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Wiring Diagram for LM-3S-G with Phoenix Sound board

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JRad:
I have had requests for help connecting Phoenix Sound boards to RailPro LM-3S-G to utilize their superior steam sounds. This diagram is specific to a Phoenix P8, but connections to other model Phoenix boards would be similar.

When configuring the Hand Controller buttons for Phoenix Sounds, set the button as a Light and select the wire color that corresponds to the trigger input for that sound on the Phoenix board.

I have not tested this yet, but I am pretty confident that it will work.

NOTE:  Crossing wires without a dot ARE NOT connected.  Speaker connection on LM-3S-G is not required. If desired, a second speaker may be connected for additional sounds.

mickey:
I’m in the middle of doing this exact thing.  Just for clarification, when connecting the wire to the sound function on the Phoenix, no resistors are required, correct?  That’s just a led light issue when going from the engine board (Bachmann in my case) to the ring board.  Also, my understanding is you still need to get the motor connections so the P8 knows the speed.  But I may be wrong.

JRad:
Hi Mickey.

Direct connection to the sound triggers is correct. No resistors or anything else needed.  The LM light output is supplying a ground (or current sink) to the Phoenix to trigger the sound. Current flow is tiny.

If you are running diesel, then a motor to phoenix connection is used as shown in my diagram. The Speed Trigger shown is not used. For steam, you don't need that and trigger the chuff with the loco's chuff trigger or a reed switch connected to Speed Trigger..

mickey:
I am clearly missing something here.  I have the RP set up on battery and get the Climax to go forward and reverse.  I am getting sound out of the P8 but it is random sounds like it’s idling, then after couple minutes the horn just starts blowing and won’t stop til I kill the power.   I have the Phoenix set up like you show.  I have gone into the loco setup and have the horn button (lower left) set to the whistle picture, type is light, action is momentary, Name is On/Off and output wire is black (output 6) which is hooked up to the P8 white wire and saved it. I go back in and verify those setting. But when I press the whistle button, I get no sound. What am I missing?

JRad:
I'm out of town for the next few days, so I don't have access to my hardware to test. If you still haven't figured it out by Wednesday next week, I'll hook it up on the bench and confirm my drawing is correct.

In the mean time, does the P8 blow the whistle and make other sounds (like chuff) if you jump from trigger ground to the sound trigger for a test?  It should. If not, the P8 might have a bad sound file load. Do you have the programming cable for the P8?

The "horn" blowing indicates that this P8 may not be properly programmed. For a Climax sound load it should be a whistle, or did you just mistype that?  Sounding all by itself and not stopping is pretty odd. Will it do that if you disconnect the trigger wires?

One thing that could be going on, if this is a used P8, is that the wire color assignments have been changed from the default. That is done in the Phoenix software with a programming cable. Without the cable/software, the only way to tell if it has, is to use jumpers to fire each trigger wire and see what the p8 does.

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