders. I have a GS-4 with a TSU-750 (driving the motor and sound) plus an TSC FL4 for the H/L, mars light and number boards. The tender rear light is run off the 750 decoder. Still not sure how to make two decoders so I can program them.
This fellow has some suggestions for this. Scroll down to dual prime movers. http://www.mrdccu.com/curriculum/soundtraxx/tsunami.htm Rich
One thing you might want to try on one of the units in which you have already installed a Tsunami, on the website that Lexon mentioned there is a topic labelled "I Can't Get My Loco To Run Well Slowly". If you follow Bruce's procedure you may find that your satisfied with the Tsunami motor control and don't need to install two decoders. The other option for not installing two decoders is one of the ESU sound decoders. Their motor control is excellent.
While this is good information it deals with making the single decoder sound like the unit has two prime movers. Does not address the concerns of two decoders into one unit.
markwr, thanks for the suggestion but I just removed an ESU Select Micro that is junk. It would not run with the sound on, only with it muted. It is on my bench and will soon be going back to Matt at ESU as a piece of junk. BTW, the problem with the Tsunami is the motor control breaker is tripped and will not power the motor so rather than loose the use of the decoder I am going to add a D-trax decoder for motor and add the Tsunami for its sound capabilities only. Carl
Carl, it may have a lot to do with what scale your working in. In 2007, I believe, John Colombo wrote several posts detailing how he did exactly what you are talking about. John was working in N-scale and his directions included photos. Do a search on jdcolombo and you might have some excellent luck. ....Tom
Tom, thanks for the input. Mine is N scale as well. Yes, I have read John's thread, actually all of them, and he is very good at these installs. In fact I had to ask and he gave me help in hard wiring my AC-12 as I stripped everything out of the tender before starting. The approach I am going to take is to have unique address for each decoder and then consist them together. I put a 100 ohm resistor across the Tsunami motor leads and it performs very well as sound only. thanks again. Carl
This is an often repeated, but not needed, suggestion. Decoders will program just fine with no load on the motor outputs. What the decoder will not do is acknowledge the programming. Most decoders acknowledge the programming by pulsing the motor to temporarily increase the decoder's current draw, with no load on the motor leads to draw the current from the pulse, there is no acknowledgement pulse for the command station to see. If the command station is looking for that acknowledgement pulse after programming, then it will report an error, but the decoder wil program just fine(of course sometimes Tsuamis will not program on the program track anyway and will need to be programmed used Ops mode programming ("programming on the main")). This can cause issues when programming an extended(4-digit) address because it takes three writes to program and enable the extended address. After not seeing the acknowledgement pulse after the first write, the command station may not perform the other writes; however, the extended address can still be programmed by writing the three CV's individually. The same acknowledgement pulse is used when reading a decoder, so most decoders can not be read without a load on the motor leads, but again, they can be programmed.
Robert - I respectfully take exception to your comment regarding a resistor. Keep in mind that I am wanting to run the Tsunami as a "Sound Only" decoder. Why? Well the motor control is tripped and will not run the motor and I refuse to pay to have that fixed considering the price of the decoder. So, I hooked up the Tsunami to my program track (NCE system) and the decoder would make some noise such as a pump running. It would not ramp up any chuffs, ring the bell, or toot the whistle. Because there was no motor draw it just did not work. I put a 100 ohm resistor between the motor leads (orang/grey) and presto the decoder sound only works as it should. Whistle, bell, steam releases , chuffs everything works well. And guess what? The JMRI programmer will now program the decoder as it should but would not before the resistor was installed. Carl
