Adding Sound To A Stainz

[DaveB2]

Hi all

Hopefully a very simple question with an even easier answer...

OK, so, last year my wife bought me a Stainz with sound. I have two others both without but the new guy put the thought into my head as he circled the garden chuffing and the other one passed by whirring, "should I......?"

Well last week I was surfing eBay and I came across a listing for a standard LGB Stainz sound unit, no frills, no digital, just a simple, cheap, chuff sound. A few words with the seller, Jeremy at Dragon, and he'd found another, woo voices for both of my mute Stainz. Within 24 hours both were with me, nice one Jeremy.

"Just connect the two wires to track power and you're done" - they said , I'd already searched and found this thread,
https://www.gscalecentral.net/threads/fitting-sound-to-a-soundless-stainz.46622/#post-47311

so had a fair idea of what needed to be done.
But the two sound boards while similar are not the same, neither are the same as the one in that previous thread.



One has a single cable, like the one in that thread, but with a mini connector. This looks the older of the two to me, less surface mount, bigger PCA. When I put that on my bench PSU it chuffs just fine.

The other (newer?) has two cables, one mini and another 0.1" like that card in the thread. Which one is power and what do I do with the other?

I tried power onto the mini first - nothing.
I tried the 0.1 - nothing.
I've got my PSU set to a cautious 50mA limit and it's pulling nothing.
Is one the switch to silence it and I need to bridge it?
Power buffer?

Help!

Thanks

Dave

 

[PhilP]

Dave, did you ever sort this?

PhilP.

 

[DaveB2]

Ish... not to my happy place though.

I decided "in for a penny..." and cut off the micro connector then wired both leads to the bench power supply - steam train sounds.
Not completely happy though as I can't see any good reason why a manufacturer would fit two leads when only one is needed.

So I reason it must want two supplies where only one comes straight from the track / motor.

The only thing that springs to mind is it has a 5v(?) supply to keep it running at low voltage and only uses the track voltage for chuff rate.
When life plays fair and I have the time I intend to put it on my dual rail supply set both to limit at (hopefully) safe currents and see what happens if I keep one at 5v and vary the other.

I'll post when I know something.


Dave

 

[PhilP]

Can you post a picture of the topside of the smaller board?

I will see if it matches any I have here..
PhilP.

 

[Gizzy]

It might be that the card which has 2 supplies has one for speed, controlled by voltage, and the other for a buffer/capacitor.

As Phil says, we could do with seeing the other side of the pcb please....

 

[DaveB2]

The light isn't good for getting a close up of it but until I can get a better chance hopefully these help











Thanks for taking a look guys

Dave

 

[Gizzy]

Can't see as the speaker is in the way.

Can you tell me what wording is near where the wires are soldered to the pcb please....

 

[DaveB2]

Can't see as the speaker is in the way.

Can you tell me what wording is near where the wires are soldered to the pcb please....

Fair point, application of a little BFI and off comes the speaker



There is however as far as I can see no wording near the wiring pads apart from a "1" which I presume id's pad 1 and "LS"

 

[Gizzy]

LS? Loud Speaker? Loco Sound?

Sorry Dave, as they say on TV, 'I'm out....'

 

[sparky230]

The four wire versions are 1 pair to track pick up, one pair to motor to pick up track speed, or for constant rate you join pairs together
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Dampfsoun...405234?hash=item35eb8196f2:g:mbUAAOSwrklVcULX

 

[DaveB2]

Nice one Sparky, useful picture, "Gleis" - track and i guess motor means, well, motor.
Still not quite clear in my head... so in a simple analogue loco what's between the track and the motor (which I need to emulate) that makes a difference to the two signals? If the motor connection gives some back emf pulses I see you could have motor rpm determining rate rather than just having volts means going so chuff even if the motors not rotating yet.

Great find and thanks again.

 

[Beddhist]

Modell-Land have some installation instructions: http://www.modell-land.de/dampfsound-stainz-zubehr-sound-27221-e199-p-10186.html#produktdetails

It seems you need some adapters.

 

[sparky230]

works fine on a four pin block without adaptors, power to track pick up the outer pins and other pair to the motor centre pair

 

[DaveB2]

Well you little beauty, I could've searched for a long time without finding that as the part numbers didn't tie up - nice one.
I think I'll remove the second cable and drop some short links onto the board rather than have two leads joined somewhere further down the line.
Nice one chaps.