Railsounds 4 pcb

No, RS 5.5 is Legacy, and those chips won't play in the RS 4 MB.

I meant 5.5 chips in a rs5 motherboard

RS5.0 and RS5.5 boards are identical, and the chipset can indeed be swapped. 

But obviously the functionality (TMCC versus Legacy) follows the chips. 

TRW

What he said.

Looking for a low profile capacitor blank res 5.5 board blank. Anyone, have one

The RS 5.5 chips were installed in the RS5 board, there isn't custom hardware for the first generation Legacy sounds.  Lionel still has those boards in stock.

While not displayed as different, there are actual Hardware differences.  I remember seeing certain engines that in deed needed a different capacitor layout on the RS board to be installed based on Fit.  G

GGG - Your correct! I have a stock pile of sound boards. All, 6 of the railsounds 5 boards have capacitors that are higher then the headed on the railsounds board.

I need to look at the picture of the blank board replacement from Lionel. Maybe, the board in fact changed during the 5 to 5.5 revisions. The engine is a sd 70 where the power board sits horizontal above the railsounds board.

I took the chance and took the caps out of the bad board. Installed them on the new board. These are lower level capacitors.

Hopefully, the 5.5 blank has the correct capacitor height. I have lots of sd70’s

Capacitors are cheap, why not just buy replacements if you need them.  FWIW, the caps on the RS4 boards and RS5 boards I have are all the identical size, the triac on the RS5 board is actually the tallest component.

It appears 2 different boards! One with the regulator horizontal to the board. The other with the regulator vertical to the board. The one with the horizontal regulator has the Low profile capacitors. Only makes sense. 

The 1484 steamer shows the high cap version for rs5.5. The Katy sd70 the low cap version. So, now I need to find out if ordering from the picture will get me th right board

shawn

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Capacitors are cheap, why not just buy replacements if you need them.  FWIW, the caps on the RS4 boards and RS5 boards I have are all the identical size, the triac on the RS5 board is actually the tallest component.

Low, John - I’m surprise I was even able to get the caps out of the board with a good 

solder sucker...the eyes are going...for now did a transplant.

Actually, that would be a good thing a capacitor list by board size etc.

shawn posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Capacitors are cheap, why not just buy replacements if you need them.  FWIW, the caps on the RS4 boards and RS5 boards I have are all the identical size, the triac on the RS5 board is actually the tallest component.

Low, John - I’m surprise I was even able to get th cas out of the board with a good 

solder sucker...the eyes are going...for now did a transplant.

A capacitor list height - avialablity would be great...

Another 5.5 board that is available 5.5 lower capacitors and regulator horizontal.

H

Here’s a picture ...of the other 5.5 RS board. Although, not super clear the  caps near the 24 pin header sit below the header.

Hmm,John. Lol, I didn’t even look at the part number. Any, idea what that is used for on the board...Non - legacy mode?

Actually, the RS5 board I show is actually a Legacy 5.5 steam chipset.  I forget exactly which one, though I could fire up the crew talk and it'll give me the road number.

Looks like they just folded the triac down and used a different size cap. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Actually, the RS5 board I show is actually a Legacy 5.5 steam chipset.  I forget exactly which one, though I could fire up the crew talk and it'll give me the road number.

Looks like they just folded the triac down and used a different size cap. 

Yes, absolutely!

So, How is one to tell the difference between a RS4 and RS5 board?

Well, the obvious way is the silkscreen and the larger triac sticking out, the RS4 boards don't have a triac.

Lol, That's a telling sign! So, what is the triac for?

A little refreshment on the RailSounds history may be in order. Here's a post I made that corrected several inaccuracies that still occasionally dog the timeline: https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...26#77311805264179526

The RS5 (and RS5.5) audio boards added the functionality formerly found in the AD20 board so that they could receive the serial communications over the wireless tether, and also activate a tender's rear coupler and back-up light. Even though the RS5 audio board was more expensive to produce versus the RS4 (the extra components plus the larger capacity chips), the overall system cost was reduced a bit because of the elimination of the AD20 and a simplified motherboard.

The triac you pointed out fires the rear coupler in a tender. In different applications, it controlled other things such as a smoke unit. (It's the same triac from the R2LC.) The transistor a bit lower on the board than the triac is what controlled the back-up LED -- not an incandescent bulb which was used with the AD20.

I'm aware of about 2.5 versions of the RS5/5.5 audio board. These photos are from my recent for-sale thread.

1) 691-RS5-C: The earliest versions are from 2003 and 2004. The main identifying feature is the diode "band-aid" soldered to the back-side of the 24-pin connector. Always found with RS5.0 chips, but you should be able to use 5.5 chips with them.

2) 691-RS5-E: The diode was made part of the board as a surface-mounted component. These still had the "high-profile" capacitors as was pointed out in another response above. These boards could have either RS5.0 or RS5.5 chipsets.

2.5) 691-RS5-E: The board technically didn't change (and neither did the Rev letter), but it was populated with lower-profile caps to allow the board to fit better on certain motherboards. The triac had folded pins so it could be positioned parallel to the board. These started showing-up circa 2006.

AFAIK, the only other differences with the RS5 audio boards are due to different manufacturers (at least two) and countries of origin (USA and China).

TRW

Wow, nice write up!