Co
Tsunami technology
This new decoder is based on 10-year-old Tsunami technology.
It works and plays well with a loco that has a Tsunami decoder
installed. That’s fine for backwards compatibility. I must
assume that there is a new generation of sound decoders com-
ing some time from SoundTraxx. It would be very short-sighted
of them to not design this new product to work with a new
loco decoder line.
Installation
For a look at one installation, see Mr. DCC’s Workbench after
this article.
You will need track power connections inside your cars to con-
nect the SoundCar. In my September 2013 column on passen-
ger car lighting
I discussed some methods of
adding power pickup to a car. I’m sure you will think of more
ways, too.
Once you have the power pickup inside the car, you will need
a speaker. My recommendation is to mount it with the sound
coming out the floor, and use the car body as an enclosure. The
decoder gets mounted on the roof.
Wiring is straightforward and the decoder uses NMRA standard
colors. Be aware: the wires on my unit had very tough insula-
tion, Teflon, I believe. Better have a really good pair of small
gauge wire strippers on hand. Teflon is very chafe resistant,
witness the difficulty stripping.
The SoundTraxx installation diagram is shown [3]. I must
admit I’m baffled why someone would want four lights
inside a box car. If this were an installation in a cab con-
trol car, I can see a headlight and (red) rear light, and even
ditch lights.
MRH-Sep 2014
