# Soundtraxx Speaker Problem



## sdlink (Dec 4, 2010)

Hey everyone, I am hoping you can help me with a problem I am having. This week I installed my first ever Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder into a locomotive and at first things went well, now I am having an issue. Here is my setup:

Atlas GP40 Locomotive

Soundtraxx Tsunami TSU-AT1000 EMD 645 Decoder

QSI Speaker

I hardwired everything and everything worked beautifully, I had lighting control, speed & direction control, and all the sounds and it sounded great! The only problem was i accidentally put the decoder in the wrong way so the directions were backwards.

I took the decoder out and flipped it around reinstalled everything put it on the track and at first the speaker started working like normal making the engine startup sound and then it kind of shorted out and stopped working. Lighting still works, moves forward fine, but when I put it in reverse I get a lot of humming and distortion thru the speaker. It still moves in reverse fine but weird distortion thru the speaker, and the sound functions no longer work. I tried reversing the polarity of the speaker wires and this did nothing.

I took the speaker our altogether and the lighting and forward/reverse worked great. Tried putting the speaker back in and forward works fine, but when I put it in reverse it starts buzzing again thru the speaker.

Anyone have any idea what is going on? And why does this happen only in reverse? The only thing I can think of is when I was soldering the wires back onto the speaker my soldering iron accidentally touched the back of the speaker and may have melted it a little. It seems like the speaker has shorted out but why does it only buzz when I put it in reverse?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Can you give me a picture of the install? 
You said you installed it backwards? Does it now have the forward arroww facing forward?
Did you make sure that Motor wires, Power wires, and Speaker wires are not shorting out to each other or any other pads on the decoder or any connection touching the frame?


----------



## sdlink (Dec 4, 2010)

NIMT said:


> Can you give me a picture of the install?
> You said you installed it backwards? Does it now have the forward arroww facing forward?
> Did you make sure that Motor wires, Power wires, and Speaker wires are not shorting out to each other or any other pads on the decoder or any connection touching the frame?


Thanks for the quick response!

I took some pictures of the install. I am not sure if they will show anything or not but here they are:

















In the above picture I have a green circle around the red motor wire/tab. The only thing I noticed was on the other side, the negative wire tab seems like it could have been touching the decoder. Is it possible that this shorted something out?










Some fixes I tried:
I bought a cheap small speaker from radio shack to test to see if it was just the speaker that was damaged. I wired this speaker and the result was there was no buzzing coming from the speaker in reverse like before, but the sound functions still did not work. Directional movement and lights still work but just no sound. 

I also put black electrical tape over most of the bottom of the decoder and also covering the motor tabs/wires.

I am really confused on this. It was working perfectly when I had the decoder in backwards (so basically the FWD arrow on the decoder was pointing to the rear of the loco).


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

Sadly yes shorting out the motor wires to the decoder will fry them and they can go bad in many different ways.
I would also worry that you have fried the speaker too.
Your using a small round with no baffle, you won't get very good sound out of it like that. You need an oval speaker and a baffle like this one.
You can send the decoder to Soundtraxx and they will fix it for you.
If you want the speaker and enclosure/baffle just send me a PM or go to the bottom of this post and go to my web site to reach me.
Top of the picture shows them assembled, and yes speaker facing inside of the enclosure works great for sound!


----------



## Brakeman Jake (Mar 8, 2009)

May be a useless pointer,but since you don't have any sound now,you should check if you haven't accidentally turned the sound "off" with F8 before removing the decoder.
I have built an enclosure similar to the one Sean shows for my SD80 and it sounds very nice BTW.


----------



## sdlink (Dec 4, 2010)

I guess I will contact Soundtraxx and see what they say. Hopefully I can get it repaired for less then the cost of a new one. Live and learn right!? It is frustrating to me that I did this but oh well, I can't take it back now.

The speaker I have actually does have a baffle, I just don't have it installed at this point b/c I tried re-wiring the speaker just in case.

Also, I did try F8 to make sure it wasn't muted and that didn't make any difference.

Thanks for the help guys!


----------



## NIMT (Jan 6, 2011)

How long have you had the decoder?
Soundtraxx has a 90 day warranty of no cost to you.


----------



## sdlink (Dec 4, 2010)

NIMT said:


> How long have you had the decoder?
> Soundtraxx has a 90 day warranty of no cost to you.


That's good to know. I just got it last week! Thanks so much for your help! I really appreciate it!


----------

