# MY E mail Conversation with Athern



## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

I was asking about putting a decoder in My Athern GP40X, read from the bottom up
Has anyone here done it and is there any help or suggestions or pictures of a quick plug install.




Bill,

You're welcome. Please note that we do not have any experience
installing a speaker in one of these models. We are not saying that
there isn't any room, we're just saying that you might possibly have to
make some modifications to make it fit. 

Sincerely,

Athearn Trains

-----Original Message-----
From: william kubiak [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2015 3:33 PM
To: Athearn Help
Subject: Re: Contact from Athearn.com

Thank you, that info is really helpful, No room in there for a speaker,
but I can get a cheap decoder that will make it go back and forth and
turn the lights on and off. Good to know.

Bill

On Jun 8, 2015, at 5:51 PM, Athearn Help
<[email protected]> wrote:

Bill,

Thank-you for your inquiry. Please note that due the large number of 
decoder manufacturers and variety of decoders with varying features in

today's marketplace we do not make specific decoder recommendations. 
We recommend that you contact the manufacturer of your DCC system and 
inquire about which of their DCC decoders would be most appropriate 
for your circumstances. You may also want to talk to your local hobby 
retailer and learn more about the different decoder options that they 
can offer you.
Note too that the Ready-To-Roll GP40X is not specifically designed to 
accept sound so you may need to make some modifications in order to 
get a speaker in it. Depending upon the sound decoder that you choose 
it may be necessary to completely replace the circuit board in the
model.

Sincerely,

Athearn Trains


-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, June 08, 2015 11:36 AM
To: Athearn Help
Subject: Contact from Athearn.com

Comments: Hi, I recently purchased an Athern RTR GP40X that is DCC 
Quick plug equipped, I would like to know what brand or model Decoder 
and speaker will just plug into my Locomotive and where can I find 
instructions how to do that. I assume the only soldering required with

a quick plug will be the speaker wires Is that correct?

Name: Bill Kubiak
Email: [email protected]

*The customer did not explicitly request a response.

==================================

Time Sent: Monday, June 08, 2015 1:36:19 PM

IP Address: 98.64.217.173

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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

And your point is?


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## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I have never done it with this model. But I can squeeze a speaker in most locos by cutting down one of the weights.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Southern said:


> I have never done it with this model. But I can squeeze a speaker in most locos by cutting down one of the weights.


I have installed sound in my Athearn GP15 and one of the weights simply unscrews so you can easily install a speaker. Most recent Athearn diesels have a circuit board which clips in over the motor, there is no plug. You simply remove the plastic keepers which hold the wires to the board and re clip them to the sound enabled board which replaces the existing one. The only soldering needed is for the speaker wires.


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## Torsion (Dec 25, 2013)

I just recently installed a Tsunami TSU-GN1000 #828052 EMD 710 sound decoder, 28mm #810054 Soundtraxx speaker and #810140 Soundtraxx CurrentKeeper into a Athearn Genesis GP50. It wasn't too hard to install, but I swapped out the existing circuit board with the new one. I prefer to solder all my connections as it's easy to put a dab of solder on the tabs while the board rest on my workbench. Plus I don't have to mess with those plastic press on tabs that secure the connections. It's a tight fit with the CurrentKeeper in there. The Speaker enclosure (also weights) over the rear trucks, houses the mounting for the optional sound equipped model. My speaker was larger than the enclosure would accommodate. So I removed part of it and attached it in that location. Sounds ok to me. The first install is always a little intimidating, but once you get one under your belt they really are pretty simple to do. The hardest part for me is putting the whole thing back together again. Make sure you do a function test before you put it together. I've installed 5 decoders so far, so I've got a little bit of practice.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Very odd that we haven't had any comment from Bill, particularly as he was the OP. Come on Bill, let's have some of your thoughts on your email ping pong with Athearn and our other posts.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Cycleops said:


> Very odd that we haven't had any comment from Bill, particularly as he was the OP. Come on Bill, let's have some of your thoughts on your email ping pong with Athearn and our other posts.


Here I am confused as ever

An Athern rep actually called me yesterday in re to my e mails. Anyway MY RTR GP450X is a simple to do job he says, just get any inexpensive NMRA 9 pin decoder, pull the couplers, take the shell of the loco, unplug the jumper on the factory board, plug in the decoder and off you go. SO I asked, what decoder do you recommend and that he would not answer nor would he or could he tell me if there is room in there for a speaker should I go that route. So I ask here, what is a decent brand in an expensive 9 pin decoder to make the engine run, both DC and DCC would be nice. I guess to do that I go from inexpensive to spensive.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

I can understand why Athearn don't want to recommend a decoder. If it all goes t*ts up for any reason you're going to be blaming them! Likewise with the speaker placement. Any of the major makes would be fine. Just be sure it can run DC too. This Digitrax would be good http://www.digitrax.com/products/mobile-decoders/dn136ps/ but doesn't run dual mode.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

They won't recommend decoders because they have business relationships with more than one manufacturer and can't be seen as seeming to endorse one brand over another. Ditto with speakers. While there are probably 10 brands that will fit, he can't be seen to be endorsing one. In a similar vein, as an official company representative, if he recommends a speaker / decoder combination, that becomes a de facto corporate endorsement, and if it turns out to be wrong, now they're on the hook, not the consumer.

Corporate behavior is usually very easy to understand if you look at it from their position. Unfortunately, it's our fault. Customer and competitor behavior drives corporate behavior.

You want a recommendation, contact a manufacturer of sound decoders, tell them you have loco xyz with a 9 pin plug and ask for THEIR recommendation. You'll get a bunch, but only their products. Repeat with other sound decoder manufacturers to get more choices.

Or pick one on your own and go for it. It it doesn't work, use the experience you gained to make a better selection.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Since I have an NCE system I ordered an NCE decoder D13SRJ basic unit, I could not find any real instructions anywhere how it hooks up, it did not look plug and play to me with all those wires sticking out of it, so I went to You Tube and here was a 10 years old with a site and a video and my exact loco, he takes that wire bundle and unplugs it from the decoder and sets it aside and says you will not need it, then he shows how to remove the jumper from the loco board and how to plug the decoder in ta da Why can't a grown up show another grown up how to do something that simply and you would think the decoder manufactures would show in their literature that the wire bundle unplugs from the decoder. I did not know what to order until I saw that Kid's video, i thought I had to do a lot of soldering.

At the end he says check out my other video's and I will show you how to use that wire bundle to make almost any dc loco a dcc loco


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Don't know why you are fussing Bill. The 9 pin plugs in to your board and the other wires are for the lighting. Be sure to put some resistors on your LEDs.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Cycleops said:


> Don't know why you are fussing Bill. The 9 pin plugs in to your board and the other wires are for the lighting. Be sure to put some resistors on your LEDs.


You don't understand it from my point of view, all I see on all the ads is a decoder with 9 wires about a foot long sticking out of it, I had absolutely no idea those 9 wires are connected to a tiny plug that you can simply unplug from the decoder leaving the decoder ready to just plug into the board on my loco., I always thought I was in for a bunch of tiny soldering, Until that 10 year old Kid made a video showing how to do it. That made me wonder how many more people are out there like me that had no idea what to do, That short video clip cleared it all up, now I know.


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Ok, I see. Let's us know how you get on with the conversion and if you need any help.

I now know where the expression' This is so simple a ten year old could do it, so go and get me a ten year old!' comes from!


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Yesterday it was scanned and was in Rochester NY


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

Bkubiak said:


> Yesterday it was scanned and was in Rochester NY


I checked today and the decoder was at the Opa Locka Wharehouse in Miami last evening and it departed that place a few hours later which should be to my local PO and to me Today, we shall see>>>

it was originally scheduled for delivery Tuesday but was delayed


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

My chip,,, er,,,, decoder arrived in the mail, took the shell off the Loco, removed the jumper, plugged in the decoder, gave it a test on the track and it works, put the shell back on and now I have DCC control of the Loco, fwd, rev, speeds and lights at both ends, so simple, but what I saw on the net and here made it look so complicated.
There is no room for a speaker if I wanted sound, but the rear weight is removable and I guess I could cut out a speaker space in it, but then I lose some pulling power, right now I have it pulling a 6 car passenger combo around and it goes up my incline with just a tad of slowdown on speed step 20.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

So the lesson to be learned here is not to be afraid to try something yourself. I'm a "real MEN don't need instructions" kind of guy, but surprisingly, I have ruined very few things by simply taking a whack at it without any guidance.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

CTValleyRR said:


> So the lesson to be learned here is not to be afraid to try something yourself. I'm a "real MEN don't need instructions" kind of guy, but surprisingly, I have ruined very few things by simply taking a whack at it without any guidance.


I was seeing instructions in several places and some right here that kinda go like this, take off shell, take circuit board off and cut all wires, install decoder wires by soldering and soldering then reinstall new decoder board, solder more wires to speaker, cut here and there to make speaker fit, all that stuff made me a tad skeptical. The people doing that learned by watching others and doing their own, but the instruction were not simple for guys like me.

We just finished assembling a 10 x 10 Sears Shed. and their instructions were terrible, we were putting on the roof pieces and it goes like this, use screws at the top and middle, do not screw the bottom yet and when we got all the roof sections on the next step was, Now install all the screws at bottom and of course by this time the bottom screws did not line up, we had to take almost the whole roof apart again to make sure the holes lined up and stayed lined up by sticking a few screws here and there where the instruction said not to put any.

When I put the sliding doors in they said do not use any lubricants in the top door rail and slide
When I got the doors on and leveled with each other the last instruction said if you want to make the doors slide easier you can use a lithium based grease on the top door slide rail

I gotta find more 10 years old kids videos on stuff I want to do


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Don't forget that the video I stitched together for you was actually done by my (then) 13 year old.


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## Bkubiak (Oct 20, 2013)

CTValleyRR said:


> Don't forget that the video I stitched together for you was actually done by my (then) 13 year old.


Yup the kids nowadays just filter out all the unneeded BS and get to the point. If I had not seen that kids video I doubt if I would have purchased the decoder and just waited until someone in my club or at the museum showed me how to do it.


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## tr1 (Mar 9, 2013)

*decoder tuitorial link,U-tube?*

Does anyone have a link to this tutorial?greatly appreciated!
tr1


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## johnfl68 (Feb 1, 2015)

Here is the instructions for putting a soundtraxx decoder and speaker in a Athearn GP35.

Since the GP40 is similar to the GP35 but a little longer, it may at least give some useful guidance in the right direction.

http://www.soundtraxx.com/documents/appnotes/athearn_gp35.pdf

There are always many different ways to go and different decoders and speakers, none are necessarily right or wrong, just different as long as the end result is the same, you having fun.

John


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