ERR Sound Converter

I know it's off topic for your post but does anyone know if these can be used to convert MTH PS1 engines to Command but also keep the original sound package? 

Trainlover9943 posted:

I know it's off topic for your post but does anyone know if these can be used to convert MTH PS1 engines to Command but also keep the original sound package? 

Not even close.

Ray, I've used a couple of them, I was one of the original beta testers.  I still have a couple in my parts box for future projects.  I hacked one to build a whistle smoke controller, it was convenient that it already had the decode for the whistle...

Dang, oh well. 

Though the sound converters only can give power to the conventional boards at full, I've ordered a few and found they work great for Lionel locomotives with RailSounds 1.0 and 2, where they use a hall effect sensor to change the speed. Only downside is that they can get very hot depending on the engine in question, but not hot enough to do damage like melting wire insulation.

For higher current sound boards, bolt a heatsink to the two LM317T regulators, that will solve the heat issue.  Since those are positioned conveniently at the edge of the board, you can bold them to a chassis with the board vertical.  They're insulated tab parts, so no insulation required.  Some heatsink compound will be very useful in conducting the heat to the chassis.

John, 

Something I had not considered, the conventional sound boards in my Flyonel S gauge B-units I believe may be Railsounds 1.0.  Would these be high current soundboards as you mention and need a heatsink?

Ray

Quite possibly, if the two regulators are getting hot, they need heatsinking.  All the power for the sound board is passing through those two regulators.

John, I did the install on my fourth Flyonel S gauge B-Unit with Railsounds. I left the shell off the loco and the B, I let the units run for an hour or so and checked the temps periodically. In 15 minutes the temps on the regulators got up to 30 deg C, at the end of the 1 hour run temp was 31 deg C. I am just posting this for info but wanted to thank you guys for the heads up on a possible issue.

Ray 

31C is not hot, that's barely above room temperature!  If that's all that happens, you have no issues at all.

FWIW, when I was doing early beta tests on these a couple years ago, I was running various RailSounds cards with them and having minimal heating issues, and I never felt the need for a heatsink.  I believe one of the old RS boards got the regulators into the 45C temperature range with continued full volume operation, still no cause for alarm.  The only time I'd consider a heatsink is if sustained operation got you close to 60C or more, then I'd consider managing the heat.