Blunami 4408 is available for O Scale pre-order

Thank you for the heads up.

Ron, appreciate all of your informative posts regarding deadrail. Besides a blu-4408 decoder; what else besides a battery would be required to convert a conventional Williams powered and dummy diesel locomotive, and any particular battery recommendation?  Thanks, Jeff

I assume it has a speaker.  Just a battery charger.  Depending on the engine you might be able to fit everything in the powered unit.   Else you could use the dummy as a battery tender. 

I would recommend an Lithium Ion LiIon batteries with PCB protection.  14.8v would be plenty power.  Depending on the diesel you might be able to go down to 11.1 volt. 

Check out MTO Train batteries for lots of choices on configuration.   They can be pricey, but there are cheaper alternatives too.

Ron

Hello,

I haven’t posted on this site for a while, but I was at the Amherst show when Soundtraxx made the announcement at our clinic. I picked up two Baldwin Blunami decoders at the show and installed them in my Lionel Legacy Sharknose units. At the same time I powered the unpowered unit from a powered B unit I picked up on eBay (price was right) a while back. I did a minimal install, just lights and sound. Smoke unit and couplers will be done at a later time. I absolutely love running these units on my layout. A lot of fun running the excursion train and a manifest freight.

Here are a couple of videos for your enjoyment.

Larry

Cool.   I was unaware they had 4408's at the show.  I'm still waiting for mine.

Thanks for sharing.

Ron

My pleasure! I picked them up at Yankee Dabbler. The 4408’s are the same form factor (dimensionally the same) as the 4400’s.

Larry

@GNERR posted:

My pleasure! I picked them up at Yankee Dabbler. The 4408’s are the same form factor (dimensionally the same) as the 4400’s.

Larry

Larry are you running off track power or battery power?

Pete

Hi Pete,

I’m running both units off of battery power. 14.4v Lithium Ion battery from MTO (Train-09). I picked them up from Don Sweet with RCS of New England. He was at the show too.

I always use MTO batteries. They are very reliable and I find them safe to work with.

Here is a picture of my one of the units with it’s completed install. Smoke unit is there, but not connected. The Blunami board is on top of the battery.

The white styrene rectangular box is a baffle I made for the speaker in the fuel tank. The baffle from Lionel was impeding my installation, so I came up with this design. It worked out really well. I recommend that all speakers should have sealed baffles. I used silicone adhesive as a sealant for mine.

Larry

Thanks Larry. Very impressive they can get all that functionality in such a small package.

Pete

@GNERR  Larry, A very neat and clean install.  AWESOME.   Now I really want mine.

Thanks Ron and Pete! I am extremely happy with the results.

Larry

I'm really liking this alternative.

Larry very nice job. Thanks for sharing. 

How is the battery recharged?  External charging power supply plugged into idle loco?

Is there any sort of stand-alone handheld controller for the Blunami decoder?  Or just the phone app??

@Ted S posted:

Is there any sort of stand-alone handheld controller for the Blunami decoder?  Or just the phone app??

Just the phone app and APPLE ONLY in case anyone doesn't already know that.

John

@Ted S posted:

Is there any sort of stand-alone handheld controller for the Blunami decoder?  Or just the phone app??

For now... Iphone.  Android is coming this year.  I demonstrated using a game controller.  That was fun.

@Ron045 posted:

For now... Iphone.  Android is coming this year.  I demonstrated using a game controller.  That was fun.

I actually had watched that one awhile ago Ron.  Nice work.

John

@Ron045 posted:

For now... Iphone.  Android is coming this year.

So's the "base 3" and "WTIU", I'll believe all of them when I see them. Until there's an android version, it's useless to a lot of us.

The current Blunami

@Magicland posted:

So's the "base 3" and "WTIU", I'll believe all of them when I see them. Until there's an android version, it's useless to a lot of us.

The current Blunami app is a programming continuation of the original Blue Horse app followed by the Blue Rail app.   So there is lots of years of development and changes.

The developers did not want to convolute a lot of useless code for Android, so they are building the android  version from scratch.

Ron