Hello I've in the last couple years equipped several n scale engines (Kato and Atlas) with non-sound decoders (except a Kato P42 with a Digitrax sound decoder) I have 2 other Kato to equip: SD70M and ES44AC, and was thinking trying the Loksound 58741 since there is no milling of the frame involved. My questions are: 1) What speakers should I use for each engine? 2) Do I need the Loksound programmer, or I can program them with JMRI? Thanks
Not sure which speaker that is but try and go with as large as one that you can put in there. I have ESU sound decoders to install but have only done one install with a non-ESU and started with an 8 x 12 speaker and was really disappointed. Went to a 9 x 16 and it made a world of difference in volume and sound quality. You for sure want a baffle on it. I 3D printed mine but SBS has the speakers and enclosures and info on both. As far as I know you need the programmer to load a sound file. SBS will and I think others would load the sound file of your choice before sending the decoder to you. If you have the sound file in the decoder you can use JMRI. One option is that you can download the LokSound programmer software and use it without the actual physical programmer to setup a decoder. You can save/review those settings and use those settings with JMRI if I understand that right. I haven't done that and decided to get the programmer so I'd have more flexibility but haven't used it yet. Google this and you will find out how to do it. Take pictures and post the process you used, Sumner
