Question RE: Upgrading the Big Blow GTEL to PS3

The PS/3 board will run two smoke units.  With a tether to the lead unit, you can have the smoke and directional lighting.  I'd also probably pipe the track power pickups and frame ground back to the turbine unit for more reliable operation.

John, thanks for that info.  Do you know how many speakers the board can drive?

Do you know how many speakers the board can drive?

As many as you like, as long as the resulting load is 4 ohms or greater.

The higher the ohms rating, the lower the volume. Less than 4 ohms can damage the audio amplifier on the PS3 board.

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I'd probably recommend sticking to two.  One thing about speakers, it's not just the impedance, it's also the power rating.  If you have four 16 ohm 5W speakers in parallel, you'll probably not get as much sound as two 3W 8 ohm speakers.  Speaker efficiency comes into play when driving multiple speakers.

I don't remember specifics without going back to my notes, but if you have the 4 pin drawbar connection, that is a pita to convert to 10 pin harness.  You cannot run ps2 smoke without 4 wires, so you will lose coupler and lights and second speaker.  The alternate conversion is ps2 or ps32 with slave. But again the drawbar conversion is very hard and better to go with two ps2 or 3 upgrades, despite cost. G

You could run a separate small 4-pin tether to bring more signals over and keep the existing drawbar.  The Minitronics mini-connectors work well for this, and the wiring is small enough you barely notice it.

John, my plan was something along those lines.  Again I appreciate your help.  I can lose the front electrocoupler anyway, as I don't see using it with this loco.  So lights, smoke, and power to the lead unit.  Will be upgrading to LED as well.

Not so sure it will look OK.  This unit has a long body movement compared to truck.  So where tether comes out will be critical.  I abandoned the 10 pin coming out of body.  So weaved it through truck.  Major pita.  Need to think hard and test movement on your layout.  G