We have a G-scale Bachmann Spectrum 4-4-0 and will install a Locolinc KLR-102 receiver and a Phoenix P8 sound system.
We plan to run track power with a battery backup. The receiver, sound and speaker will be in the tender and the battery and charger in a trailing car. The Locolinc system has separate inputs for track and battery power with a single output to the motor, so the track/battery transitions should be transparent to the locomotive.
1. How do you open the locomotive to get access to the circuit boards inside the boiler?
2. Where is the easiest place to disconnect the motor from track power so it can be connected to the Locolinc output? The motor power leads appear to go to connector block S4 on the main PCB - is that a good spot?
3. The tender and loco have two plugs that connect them, a two-pin and a four-pin. The two-pin carries the chuff signal from the contacts on the rear wheels and will go to the sound card. Two pins in the four-pin connector carry track power from the tender to the loco. We plan to leave that as is to take track power from the loco to the input side of the receiver in the tender. Track power can come from any of the tender's eight wheels or any of the loco's four wheels. Now the question: The other two pins of the four-pin connector don't appear to connect to anything. In the owner's manual, they are labeled "for speaker." Can we use those two pins to carry the receiver output power from the tender to the motor?
N.B. Our track does not have any reversing loops, just two concentric loops with turnouts connecting them. We have option of leaving the turnouts dead and letting the battery run the train through them. This should avoid any polarity problems through the wheels of the tender and loco.
4. It appears we can disconnect the motor from track power and route it through the Locolinc output while leaving the smoke connected to track power. The smoke would still need to be turned on and off with the manual switch in the front of the loco. Since smoke needs to be manually filled and checked at the loco, manually turning the switch on and off doesn't seem like a burden. Leaving the smoke connected directly to track power will shut down the smoke if track power is lost, so the smoke will not be running when on backup battery; a good thing in our view. Does this sound like a workable approach to the smoke?
5. We have a Bachmann caboose with lights that run off either internal AA batteries or track power using separate contacts in the caboose. We'll leave the AA batteries out and the lights on so the caboose will be a continuous "track power testing unit." Good idea or no?
6. What is the easy way to strap the speaker down in the tender? The speaker mount has screw holes but no parts that we can find to go in the holes to secure the speaker.
Thanks for your help,
John and Kathy McMurray
We plan to run track power with a battery backup. The receiver, sound and speaker will be in the tender and the battery and charger in a trailing car. The Locolinc system has separate inputs for track and battery power with a single output to the motor, so the track/battery transitions should be transparent to the locomotive.
1. How do you open the locomotive to get access to the circuit boards inside the boiler?
2. Where is the easiest place to disconnect the motor from track power so it can be connected to the Locolinc output? The motor power leads appear to go to connector block S4 on the main PCB - is that a good spot?
3. The tender and loco have two plugs that connect them, a two-pin and a four-pin. The two-pin carries the chuff signal from the contacts on the rear wheels and will go to the sound card. Two pins in the four-pin connector carry track power from the tender to the loco. We plan to leave that as is to take track power from the loco to the input side of the receiver in the tender. Track power can come from any of the tender's eight wheels or any of the loco's four wheels. Now the question: The other two pins of the four-pin connector don't appear to connect to anything. In the owner's manual, they are labeled "for speaker." Can we use those two pins to carry the receiver output power from the tender to the motor?
N.B. Our track does not have any reversing loops, just two concentric loops with turnouts connecting them. We have option of leaving the turnouts dead and letting the battery run the train through them. This should avoid any polarity problems through the wheels of the tender and loco.
4. It appears we can disconnect the motor from track power and route it through the Locolinc output while leaving the smoke connected to track power. The smoke would still need to be turned on and off with the manual switch in the front of the loco. Since smoke needs to be manually filled and checked at the loco, manually turning the switch on and off doesn't seem like a burden. Leaving the smoke connected directly to track power will shut down the smoke if track power is lost, so the smoke will not be running when on backup battery; a good thing in our view. Does this sound like a workable approach to the smoke?
5. We have a Bachmann caboose with lights that run off either internal AA batteries or track power using separate contacts in the caboose. We'll leave the AA batteries out and the lights on so the caboose will be a continuous "track power testing unit." Good idea or no?
6. What is the easy way to strap the speaker down in the tender? The speaker mount has screw holes but no parts that we can find to go in the holes to secure the speaker.
Thanks for your help,
John and Kathy McMurray