I finished my first sound project using an ESU sound decoder, in this case a LokSound 5 Nano. First of all I have to admit that there is no competence for ESU sound decoders. First of all the decoder comes complete with his speaker already soldered and a very smart way to make the soundbox, with different sized plastic pieces that you glue together to make the soundbox as much taller as the available space.
But it's not only about how well packaged it is, the sound is incredible, really powerful and with no distortion. The decoder is wired for 6 functions, the motor control is smooth and precise, and it has tons of parameters to adjust effects, intensities, sound parameters, random sounds, events,... just awesome!!!
You pay for it, but it really beats any competence.
But let's start the work. First of all open the locomotive and unclip the motor. The motor has two small metallic pieces that won't be used (see them in the second photo, next to the motor):
I started soldering the motor wires as you can see in the following photo:
Then glue the soundbox. I used the tallest piece from the kit for that. I could have added an extra piece and make it bigger as there is room enough, but just with that it sounds amazing. There is a place where the speaker fits perfectly fixed, so I didn't use glue nor double sided tape:
I saw the lights quite difficult to connect, as the board has no place in the visible side to solder and it is completely fixed to the body frame. It has an extra car that would need also its own decoder or extend the function wires to this car, so you cannot detach it again. Finally I decided I would do a very simple conversion connecting only the motor and sound, lights will be always lit on. Here you can see it from both sides to check the connections:
So that's it, it was hard enough to learn how to make a sound project, find original Preiser & Theurer sounds... don't expect a complicated conversion with extra lights and effects. :)
For the sound project I started from the ESU Class 66/77 / EMD JT42CWR Sound Project (http://projects.esu.eu/projectoverviews/search?q=Class+66%2F77+%2F+EMD+JT42CWR) as the motor seemed to me to be the closest one, and then added original Plasser & Theurer tie tamper sounds to reproduce the clamp, tamping sound at low speed, horns... etc
You can download the sound project here. These are the implemented functions:
By the way, many thanks to the JNSForum and the Desktop Station Open Sound Data page who encouraged me to make this project and share it. Check their awesome sound projects for Japanese rolling stock.
You can see some final photos and a video demonstration:
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