Installing Sound for Beginners, Like me!

[Pacific Northern]

You should have placed your speaker in a baffle case. They are cheap and the baffle will enhance the quaility of sound.

[Doneldon]

You can make excellent enclosures with old 35mm film canisters or just put a piece of styrene in the tender so it seals a bottom compartment. Depending on how the tender connects with the loco this might not work because the connection requires an opening. Sometimes you can seal this, though, by putting a piece of styrene at an angle to separate the"bottom compartment" from the front bottom area of the tender.

                                                                                                              -- D

[napa15]

OK, the decoder and speaker finally showed up at my LHS. Probably won't do business with them anymore... unfortunate.

Anyway, I wanted to thank you Jonathan for your guide posted here. It was a HUGE help and made the process a SNAP. I had no spare 8-pin plug in connector, so I just cut the one off of the DCC decoder that came with the engine. Would have been nice to keep it, but not a big deal. Anyway, the process way VERY straight forward and simple. thanks to your help (and the input of others).

I have a few tweaks to make, but am loving it so far.. and most importantly... my son went nuts when we fired it up for the first time.  --> Which happened after a short embarrassing few moments of thinking I did something wrong or that my Bachmann EZ Command Controller may not work with the decoder. When I first powered up the unit after installation, the idle sounds came on, but I could not get the loco do anything else.. no other sounds, it wouldn't move, nothing. So I did some Google research and document research and was drawing a blank. Then it hit me (DUH STUPID) that I was still trying to operate the loco on the preset channel I had set with the other decoder, and not the default channel 3. So, once I realized that... well, 

Anyway, here is a little video I shot last night after we got her up and running. Nothing crazy fancy:

http://vimeo.com/38481117

[napa15]

bump

[uncbob]

Congrats on the install
Watched the video
Sounds just like my Berk ( I used the same decoder )
When I do a video my wife blows the whistle
I guess you let your kids do it (:-)

[TerryinFL]

Going to bookmark this great thread, Jonathan.

Congrats napa and can hardly wait to make the modifications on my engines.

[napa15]

BTW - up next is my Bachmann HO N&W Class J #611 - Will be using the same Tsunami decoder, but the Southern Steam version for that one. That engine is at the Bachmann Service Dept right now.. so, whenever it makes its way back home... 

And yes, the kids get to blow the horn and ring the bell. My wife, she just rolls here eyes at me. 

BTW Terry, where are you in FL? I'm in Jacksonville.

[Tom M.]

I just got done installing a Tsunami TSU1000 in a Bachmann J-class for a friend.  I have a couple of suggestions for improving on Jonathan's fine work.  To mount the speaker, I also purchased the SoundTraxx speaker gaskets.  They are relatively cheap and essentially provide a custom sized circle of doublesided adhesive tape for securing/sealing the speaker to the floor.  Also, I purchased the corresponding SoundTraxx speaker enclosure.  With just some minor filing to the PC board supports adjacent to the speaker mount, the enclosure will fit snugly below the board.  This greatly improves the sound quality to my ear.

Good luck,

Tom

[Bucksco]

SoundTraxx produces more than just decoders. They have some great accessories for your installs on their webpage. Take a look:
http://www.soundtraxx.com/access/

[wildpaws]

BTW - up next is my Bachmann HO N&W Class J #611 - Will be using the same Tsunami decoder, but the Southern Steam version for that one. That engine is at the Bachmann Service Dept right now.. so, whenever it makes its way back home... 

And yes, the kids get to blow the horn and ring the bell. My wife, she just rolls here eyes at me. 

BTW Terry, where are you in FL? I'm in Jacksonville.

I'll be doing a similar install as my HO N&W J611 just arrived a few days ago. This will be my first "adventure" in the DCC world.
Clyde