# Installing sound decoders



## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

it is a GE c44-9w from athearn but identical to yours. I think the road name was put on custom as it is not listed anywhere on athearns website so it could in theory be the same one as yours but it is non DCC as of this moment. I do have a Atlas Master in CSX livery that i will have pictures of up in a few days that is DCC. I was alos wondering if you have installed sound decoders in any of your locomotives?


----------



## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

gc53dfgc said:


> it is a GE c44-9w from athearn but identical to yours. I think the road name was put on custom as it is not listed anywhere on athearns website so it could in theory be the same one as yours but it is non DCC as of this moment. I do have a Atlas Master in CSX livery that i will have pictures of up in a few days that is DCC. I was alos wondering if you have installed sound decoders in any of your locomotives?


the BNSF unit i have pictured is Atlas Silver so it is DCC ready - no sound but has a plug for decoder. i was playing with idea of puchasing QSI sound but spent remainder of my toy money on another loco that i wanted for very long time (pictures of that when it arrives. can't wait). i will be looking to add sound decoder at some later point though.

i haven't installed sound yet, but the Norfolk southern Dash 8 Unit pictured in thread you replied to is atlas gold so it does have the marvelous sound installed already.


----------



## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

do you know for sound decoders are they just a piece you solder on to a DCC decoder or are they a complete decoder with sound that you install in place of the old DCC decoder. I want to add sound to my two DCC engines but don't know what i would have to get Simply does the sound decoder replace the DCC sound decoder and what would be the best sound decoder to be able to add ditch lights to?


----------



## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

it depends.
you can have fullTsunami or QSI revo decoders. those are complete decoders with both sound, motor and function controllers. they both have enough functions to separately wire the number-boards and ditch-lights (each goes on different channel if you want them to say blink when you sound the horn). instalation of those can be harder as besides the decoder itself you need to find space for properly baffled Speaker and Keep-alive capacitor.

then there is digitrax soundbug which is an add-on sound module for soundbug enabled motor decoders (ie DH165A). clips on top, but still room for capacitor and speaker need to be allocated


----------



## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

anton 

how would i get the ditch lights to blink when i sound the horn? when you say number baords do you mean the headlight?


----------



## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

headlight is headlight, numberboards are number boards. at least on Atlas Silver CW those are two separate LEDS, if you put these on separate channels you will be able to turn one without the other. 

to get the ditch lights to blink you will put each on separate channel and configure the decoder to apply the Inermittent blink effect when horn is on (or at whatever other trigger you chose) , you will also want to asign complete on/off trigger as well.

all of this is in the manual, its quite a wealth of information.

i myself going to attempt to program ditch light effect on into the DH163 non sound decoder. but i'm tired of doing this manually and will be spending some time to configure the USB interface and decoder pro software. much easier from laptop screen then punching in CV values.


----------



## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

okay thanks. I didn't know of any trains that had seperate number boards and headlights thats why i was confused on the number board thing. Would you recomend using tsunami sound i have heard its the best but want to justify the 100 that it costs for one.


----------

