I’m thinking about buying a sound board off of electric railroad.com but i have a few questions can I buy just the sound board and not the command board as well and the engine I want to do this with is a Kline steam engine with no sound effects will this compatible and my layout is conventional ran will that be compatible as well?
Replies sorted oldest to newest
All the ERR sound boards will work in conventional mode without the command board.
If you want chuff, you will have to install a chuff switch, which will probably come with the sound board.
You put a magnet on the inside of a tender wheel and point a reed switch at it. That yields roughly 2 chuffs per revolution. Adding a second magnet will give approximately 4 chuffs per revolution.
The whole installation is easier than the installation instructions make it out to be.
Ok sounds good I would just need to buy just the sound board correct?
The ERR RailSounds Commander includes the speaker, the reed switch, and a magnet. It's very easy to install.
Or... you could buy one of these Lionel sound boards. They are quite a bit bigger than the ERR boards, though.
The audio quality of the RailSounds 5 based RS Commander will be better than the older RailSounds 2.5 boards.
Out of the 2 which one would be easier to I stall the ERR board or the other one that was just shared I’m not to familiar with working on my trains this could be a bit of a challenge for me
Both would be pretty easy, I just lean to the ERR board for the audio quality and the small size.
Railsounds 2.5 is pretty poor in comparison to the current sound boards available today. If your fixing something that already has Railsounds 2.5 and want to keep it original then I'd consider replacing the Railsounds 2.5 board, but if it was a new installation even if the older board was free I'd still consider using the newer boards.
Jim
Thank you everyone who answered my questions I’m going to go with the ERR sound board last question the 9 volt battery for the conventional use could it. Be a BCR or does it have to be a regular 9 volt battery
Please follow the instructions to the letter. DO not let the board touch any metal when installing. They short out very easy. The 9 volt battery maintains, and gives you sound under 10 volts DC. no need for BCR.. nor is it required...
It is very easy for experienced individuals, The first install can be challenging and tricky. But if you take your time, follow the instructions', you can do it... Good luck'...
@Mikev22 posted:Thank you everyone who answered my questions I’m going to go with the ERR sound board last question the 9 volt battery for the conventional use could it. Be a BCR or does it have to be a regular 9 volt battery
The commonly available BCR is not an option for these as the RS-Lite board doesn't have a charging circuit. If you want low voltage operation and sound continuity on direction changes, there is one permanent option to replace the primary battery.
The YLB - RailSounds Battery Replacement (RS-Lite) replaces the standard battery and maintains it's charge from track power as low as around 6 VAC. This unit plugs directly into the ERR RS Commander board and has one wire that connects to the center roller track power.
Attachments
So if I were to buy this I would just plug this into where i would hook up the port for the 9 volt battery
Yep, and connect the single red wire to the center roller, and the job is done.
Thank you for your help I just bought one
Just another question i haven’t had the time to start installing my sound board yet just wondering i saw someone on YouTube mount their sound board and speaker with double sided tape anyone know what brand would be good for this?
Any DS foam tape should work. Note that the DS tape supplied with the RS Commander will work, but you have to be careful that the leads don't touch the chassis and kill the board. ERR used to have thicker DS tape that didn't allow this to happen. I think Scott is considering changing the tape for this reason.
What I do with these, and by all means, I don't recommend this if you aren't sure what you're doing, is trim the solder side leads that project more than about 1mm from the board. Obviously there are lots of little surface mounted components nearby, if you damage one of those, you will likely kill the board.
Does the ERR sound board have any volume control ?
If you are using Cab1 or Cab2 you can adjust the volume from there. I'm not sure about volume control on the board
The RS Commander has a volume pot on the PCB. I've occasionally removed it and run wires to an external volume pot.