New to DCC

[dturnerfish]

I purchased a Zephyr, and it will be arriving shortly

Has anyone installed a Soundtraxx (sound only decoder) is a N scale Dummy car?

What is involved? I assume you have to buy new trucks for power. Mount the decoder, solder to power and then attach a speaker.

I went to the soundtrax site and could not find out any information. Any resources out there?


When soldering for electrical, what type of soldering iron/needle should I get?

Thanks all, this forum has been a great source of information.


DT

 

[MasonJar]

I use a Zephyr system and installed a Soundtraxx decoder in my HO LL P2K 0-6-0, using the "all-in-one" decoder kit intended for the LL 0-8-0. Speaker is wired separately. Was not really hard - you just have to be good with the soldering iron - which is why i had someone help me

My friend Jacques uses a really really hot iron with a very fine tip. I do not know the exact wattage, but it took only fractions of a second to do each joint. Of course he tinned all the wires first so putting them together was really easy. If you do it fast, you do not need to worry about heat sinks and so on. (That's another reason to wire either a plug or a harness - just in case you are not the world's best solderer, you won't melt the decoder, just the cheap harness).

You will need pick ups on the trucks, but you can make reliable ones yourself. If your dummy (loco I assume) does not have a plug, you might consider wiring one in, but if the decoder is wired, then don't bother.

If the Soundtrax site does not have anything, try the loco manufacturer, and if all else fails go to

www.railwaybob.com

and look for the links to DCC. He has a few sample installations that might help.

Andrew

 

[rksstl]

Heres a link to answer your question on dummy sound cars. http://www.onlyndcc.com/onlyndcc/Dcc_Sound_Units.html