4-4-0 with Airwire

[Chris9017]

Hello, I am thinking about adding air-wire to my 4-4-0 locomotive, but I need some pointers.  The engine is equipped with a Phoenix PB-11 sound unit which is the tender, and I believe their is still room to add air-wire in the tender.  However, I see the main circuit and DCC board is in the engine.   Where would be the best place to hook up an Airwire G3, and how would I get the sound to work with it?

Thank you.

[Kevin Strong]

When you say "DCC board," is this loco already DCC-equipped? If so, then half the work's done for you already. (The 4-4-0 does not come stock with DCC or is it "DCC ready." Install the G3 decoder in the boiler in place of the current DCC decoder, and use the track pick-up connections between the loco and tender to run power from the batteries to the G3 decoder. (Note; you'll want to cut all power connections to the wheels.)

If it's a stock 4-4-0, you'll want to put everything in the tender. It will fit, though you may find yourself removing the stock coal load, and opening up the top of the tender to make it easier. New coal loads are pretty simple to make.

First, you'll want to cut all the wires going to the wheels. With Airwire (presuming you're running batteries) you won't need them. There are 6 wires running between the loco and tender. Two are for the chuff (the 2-wire connector) and the 4-wire connector contains power between the loco and tender, and power for the back-up light on the tender, if it has one. You'll use all 6 of these wires, though not for their original purposes.

On the locomotive, find and isolate the wires going to the motor. While you're at it, remove the noise suppression board that's attached to the motor. Run these wires to the two leads on the 4-pin plug that would go to the back-up light on the tender. That should be simple to trace within the tender itself to figure out which two those are. While you're tracing wires, find where the power from the track goes into the main PC board from the wheels. It might just be simplest to cut the leads going down to the wheels themselves. These two wires will power the headlight, cab light, firebox, and smoke unit. If you just cut the leads going to the wheels, then you shouldn't have to do anything more to the wiring in the locomotive, as the other two leads on the 4-pin connector should be connected to the board.

On the tender, keep the chuff trigger leads connected to the Phoenix board. Take the leads that used to go to the back-up light, and instead solder new leads from that connector on the front of the tender and run them to the motor output of the Airwire board.

For power to the headlights, etc., you have a few options. Typically what I'll do is power that from the battery. That way, when the lights are on, I know the electronics are on. You can also hook this up to the headlight output of the Airwire, but know that you'll have to program them to always be on otherwise your firebox will go out when you turn the headlight off via the Airwire controller. (By default, the headlight is off until you turn it on--the "0" key.) If you wanted to, you could run an extra set of wires forward to the locomotive, and power the headlight independently via the headlight output of the Airwire board, and then power the cab and firebox lights via the batteries. Know that the 4-4-0 as built by Bachmann has an oil/kerosene headlight, so it would not have been turned on and off like a "modern" headlight would be. The fireman would have to light it, and once lit, it probably stayed lit. (Or, you can say "to heck with the cab and firebox lights," wire the headlight to the headlight output, and not worry about connecting the locomotive's PC board to anything. At this point, it's only purpose is to power the cab and firebox lights anyway. (guess which route I took.)

Note: the smoke unit is connected to this board as well. IF you're going to still use the smoke unit under battery power, DO NOT attach the PC board to the headlight output of the G3. You'll get smoke from the wrong place. Most folks who run battery power don't worry about the smoke units, so I typically don't even consider them in installations.

On the tender, disconnect the pick-ups from the tender wheels, and connect the light on the tender to the rear light output on the Airwire. Note that these lights are LEDs, and must have dropping resistors in series with them. Depending on the loco, Bachmann might have that resistor wired right next to the headlight, or it might be on the PC board. Take a look at the leads coming from the headlight. If one of them looks like it's got a resistor attached to it under a piece of shrink wrap, then you're good to go. Of course, any rationally-thinking human being would replace those orange LEDs with proper "warm white" LEDs, so you'll simply attach your own resistor to them as part of that process. (I usually find 1K resistors to be adequate.)

Hook the Phoenix to the G3 per the wiring diagram in the Airwire manual.

Now all you have to do is cram the battery, G3, Phoenix, a speaker, a fuse, charging jack, and power switch into the tender. It's actually not as difficult as it sounds, but in this case, you'll want to position the speaker and G3 boards first, then figure out where you're going to put the battery. If you're using the older G2 board, you can split the board and connect the two halves with a short ribbon wire available from Airwire. Again, this gets easier if you cut the top of the tender open and build a new coal load.

Good luck!

Later,

K

[Loco Bill Canelos]

As usual great advice from Kevin.  One additional point, you can save some space by eliminating the battery charging circuit, external charging jack, and the existing Phoenix battery now in the loco.  The power battery will preform the functions of the original battery.

Have patience go through the install methodically and you will be successful. 

Never do your first install when you are tired and or under other external stresses. 

Once done, you will realize that it was not all that difficult and the next one will be easier!!

Have fun.

Bill

[dgtrrco]

Hi Chris!! I have quite afew bachmann engines with airwire decoders in them. The 4-4-0 is a little confusing to navigate thru but can be done by taking your time and documenting every wire you cut incase you need to put it back.  The batterys I use have the Tamiya connectors on them so I use them insteadd of a charging jack, I just lift up the coal load and both battery packs and their Tamiya connectors are exposed to be charged. At first I used Rc battery packs, 2 to be exact but now im changing them out to Lion packs. They are a  little more costly but you get more run time with them but they do have their down falls as being dangerous to a certain extent. Good luck if you can get thru rewiring the 4-4-0 you can do any one engine. Just a word again to make a circuitsheet as you go or youll never get the wires back where you got them from. Gene

[Loco Bill Canelos]

Gene Chris,

I wouldn't worry too much about problems with Lithium IOn batteries as they have now become mainstream technology.  All the latest production versions have an internal circuit which will shut down the battery if there is an internal failure or excessive overheating.  This technology `may ruin the battery, but they will not overheat, burn or explode like a few did many years ago when the technology was new.  Most new products like your cell phone, tablet computer, electric shaver, rechargeable flashlight,  and other similar products have Lithium technology, but we no longer fear they will cause any problem. Actually we charge them on flammable surfaces without a thought.  So go with the latest technology.  I have used them in my steam and diesel locomotives for over eight years with no problem.

Bill

[Chris9017]

Thank you very much for the helpful advice. 

I'm having a friend take care of this, and I'm having the option to run the engine on track and battery powered to have more options.

It has been decided to hook the wires to the DCC board in the engine, and have connectors run back to the decoders in the tender.   The wood load depression has been cut out to make room for the batteries, and an oil load will be made to cover the batteries.