# Need advice: wiring IHC 2-10-2 with Tsunami sound



## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Hey guys. This is my second try at wiring a DCC ready for sound. I have much more room to work with this time but it's not as straight forward. The wiring suggestions that Tsunami gave is not matching what I found. I have it all wired up but the powercab said it didn't recognize CV. I got a Tsunami heavy steam decoder for it. 

The main issue is with track pickup wires. There's a plug on the engine itself that had multiple wires going out through the engine that are covered up. I took the engine apart. They're still covered up. Some came out at the light. I figured out what went to the light. On the outside ends of the engine plug is a red on one side and a black on the other side.

I wired everything to re-use the plug that came in the tender. On the tender plug, I wired the red pickup wire to match with the red side of the engine plug. I sent the black to the back of the tender under a bolt as suggested. This leaves a bare wire in the back of the tender plug that hooks up to the black side of the engine plug.

The original small board that was in the tender had a red wire going to the rear bolt (where the black one off tsunami board is going now) and a short blue wire going to a bolt in front of the tender. There is no wire going to that bolt now. The original directions describe the original red and blue wire as a "short contact" (blue) wire and a "long contact wire" (red). What does that mean? Where does the red and black wires go in the actual engine? Are these the pickup wires?

Also, there were two wires coming off the engine plug that were attached to nothing. Why? They ran all the way to the front light and dead ended.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

This is a scan. Hopefully it shows up ok. Maybe somebody can spot what's wrong in the right side diagram.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Here's a scan of the diagram that came in the box. There were many wires coming off the original board but the only ones shown and labeled were these two contact wires I'm wondering about. I circled them in the color they were if it matters.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Here's the Tsunami directions that came with it. Notice black going to back of tender. :


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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

Some IHC Steamers use the tender to complete the circuit.  That is the reason for the factory installed tender plugin. I installed DCC in an IHC Consolidation. I used the Soundtraxx tender/locomotive wiring harness. It has eight or nine wires. In the locomotive, two wires went to the headlight, two wires for the motor, and one for track pickup. In the tender two wires for the tender light and one for track pickup. The speaker should mount in the tender as well, and I did mount the decoder in the tender. I removed the factory plug in set up as well.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

What do you think I should try then? I could remove the black from the bolt and send it to the black side of the harness. But then I dont know what to send to the bolts in the tender. 

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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Ok, I just figured it out poking around with the multimeter. Needed one more wire. Looking at the right side diagram I drew up, notice the far right end of the tender plug. Wire was hooked up to nothing and thats the one I was concerned about. Thats the spot in the plug that connects to black on the right side of the engine plug.
Ended up having to solder a wire from that far right tender plug "nothing" wire and sent it back to the back bolt on the tender with the other black wire that came off the tsunami board. That was it.

Programmed it. Runs and sounds awesome. Had two issues though.

-Throwing it in reverse with the lights on lit up the backup light as it was supposed to. But it only lit up for about 5 or 6 seconds. Then it fried. Smoke came off the connections. The front light is fine. The rear one looked to be dimmer and probably just got too much juice. Have other leds and resistors available.

- Issue #2. The stop button on the power cab doesnt turn it off. The other one I did, the loco goes through a shutdown sequence and turns off. This one sits idoling and does not shut down when I hit stop. Dont know why.

Might decide to mess with the cv addresses and possibly change the whisle and bell if I can figure it out. Dont really need to but its an option. May post a video of it. 

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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

glad to hear it all worked out well.


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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

Also, the lights need to be connected to the decoder, and not get any track power.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

rrgrassi said:


> Also, the lights need to be connected to the decoder, and not get any track power.



Im pretty sure thats how I have it. Did you notice anything wrong in the diagram? The front light works fine. The rear one I think was a smaller LED. Needed a resistor.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

I did not see where you connected the yellow wire from the decoder to the rear light, then back to the blue (common) wire on the decoder in your drawing. I also saw the white (headlight) but nothing coming back to the blue common wire at the decoder. 

All LED's need a resistor.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Drawing error. I didnt draw in the wires going back to the rear light. The front light isnt an led. Maybe why it survived? More like a little bulb of some sort.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

IHC used a 12 volt bulbs. The decoders send 12v to the bulbs by default. That would be why it survived, and the rear LED did not.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Heres the tsu1000 heavy steam and speaker installed. Had to fix rear led I installed.











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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

Does it work now?

Oh, before you button everything up, tape the bare leads.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Everything works except the new rear backup LED I installed. I tested it as I had it and the meter said it was getting power. It read -12.xx volts. But the light was not on while switched in reverse. I thought maybe I had the wires switched so I switched them around. Put the yellow to the negative and the blue to the positive. Then the rear led stayed on full time whether it was in forward or reverse. The front light switches off as its supposed to when in reverse. Even as the rear stayed on. Any suggestions?

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

That would be a programming thing. I just had to do that on my Berkshire. Headlight stays on, while rear light is on when in reverse.

Does it turn off and on when you hit either F0 or headlight?

On the Tsunami, CV34 is for the rear or tender light. Setting the CV34=3 will keep the headlight on and turn on the rear light when the locomotive is in reverse.

CV33 is for the headlight. CV33=1 has the headlight on when the loco is moving forward and the rear light turned off.

Hope this helps.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Ill look into it. So I should wire it up so it stays on and change the setting? The sw1000 switcher I did with a tsunami board didnt require any programming. I installed the leds and they switched back and forth without having to change anything. Thanks for the info.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

Yes, do that, but test it with the shell off and by using the wires coming from the decoder. The Tsunami, by default, has the front headlight on moving forward and the rear on when moving backwards. 

That is the default directional lighting set up where headlight is off when backing, and rear light off when moving forward.

At least we know the board did not fry!


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Hmmm. I did what you said and the light remains on full time. I know its reading what Im entering because I just went through the 7 whistle options which was pretty cool. 

I might switch the wires again which turns it off and see if reverse turns it on. Nope. That didnt work.

I set cv33 to 01 like you said and the headlight went off and doesnt come back on. The rear light remains on regardless of direction. I cant get the headlight back. When I got to #4 on cv33 it turned the whistle on non-stop! 

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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Got it back. Got it reset. The rear led will not function properly no matter what I try but at least everything else is back.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

White and blue for the headlight and yellow and blue for the rear light. There are two white wires on your decoder like mine. The white wire you want connected to the LED is in the larger bundle of wires. The other white wire is for the cam disk used for chuff rate.

The CV info I got was from the Tsunami Heavy Steam Owners Manual.

I'll fire up my Berk and get the CV codes to you. It won't be until Sunday though.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

rrgrassi said:


> White and blue for the headlight and yellow and blue for the rear light. There are two white wires on your decoder like mine. The white wire you want connected to the LED is in the larger bundle of wires. The other white wire is for the cam disk used for chuff rate.
> 
> The CV info I got was from the Tsunami Heavy Steam Owners Manual.
> 
> I'll fire up my Berk and get the CV codes to you. It won't be until Sunday though.



The wiring is correct. I know what youre talking about and didnt make that mistake. I saw it in the tsunami diagram.

I saw the tsunami manual online. I entered in the cv codes that was supposed to make the rear light work right, even after a reset. It lurched a bit as it accepted the code but no change. 

Ill have to call soundtraxx. I dont want to use a different wire for it.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

What DCC controller are you using? I use the Digitrax DCS100 for programming and running at home. Can you read the values? I have had the Soundtraxx act like it accepted the new CV value, but then revert to the old one. That does not happen to me if I use the PG mode on the Digitrax. 

I use the NCE Power Cab for running at a local, monthly flea market. I do not program with it though.

I figure $150 for the NCE vs $400 for the Digitrax, if I lose the NCE, not as big of a loss.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Im using an NCE.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

I have never programmed using the NCE. I should probably learn how for out in the field so to speak.

Ok, CV values: CV33=65 CV34=67 This is what my Berk with the Heavy Steam Tsunami is set at. When going forward, headlight is on, rear light is off. When backing up, headlight is on, rear light is on.

I hope this helps you out!


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

Thanks but those values didnt work on mine. I dont know how it wouldnt be exactly the same. I entered them in and nothing changed. 
The headlight turns off in reverse and tender light is steady on no matter what.

Even when I did the reset, both lights are supposed to flash 16 times after a 6 second delay to show that the reset was successful. The headlight flashed the sequence but the tender light never flashed.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

I wonder if the decoder got damaged? The reset should have worked. How did you reset? I use CV8=8

I have not worked with getting a Soundtraxx Decoder repaired or replaced. Time to contact Soundtraxx, I think.


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## SRV1 (Nov 14, 2010)

I finally got around to calling tsunami Friday. They said the board could have gotten damaged from not initially having the resistor inline on the rear light. No big deal though. They said I just had to remove the yellow wire off the LED and use a previously unused function wire. Which there were several available. 

I chose to use the brown wire. The lady gave me the new CV settings over the phone to re-map to that wire. Brown to positive, blue wire extension to negative. 
CV34=16
CV39=0
Tested it and it worked! Brown wire is my new yellow wire. These sound decoders are a really cool product. Soundtraxx has great customer service as well. 

Moral of the story: If youre installing one of these boards yourself and know just enough about wiring to be dangerous, be sure to put a resistor (or two depending on brightness) inline on the positive LED leads before wiring them. Then you can avoid frying the factory LED and not have to do all this.

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## rrgrassi (May 3, 2012)

YAY!!! Glad you got it working! I fried enough LED's using DC that I always have a resistor connected.


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