Upgrade ABA slave engine with PS-2

I'm presuming you plan on taking the existing slave board out and installing the PS/2 board?  If so, that should work fine, you'll want to configure them as a MU when you run.

It becomes a custom upgrade.  With a PS-2 board in the Trail unit, there is no need for the tether between units.  You also need to get a power harness with tach leads or add the tach to the existing harness for speed control.  You will need speaker and leads, battery and harness lead.  G

Isn't everything a custom install?

I just did a PS2 upgrade to a powered B unit that I run as a lashup with a PS2 A Unit.

In the lash up, the only sound from the B unit is the engine sound.

Unless you intend to run the newly powered A Unit seperately, I think that you are taking on a lot of work and expense for very little functional difference.

Have you thought about just connecting a seperate speaker in the slave through small plugs such as Miniatronics offers? 

Thank you.  I already have the PS-2 diesel upgrade kit which I assume has everything I need, and I do plan to run them as two separate engines in a DCS lashup.  I will continue to run it as an ABA set.  It would really be nice, and I think cheaper, if I could just add sound to the slave unit instead of the whole PS-2 upgrade. I would use the kit for something else.

Ron

ctr,

Just read your input.  What speakers would I buy?

Thanks.

Ron

For the best quality sound, I would recommend purchasing a high quality 4 ohm 2" speaker and mounting it in the dummy B Unit where there is plenty of room. I would connect the existing speaker and the new speaker in the dummy to a DPDT switch so that I could direct full power to either the existing speaker or the new bigger and better speaker in the dummy. I use a short section of PVC pipe--running the length of the B Unit-- as a resonant device-- the longer the better. I mount the Speaker so that it fires into one end of this tube. (The speaker is screwed to a plywood mounting that holds the front of the speaker and one end of the tube.)

I encase my Miniatronics 2 pin connectors in 3/32" heat shrink tubing where they enter or leave the engine. This is to prevent pinching the wires and causing a sort to ground that will kill your audio.

You can purchase high quality 4 Ohm Speakers from WWW.MADISOUND.COM (The Peerless TC6FD00-04 for $9.60 should be more than adequate.)

ctr,

Thanks for the input. One of the reasons I want sound in the trailing A unit is to have sound coming from the engine itself so it sounds like it is really working. I currently have two MTH ABA sets and a Lionel ABA set where the sound is coming from only the first engine. To me it sounds like the B and trailing A are 'dead', and the lead A unit is pulling everything. For this reason I do not run these engines. The engines I do run are nearly all Atlas O AA and ABA sets with sound (and power) in each unit, also Lionel Centipedes and a Lionel E6 AA made up of two separate sets to get two powered A units.

For my original question, my thought was to have sound in the lead and trailing A units at a loud enough volume to mask the fact the B does not have sound. If that doesn't work for me, I'll just run the AA units together.

I can never remember which way this works.  I think I need to find two 8 ohm speakers, one to replace the current 4 ohm speaker in the lead A and one for the trailing A, to wire in parallel.  Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Ron

Ron,

Everything is a matter of personal preference. I prefer more bass and more undistorted volume that can only be produced by a long throw speaker that is physically too large to fit in a powered unit or slave.

You are correct about the wiring. I have a few 8 Ohm 2" speakers that came from PS2 conversions that I could provide, but I would not recommend that you go that way.

Instead, I would recommend that you hook a 4 Ohm resistor in series with the existing 4 Ohm speaker and then wire the resulting assembly in parallel with a high performance speaker in the dummy B unit. That is how I have wired mine and it will get you most of what you want--especially better bass.

There is one thing you may want/need, that is a volume pot since none would have been in the rear slave unit.  Now you would only need this pot if you want to be able to set the volume in this unit manually.  You would still be able to set the volume in this unit with the DCS Remote.