RailPro > Finished RailPro Installation Examples

Athearn Genesis GP9u install

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Jim_N:
Tim,

Thx for the clarification re wiring.  I'm waiting for some 8-pin NMRA/9-pin JST harnesses for most of my loco's but I have a Kato RS-2 that won't fit the Ring module and a speaker so I'm going to discard the Kato dcc ready board and go the hard wire route.

Jim

KPack:
Al and Mel - The Railpro module really isn't much thicker than most DCC decoders, but in a tight installation every little bit helps.  I know Alan has removed the outer plastic casing on some of his installs and soldered the colored wires directly to the board.  Not for the faint of heart, but it worked out well for him.  My favorite place to mount the LM-2S module is right on top of the motor.  Removing all the factory electronics and any mounting hardware for them leaves you with a lot of space.  Plus with teh motor housing being curved you can run wires under either side of the module and keep the install nice and clean.

Jim - The LM-2S is a 6-function module.  In order to have all 6 functions Ring had to put two of them on the 6-pin plug.  There are four output wires on the 9-pin plus the two on the 6-pin.  For this install I only needed four outputs.  The ditchlights on the prototype don't flash, so I didn't need separate outputs going to each light.  I wired the ditchlights on either end in series so only one output fed each pair of ditchlights.  The extra function wires (and the 2 input wires for the that matter) were not needed so removed them from the 6-pin plug to save space.  It's important to note that it doesn't matter which color ouput wire you put to which light.  You can set the specific wire output and what it does via programming with the controller.

Tim - I really do like the sugar cube speakers.  And that fact that I can get TWO speakers in a locomotive like this is always a bonus.  In my opinion two (or four) sources of sound is always better than one.  With one speaker it's too easy to tell where the sound is coming from.  I have a few older locomotives with the speaker in the back of the hood and it just seems "wrong" as they roll by....you can tell that the sound is coming from the wrong place.  With one speaker in the front and one in the back, the sound is focused between the two, which puts it right at the exhaust stacks and horn.  Right where it should be.  The only issue is having to build the enclosures.  It doesn't take too long, but it's an extra step that I don't particularly enjoy.

-Kevin

G8B4Life:
Jim, your welcome.

Kevin, I know what you mean by the sound from one end. I have a loco that I installed like that. The speaker was a iPhone type so I turned
the speaker around to get the port closer to the middle which was better but still not great. The next one of them I do I might try putting the LM-2S at the end and the speaker in the middle and see how that sounds. I'll have to find your link to the sugar cubes again and have a look, the one's I have (from eBay) are all about 32 ohm which means I'd need to put 4 in series, not an easy feat in hood units.

Taking the casing off and directly soldering to the board, now that's game! I wonder if the temp sensing works properly without the casing?

As for miniaturisation, I'd like to see the modules come in different types. I know 21MTC is not big in the US but it is elsewhere, and PLuX is getting more support these days. Even a "drop in replacement" style as DCC manufacturers do would be really handy. I think it might have been Atlas that made a lighting board design that nearly everyone copied, and decoder manufacturers made decoders the same size and shape as the board. It is possible that we'll get these one day but I think Ring needs to be a lot bigger before it happens.

- Tim

PatP:
Kevin, do you have another link to your posted photos? Sorry, just joined and going through what would be old topics to y'all. Thanks.

G8B4Life:
uh oh, the Photobucket ransom has hit RPUG! Strangely I was just reading about this on MRH less than an hour ago.

Pat (welcome!) until Kevin either forks over a huge wad of cash to Photobucket (not likely) to allow his photo's to be viewed by anyone or finds another free hosting provider and update his posts I'm afraid we'll have to look at the horrible ransom notices from Photobucket for the time being.

- Tim

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