Strange Noise coming from Atlas O SW9

What year was your SW9 made?  I had one from the first generation.  The sound was awful: tinny and too quiet.  Turning up the volume drained power from the capacitor that maintained the directional state of the reversing unit (can you believe it!) meaning the loco did not reliably go into reverse.  I decided I could live without sound in this loco, and scrapped the Atlas sound / reverse board for a small Dallee Electronics e-unit.

I understand subsequent generations of this switcher were available with command control; the frame was modified to make room for the extra components.  If it were my loco, I would just turn the sound volume all the way down and forget about it.  But if you do find a solution i would love to hear about it!

Replace the speaker.  It can be a tedious  project.  The model pictured has electro-couplers, would have the speaker in the fuel tank.

Is your Atlas SW9 conventional or tmcc equipped?

I had the same problem with mine, just sent it into atlas and got the speaker replaced and the motor tuned up for a small price!

My model was tmcc and had the same speaker symptoms of death. Hopefully, it returns today working like a clock!

ogaugeguy posted:

Is your Atlas SW9 is conventional or tmcc equipped?

TMCC Equipped 

I don't know if this is an option with the stock electronics, but when I upgraded mine to DCC, I installed a new rectangular speaker under the radiator outlet, which sounds great.

In Conventional Control, there is no volume control for TMCC versions. So in Conventional Control, the volume is very loud and quickly blows the speaker. In TMCC Command Control, you can quickly turn the volume down or off. This protects the speaker.

rockstars1989 posted:

@T1Titan_ZachF posted:

I had the same problem with mine, just sent it into atlas and got the speaker replaced and the motor tuned up for a small price!

My model was tmcc and had the same speaker symptoms of death. Hopefully, it returns today working like a clock!

I  had a similar issue. It came back from Bill at Atlas perfect! Cannot beat those guys. Nick

That's right!!!!!

thor73 posted:

I don't know if this is an option with the stock electronics, but when I upgraded mine to DCC, I installed a new rectangular speaker under the radiator outlet, which sounds great.

 

what speaker is that? Tang Bang?

I also have the first generation switcher and encountered the issues mentioned. My response: I learned to hit my ZW directional a certain way, so that the switcher changes direction all right (although I was put off at first). The horn could be louder, but if one runs several trains at once, noise becomes an issue. I found this loco to be a smooth runner and is still reliable after many years.

Thor, can you adopt me and teach me to wire like that?!? A work of art!

How did you mount the board and how did you mount the speaker?

Sorry to hijack the thread, but thanks for the inspirational photo!

Just received my 801 back 2 days ago. Works like a charm but I believe the master volume knob inside was adjusted in favor of the speaker. Still produces sounds just that the loco is awful quiet!

Engineer-Joe posted:

what speaker is that? Tang Bang?

Pretty sure this is the one:

http://www.traintekllc.com/esu...quare-4-ohm-speaker/

lionel1946 posted:

Thor, can you adopt me and teach me to wire like that?!? A work of art!

How did you mount the board and how did you mount the speaker?

Sorry to hijack the thread, but thanks for the inspirational photo!

lol, well that might not be very practical, but here a few things I remember doing on this one (was a few years ago...)

For starters, I rewired the power and ground wires from the trucks, and tidied those up. So the trucks come off as a nice assembly with the wires attached.

I ran the power and ground wires from the trucks to a little board I designed (Just off screen to the bottom in the pic). Call it a 'power inlet board' or something, lol. It has a pair of screw terminals on it, which makes it convenient for keeping the leads from the trucks easily removable, as well as providing a tidy way to run single power/ground leads to the decoder. It also incorporates a TVS, for a little preventive peace of mind. I put these in all my locos. Looks a lot nicer than the twist caps MTH uses. 

For the decoders I normally use (here), ESU provides a nice interface board that is separate from the decoder. This is really handy in most cases, but it didn't fit well in this loco, so I had to install the decoder without the interface board. I used some 90 degree header pin housings that I soldered wires to, so that everything was still easily removable from the decoder if needed.

I used 24 or 26 gauge ribbon cable for the wiring to the lights and speakers.

As far as mounting stuff, the speaker enclosure it hot glued to the cab. The decoder is (I think...) hot glued to the top of the motor housing. I used hot glue and kapton tape here and there to secure the wiring.

I have since upgraded the lighting in this guy to LED, replacing the original incandescents, which tidied things up even a little more in the cab. But it's mostly the same as shown here.