Adding Sound to Bachmann's "Connie" Large Scale 2-8-0 - Setting up the Digitrax Duplex System
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- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- We are setting up the Digitrax Duplex EVOXD Evolution Express Advanced Duplex Starter Set on our indoor-outdoor large scale railroad and beginning the conversion of our three Bachmann 2-8-0 "Connie" locomotives to sound and DCC.
So far on the "Connie" project, we have rebuilt the gearboxes on our three locomotives. Two of the locomotives came to us from Great Britain with Phoenix sound systems in the tenders and DCC controllers in the smokebox of the locomotive. While Don has decided to redo his to run the Soundtraxx Tsunami2 TSU-4400 sound and DCC system. We will also be installing this controller in the third locomotive, but we have decided to keep the old style Phoenix "Big Sound" system in the second locomotive as it seems to work well. And if it ain't broke....
This week we unbox the Digitrax Duplex EVOXD Evolution Express Advanced Duplex Starter Set and see if we can get it to talk to Connie 2 and 3. 2 has the Phoenix system and 3 has the Tsunami2 TSU-4400 installed in the tender. The locomotive is still spread all over the bench!
www.digitrax.c...
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DCC was the main reason I got back into the hobby. It does all the things a dreamed of doing 50 years ago. It takes some getting used to, but then you'll never go back!! Enjoy!! ...Claude
It’s absolutely massive fun! Really really intimidating at first, but really fun to play with
It's amazing what you can do with just your thumbs. But it is your care and attention to consistent basic assembly. Good job!
Thanks again
Dale: I like how you heap the bull by the horns. There are lots of us guys (and I guess gals too) that are not to swift with electronics. You did this in a good way and show you can do it. Sound systems and DCC. Great video.
Boy can we heap the bull. Horns be damned. Cause that’s not the end where the BS comes from!
@@ToyManTelevision I hate auto correct: heap was supposed to be “grab” like grabbing the bill by the horns.
@@kenshores9900 I like heap!! It really fits!!
@@ToyManTelevision Anyway when You Tube videos start talking electronics with model trains my eyes tend to glaze over and I go into a stupid trance. Take care
THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH YOUR SUBSCRIBERS VERY COOL INDEED THANK YOU BOTH FOR YOUR EFFORT AND YOUR VIDEOS VERY COOL INDEED I WATCH THEM ITS MY GUILTY PLEASURE I APPRECIATE YOUR TIME AND EFFORT YOU BOTH ARE AWSOME GOOD CRAFTSMAN I ENJOY YOUR SCREWING AROUND TIMES YOU SHARE WITH YOUR SUBSCRIBERS. 😁👌👍👍👍👍👍😇🙏🙏🙏
Thanks Jim!
Thanks for the help Sir! Crazy i just got the same system and was ready to pull my hair out and then you jumped on the TV and got me through it!! My layout is HO and no where near as awesome as yours but i keep watching you and learning and its getting there! Thanks Again! Perfect timing. Great Video!......
It’s fun once you get past the Initial confusion. Once you have it up and running and you’re messing around with it, it’s just an enormous amount of fun and it’s easy to learn by just messing around with it
Wow looks great and sounds great .. Have a great week.thank you for showing how it's done.
Well I tore down Connie 1 today. Geeeezzz
All that I can contribute is I'm happy to watch. Yours is the first channel that I subscribed to.
Hi!! Worked on the locomotive for a while today. I should say the number one locomotive and the number three locomotive! Trying to figure out how to repair of the broken wheel truck on number three, but completely tore number one apart. This is turned into quite the project
@@ToyManTelevision oh man doesn't it always! Good luck my friend .
OMG . Now there is a line I will never forget “ there is nothing more stupid than a smart device “ . How true.
Sound like a senior moment forgetting about the remote control receiver still in the box
Yup. Gee where are my glasses? No not on my head! Oh I don’t wear glasses! Or do I?
When you turn DCC power on to the tracks, ANY lights will come on (except the lights on DCC equipped locos, those you turn on and off with the controller). Any time the DCC system is on there is power to the tracks; the decoder in the locomotive just channels that power to the motor in the quantity and polarity required to move it in the direction and at the speed that the controller tells it to.
The good thing about DCC is you are driving the engine, not controlling the entire layout. You can run as many trains as you want without having to have blocks for each loco, and the controller (throttle) is connected to the locomotive, not to the section of track that the locomotive is sitting on. There are drawbacks, but it isn't so very hard to learn how to use it.
Once you get used to DCC you will wonder why you stayed with DC so long.
I knew that but I guess didn't realize that that would send power to all the lights!! Just now really wrapping my head around the power of these systems!!!!!
Very nice you two thanks for showing 👍
Thanks!
Yeah!!!! Can't wait to see your next video. You both do the hard work, so that we can learn from you. Great video, great adventure too! See all of you next week.
Hi again! It was a very confusing week, and I knew it would be, I’ve been staring at that box literally for months being so intimidated about diving in and trying it. At this point it’s now fun!
Hello from Detroit Michigan 👋
Hi again
Looks like you're having fun with the digitrax DCC system. If you're going to just run straight DC locomotive on the system you just put in 0000. I've been messing with dcc train for a number of years now and I'm getting used to running equipment like this. Awesome videos man keep up the good work
I’ve been running at least one locomotive that’s just DC, that’s because all of my locomotives are currently DC except one! Hopefully over the next few months that will change, but I’m willing to bet that at least half of my locomotives will never have DCC and it’s really nice to be able to stick them on the track and run them
Glad to see that someone as seasoned in the hobby realm is as nervous about DCC as I am. Thanks for sharing and inspiring to dig deeper into the hobby.
I left the system in the box on a shelf for about 5 months.... Because I had no idea how to use it, or worst, if it was the system I really wanted to use. Glad I did as I changed to the wireless duplex system. At $600 its like OUCH. BUT as I had already bagged the wired system, and never opened it, and Jeff at the Train Shoppe is soooooo good to work with, he let me trade my wired system for the wireless duplex system. And still it sat on the shelf. So I begged Don, HELP!! As he has Digitrax and knew at least the basics.
@@ToyManTelevision my 3D printer is neeting the same fate right now. Technology scares me a bit. Have fun running those trains. Can't wait to see more!
Happy Tuesday!
Yeah this is stuff which I see talked about a lot in facebook groups and stuff, but I am yet to venture into. I have no experience of DCC at all yet, but as I envisage a big elaborate layout that is completely automated (so I can dine out with friends amongst miniature San Juan mountains and the occasional train going by) I'm going to have to learn all about DCC.
Great to see your trials in your new digital era 😂
/Simon
Hi Simon. I’ve been so intimidated by this for so long. Enjoyed playing with it on other peoples layouts but just couldn’t get past the idea of how complicated it seems. Well now that I’ve dove in headfirst, it’s really fun!
Nice engine♐👌
Man I think I should get started on DDC
Do!!! I’ve been intimidated forever, but now I’m having a ball with it.
Cool!
Once I went to dcc and dcs I'm spoiled. The engines run so much better. And the sound is out of sight. Not to mention the smoke which I love but my wife can't stand. I'm sure you'll love dcc.
I sometimes think that all electronic control, and especially the sound systems, rob the hobby of that essential ingredient "IMAGINATION"!
I love it. I love adding and adding and adding details. Sounds. Smells. Rust. Dirt. And so on!
Kool 🚂😎👍
Thanks
boring? no. Confusing? Oh yes, All of this dcc stuff is way over my head. I was left behind about two seconds after you started explaining all of this stuff.
Still, great video as usual. Oh, maybe you could choose one of those 2-8-0's and actually apply the name Connie to the cab side, just for fun. ;-)
Thinking about relettering the Rio Grande one. As Its decals. Was undecorated originally. so.....
🤣 Always entertaining!
Thanks
I am so glad I run live steam.
I did once. Long time ago. Anyway I love the electronics.
Once again I'm following this story very closely! I have a factory "Connie" with no sound system and I've been wrestling with what to install in it. Since I'm new to the hobby with no investment in legacy systems my gut tells me to avoid DCC completely. I'm leaning heavily towards the RailPro system with battery power.
I’d say it sort of depends on what you want to do in terms of how much equipment you want to run. If I only have one or two locomotives I really think of radio control. The problem with radio control is it’s sort of expensive. Well all of this stuff is really expensive! But where I love to have different locomotives and lots of them, it’s easier for me to just set them up for DCC. But one of my favorite vehicles back in the day was a rail bus that was all radio control. I could switch on the lights and run that thing at night just let it go out on my 600 feet of track and I see it disappearing off into the trees in the darkness knowing full well that in a little while it would be heading right back. That was just glorious. Unless it ran into a tree branch or a snail or something it would be fine. But on my current rail road where it’s very small, all build on benchwork, and lots of locomotives, like 30 of them! Well DCC just works better for this set up so I would say it just depends.
😎😎😎
Thanks
you will absolutely get spoiled by the wireless controler
It was really scary when I added TMCC to my layout, but I learned it pretty quick.
It’s a couple of hours of head scratching agony followed by ours an hours of joy and fun!
Dcc is very easy. I have the digitrax system. It’s amazing. I did read through the manual because I needed to learn how to Mu locomotives as well.
Now I understand why people find DCC complex: if you don't have any clue how it works, and don't read the manual, it will indeed be quite hard to use ;-)
If you connect a computer via USB to the station, and install JMRI on it, and install the Engine driver or Web Throttle on you phone, you will have another wireless controller (if you have wifi in the room).
That was my plan last year. I even saved an old phone just to use for that. But then this duplex system caught my eye and I’m really glad I’m using it
@@ToyManTelevision Well, these new wireless controller, like the one from TCS, seem quite easy to use. I only have a Zephyr, so going wireless via the phone was good (and I use a cheap bluetooth gamepad to have real buttons).
You can still add one phone, for having someone else controlling another loco.
Nice , have you guys ever road the Grand Canyon RR? If so how do I find the clip- 74 non tech guy. Did the GCRR 2 weeks a go. Had s blast!
But they have large a g scale over head RR in the harvy house dining room and has not worked in sometime . Do you have someone to fix it ? Elec/ battery? Was on a schedule - no time to look. Love your videos
Check our videos. We made one there a few years ago. ua-cam.com/video/ZNyvlcglAZQ/v-deo.html
The locomotive that was buzzing, did it have DDC in it?
If not, you need to get it off the track quickly!! Or supposedly the system you have will run a DC locomotive as #2!
And if that locomotive is not running, get it off the track!! Or else it will burn up the motor
Hi yup it’s DC. But this works fine! There are rumors about problems but with the newer systems it’s fine. You can set the controller to address 0 and run a DC locomotive as though it has a DCC board in it. Word great!!
Hi, now you have done your connies, are you after an accucraft rc k37 loco? Just managed to get an Ams short wheel base caboose and the seller mentioned he had a Connie for sale as well as the radio controlled K37. Thought I would let you know in case you are interested in the K37 as I know you have too many of the others???? Probably quite a lot plus postage from UK, but if interested I will get the seller to contact you. Keep up the good work, love your videos.
Well…. Yes… but it’s the Berlin K36. 489.
@@ToyManTelevision this one is 489 in case you are interested. The photos I was sent of it look stunning. He also has an accucraft k23 no60 which is a limited edition in case you just have to have one of those!
I’m thinking about dcc for a few of my big haulers, I have all the generations, I assume the Annie’s and gen5 are the ones to use? Is it even do able?
I just ordered a working sawmill from eBay, circus collection is coming along nicely, but my layout gonna have a logging operation and a passenger service as well... time to start collecting for those now too
be buying my own home soon, so I can finally have permanent things like a train layout :) think I’ll get a big shed specifically for my big hauler layout.
I think any of these locomotives can be hard to work with TCC, the more modern ones however have the plug-in board. Depending on which Soundsystem you’re using you can either wire it to the plug-in board or I believe some of the sound systems come pre-mounted on a Bachmann compatible board. Not sure about that. But a whole bunch of my locomotives came with the board can be wired to the DCC board and then simply plugged into the locomotive
@@ToyManTelevision I’ve never had or messed with dcc yet, it’d be fun for sure
I have been wondering if you could use the cylinders of the engine to puff smoke/ steam in the smoke stack.
There’s a system out there that uses a little fan system that ties to the sound system. It’s insanely realistic
It’s made by the German company that makes LocSound.
you will find it easier if you set the address for each loco to it's road number. less numbers to remember that way
Cant with the one Connie. As its a stone age system, it only does 2 numbers. and its set to 19. AND it programs from a serial port. Or a cereal port is equally useless. Serial port. I remember those... My printer had one. in like 1990. Unless someone make a serial to USB3 converter. NA. Use as is.
@@ToyManTelevision I'm not too good with electronics either, but I'm working on converting 3 Bachmann Climaxes to Railpro/battery power, with batteries in the boiler. What a royal pain in the rear!!! I have steamers with Airwire, Revolution Train Engineer, and Railpro. By the time I get these Climaxes done, I'll know which system I like the best. I used to have a NCE dcc system, but sold it when I started to convert to battery/RC.
Digitrax is the best but it requires lots of parts. I just decided to run DC. Tomix makes a self-running programmable block system that is all DC. Trains will accelerate, decelerate and stop based on block condition ahead. All actions are tunable and very smooth. No sound though. Discovery on your end. I'm glad its running.
Thanks
That's a pain to hear that DC motor getting overloaded on dcc
On that DC loco
It’s fine! We have been told by several electrical engineers that it’s harmless. It hums. But no harm. Not something we are planning to do all the time, but it works well.
What is the background music you use? Thanks!
It’s from Smartsound. Been buying it for decades. Love it
@@ToyManTelevision Ok, great! Also, does Bachmann still make that locomotive?
@@theGardenrailroadRoundhouse no. Sadly they have lost all interest in their great products. No spectrum as far as I know. Not large scale. Not On30. Just Big Hauler. Sad.
But they are are around all over the place. Check EBay
Smells?
Yup! Burning wood. Coal if we could find it. But we have wood incense. For the logging railroad
As stupid as most thought he was years ago.He has proved we all underestimated.
And I'm having trouble with a GFI plug in my kitchen🙄.
LOL