Can i put TMCC in an engine that has early railsounds?

Not sure what's in that one, but if it's conventional, probably not.

Yes, it is conventional. I Love the engine, but want it to run in command mode with DCS while using the same sounds. I know I can run it in conventional but want that flexibility and not having to jump menus all the time.

Could I put in boards from a tmcc upgrade kit and put a sound file in it or is Railsounds all hardware based? Also, could I put boards from a later Mohawk? 

No way you transplant the conventional RailSounds to DCS, that's not going to happen.

There is no way to change the RailSounds stock sounds.  The chips on your board are conventional RailSounds, and don't work with TMCC control.

So you are saying that even if I take out the chip and put it in a tmcc board, it wont work?

Not unless your chip is different than the conventional ones I've seen.  The board is a standard RS4 board, it's the chip that makes it conventional.  I moved one to another RS4 board for the same reason, and the conventional operation followed the chip, and the old board worked with TMCC.

This engine is from 1991. Could you post (if you can. If not, I understand.) the differences from a non tmcc engine board and a tmcc engine board?

1991 puts it before TMCC, and in the early RailSounds days.  I think I'd abandon the idea of trying to retain the exact sounds from that engine if you want to go remote.

Giving up on the original sounds, could the part # 610-8064-256 ACDR Circuit Board and Housing Assembly, be installed? That would give me TMCC.

I don't see how that board gives you TMCC, it's just a motor driver board.  If you want TMCC in that rig, consider the ERR AC Commander.

I surrender!!!

You give up too easy, fight on!

OK then. What sounds come with a ERR upgrade?

Nick,

   You can listen to them here.

http://www.electricrr.com/index.htm

Click purchase, then Railsounds Commander products, then you can listen to the sound.

Bill

What is required to install this system?

I just did this type if conversion for a Forum member where I installed a Command Capable RailSounds board and swapped in chips from RS 2.0 and it did work.  I intend to post what I did, but have been too busy.  I could not get your model number to pull up on the Lionel support pages is it correct?  91 maybe to early as some early steam sounds did not us Railsounds technology.

PS Chuff varied, some used tender axle sensor, others used cherry switches, again all dependent on when and what.  G

Try 6-18009(Mohawk)

Since that has a mechanical E-Unit, I don't think it's the same as what we're discussing.

That's the one that the OP asked about.  The AC Commander will replace the e-unit.   

Railsounds came out in 1989 on the B-6 switcher.  That one was not loud enough, so they added an amplifier on following engines.  I think it was considered RS 1.5.  I have a couple of boards, I'll try to find them to see what they say.

Ok, they just have part numbers and a 1989 Copyright date.  Part numbers are 6-18-5110-111 Steam Rev B and 6-10-8000-115.

Re the early boards handling a steady 18 volts, I remember now that I ran the B-6 and a T-1 flat out for hours on end at our train show and had no board failures.  So it seems the only limiting factor on using those boards with TMCC (AC Commander) is that the Cab 1 or 2 controller will not operate the whistle or bell, so you'd have to use a Lionel 6-5906 sound activation button for that.  

Well, he said 6-10009, but since that number doesn't seem to exist, maybe you're right.

Does that make me "king of the lab"?

Typo

PS what activates the chuff on this engine?

As I mentioned in my last post, it seems to be possible (with cavet).  I think I'll give it a try sometime on a T-1 - just for the heck of it.  

That being the early Mohawk, I'm guessing that it is the same as the T-1 and the B-6: a Hall effect sensor on the tender axle.

The Mohawk use a hall effect on the tender. You can find a parts break for both engine and tender here.

http://www.lionel.com/media/su...ent16/16Complete.pdf

Bill

So would tmcc control the movement and the button controls the sounds? How would I wire a button or 2 in conjunction with the tmcc or dcs or legacy wiring? How would the whistle and bell be activated with one button?

You need two buttons for whistle and bell.  They've be wired to the track, just like conventional wiring has always been.  The buttons for whistle/bell would NOT be on your TMCC/Legacy remote, they would be on the transformer or a separate whistle/bell box wired to the track.

So would i wire the command system to the track and a transformer to the track, controlling the sound from the transformer?

Thanks all for the info.

If you leave the conventional RS stuff in the tender, that's how it would work.

I'll wait till someone has done it first.

   If you were using a modern transformer with bell & whistle buttons you would not need the additional sound activation buttons.  If you're using a postwar or brick then yeah, you'd need at least one.  The buttons would be in line with the power to the track. To get both functions you would reverse the wiring hookup on one of the buttons or use a Lionel polarity switch (yea, they made one for this very reason).  Remember, to activate a whistle or bell conventionally you send a DC pulse through the track.  Which one is activated depends on the polarity of the DC pulse.  

Sorry that this sounds complicated, it really isn't too bad - but I don't blame you for wanting to see someone else do it first.  

I will try it when I have time, but I have to return to my ship in a week for a 3 month hitch, so probably won't have time until Fall.

With TMCC you have just one wire from the command base to the track for the command signal.  The power supply wiring is same as conventional.  So if your transformer has the buttons it should do the job.  Can't speak for dcs, don't have it.  

This info is great. Thanx.

I have actually done this on an experimental basis in the past.  I had a conventional horn/bell board in a K-Line RDC, and I put the ERR MiniCommander into it.  While I was looking for a suitable command sound installation, I tried running it around with the TMCC and using the transformer buttons to trigger the horn/bell.  That works fine, just not an operational situation that I'm interested in long term.  There's no reason it won't work fine if you don't mind the operational restrictions.

If you run track power through a TPC or a Powermaster, you can control conventional sounds through your remote.