Tmcc static noise

Change the RailSounds 4 audio board.  Some of them make more background noise than others.  It's a common complaint.

And how does one go about doing that???

Have the same issue with some Atlas engines. Have an RS1 an RS3 and an 0-6-0. All have Train America Studio sound. The horn and bell are not up to today's standards. The prime mover isn't too bad. Crew talk is garbled, although I don't use it that much. Speed control is very good and responsive, all are TMCC.

I have not yet opened up any of these to see what can be done. Is there an easy replacement sound board from ERR to improve these and bring them up to the sound quality of today's engines? Would prefer to upgrade the sound without having to gut it and install all new Cruise and sound if possible.

RAY

You can graft the new ERR sound board into most of them to improve the sounds.  If you can find suitable sounds in a RailSounds 5 board on the Lionel site, you can drop that in to improve the sounds as well.

Graft ? Drop in? Not sure what that means. I am kind of a novice at this, and i appreciate your help. I adventurous and can try just about anything.

Well, I hesitate to try to guide a novice in hacking into the board to use a different sound board as it frequently ends badly.

Try me - I am not afraid to muck things up - I have lots of expensive stuff on my mucked up list. When I fail I simply procede to my next muck up "to do list"

Are you sure it's not normal rs4 idle steam  hiss noise ?

Legacy steamers have more unique/clearer idle steam sounds. The older tmcc stuff makes more of a shhhhhhh noise which isn't horribly inaccurate either.

Over time, some of the RS boards will do this.  The recommended easy fix is to pull both chips.  Rub the edges (legs of chip) of the chips on clean cloth and reinstall.  I see this often.  Sounds like Bull but it usually works.

I have reseated the chips many times, but I'll have to clean them next time and see if that's better.

I discovered this interesting post while looking for some help with background static in the sounds on my 3rd Rail CB&Q O5 Northern.  Marty Fitzhenry threw his 2 cents in on this one.  What a great guy.   I never had the opportunity to meet Marty but I miss seeing his postings, as there was always something of interest and always some kind of information or wisdom that he was passing along.  He advised pulling the (2) chips on the RS board, cleaning the contacts along the edges, and re-seating them to cure the  background static.   I have to believe that his word is gospel here but I do not have a puller for these type chips.  By the way, it's well known that exposure to smoke and other air pollution will affect contacts on almost anything electronic, especially if they're not gold.  Hence, I never run the smoke units on anything.  My question now is if it's worthwhile for me to order one of those tools?

thanks, Phil

a side note:  I find it frustrating using the search engine in this site.  Tip:  Google your query and the links to matching threads here on the forum will be displayed.  I'm not complaining about the forum.  It's a terrific platform for us and I would be dead without it.

Phil

Corrosion on the contacts of older RS 4-5 boards is a common issue, a $5 PLCC chip puller is the cure.