true blast sound kit

[plansin]

What signal is required to activate the horn and bell sounds from the true blast sound board??

[phillyreading]

Almost any transformer with a whistle or horn button will work the horn on a Williams True Blast 2, you may have to hold the horn or whistle button for three seconds if you have an older Lionel ZW transformer.
Most transformers with a bell button should work with the True Blast 2 system, however you may have to hold the button for close to 3 seconds, the bell may take having to press the bell button again to turn off the bell feature.

Lee F.

[plansin]

I am using qa ZW, and when I press the horn button, the horn blows very nicely in its 6 second sequence. Holding the horn button in for 1 second as the instructions indicate or 3 secfonds as you indicate does not activate the bell. No time held in seems to activate the bell. If I reverse the wires to the track, pressing the horn button activaes the bell as well as shuts it off, but no horn??
Paul

[phillyreading]

I am using qa ZW, and when I press the horn button, the horn blows very nicely in its 6 second sequence. Holding the horn button in for 1 second as the instructions indicate or 3 secfonds as you indicate does not activate the bell. No time held in seems to activate the bell. If I reverse the wires to the track, pressing the horn button activaes the bell as well as shuts it off, but no horn??
Paul

Your transformer seems to doing correctly, however from what you describe it is an older transformer. You need to add a Lionel whistle button(part number is something like 6-5904) to the track power so you can get both the horn and bell without switching wires around.
You might want to upgrade to a more modern transformer with both whistle and bell buttons, like an MTH Z-1000 or a Williams 80 watt.

Lee F.

[Joe Satnik]

Dear All,

Heavy Duty Bell Button discussion:

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,21385.15.html

Hope this helps. 

Sincerely,

Joe Satnik

[M1FredQ]

Hey Joe
I have the old ZW what I am finding is that the more I run the WBB locomotives with the True Blast the less delay time ! I don't know why but it's happening!!

Any ideas???

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

old zw? Postwar- Your whistle rectifier may be going.(even though its working "better") The conducting properties can change easy if it is a bi-metal disk(old-stock) or even modified to a large diode(probably surface mount) the diode may be in question. If you just began using this again after a long storage, friction from your use may be "cleaning" the contacts. When was the last time it was used, cleaned, contacts and rollers were checked? I think 40yr old whistle contact grease gets chunky/dirty separating whistle contacts sometimes.
Or maybe the sound units performance is what has changed, CDC guys may have a clue there.
Or electrical magic, modern circuit board electronics often glitch, then stop glitching. Sometime glitch's never return. If it ain't broke, why fix.
Also your main throttles have carbon rollers(brush material shaped like wheels) for contacts. If they don't roll or break/chunk out you could ruin it forever as the roller arm will slowly saw and groove the transformer contact windings, still working as it saws. This could also cause erratic behaviors. The rollers are only 25-50 cents each. Check them by simply removing the cover. If you do repair yourself buy extras(& even more rivits), rollers are brittle, over crimp, and rivit shafts bend, easy. To have this done by a pro is pretty cheap also. Learn what a good contact or roller "feels like" as you move your throttle and check should that feeling ever change. Modern Zs using power bricks, and new ZW-L are a mystery to me.
oh yea the signal itself is a +dc offset voltage for horn/whistle, and -dc offset for bell. I think 2.5dcv trips & holds old style relays, Board types as low as 1.5 holds on some. P-warZW's also give a 5v boost so old whistle motor power use didnt slow train down.

[M1FredQ]

GG1

There is a person who does repairs at a Hobby Train store I frequently drop in on would this be something he can do or do i need to send this into Lionel??

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

Most likely he can. Give him a ring and ask!  You may also wish have the cord replaced with a polarised plug. Or at least have old plug marked.  If you ever use more than one transformer on your layout they must be "in phase" so input powers "neutral" side enters the transformers correctly. If done, Google "Lionel transformer phasing" as this can be  tricky depending on which units are being used. But beginning with a transformer with a polarized plug is a good starting base. I prefer measuring voltage vs spark method. Here is a site with one example. http://www.jwtrains.com/Tech%20Tip_6.htm. Many other articles and videos about this are online. (A modern solid state transformer will usually shutdown immediately if improperly phased. Our old ones will not.)
Also worthy of mention I have an American Flyer 18b transformer(cool deadman handles ) which does not like to phase with others.  Spark test is OK, but I get high voltage variances(hence my preference) and have moved it to its own isolated track till I can research build differences more.

[M1FredQ]

Thanks GG1 the info is really helpful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!