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Rail pro and an electronics novice

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IDRick:
Hi Ian,

What did you use to mill out the rear of the GP30?  My GP30 still has the original 1.5-volt headlights and will need to be switched out with an LED + resistor or at least adding a resistor.  Was your GP30 a Life Like P2K or a Walthers P2K?  Mine is a Life Like.  I understand why you put in a Stay alive but why the bridge rectifier?

Thanks for your assistance my friend!

Rick

IDRick:
It is interesting that there are simple drop-in decoders for my locos on conventional non-sound DCC.   TCS LL8 drops in the two gp-30's and F-3A at $49 each.  The TCS t1P-sH drops in the Atlas for $40.  The TCS MC-2 drops in the two Athearns for $37 each.  Seems like I am overthinking this and should simply strive for non-sound control on either conventional DCC or Rail Pro.  Saves a lot of head and heartache.  Sound, IMO, is not a game that a novice like me should play in.  Too many variables that I don't know or understand.  I've never had sound before and won't really miss it. Poor quality sound is really annoying so I either pay the piper and have it done professionally with top line electronics and go the KISS route.  There's no piper to pay with Rail Pro as there are no custom installers.  Whew, lots of helpful reading tonight that helped clarify my thoughts and goals.  Non-sound it is!  Now to see what needs to be done for Rail Pro installation of my locos.  Installing some resistors is the starting point for my Proto locomotives.  A hobby is supposed to be relaxing and I need to focus on the aspects that I enjoy and KISS with the rest.

CPRail:
I use a Dremel #196 High Speed Cutter (looks like a little barrel with cutting flutes) on a flexible shaft on my Dremel-tool clone. I have one for metal and one for plastic. Works like a charm to do milling like that. If I need to cut something off, I use the Heavy Duty fibreglass reinforced cutting discs.

Either way, I highly recommend that, at the bare minimum, you tape off the motor openings and the gear boxes to keep the metal shavings out. Best option is to remove the weights from the loco and then mill, but the tape will protect you about 98%. You DO NOT want to get metal shavings into your motor or drive train.

Also, wear eye protection!

My unit is a Life-Like P2K GP30.

If you have a LM-2S, you need a Bridge Rectifier to install a Keep-Alive. You don't need a BR if you are using a LM-3S. I suspect I was transitioning from LM-2S mentality to LM-3S mentality and just installed the BR on auto-pilot.

IDRick:
Thanks for info Ian, always helpful my friend!

Yesterday, I did the novice thing over lunch. I thought, hmmm, wonder what the custom installers charge for milling frames and installing decoders?  The two places I called will not touch a loco unless they do the whole installation.  Understandable, don't want to be blamed for a poor installation by a user where they only contributed part of installation.  Also, nobody will look do a rail pro install as they do not have a system to test the install nor are they distributors so they will pay full price for LM-3s.  I assumed the charges would be high, probably too high.  We novices are on our own and must strive find fellow railroaders who will provide assistance.

Ian suggested looking the sugar cubes.  I found a good ESU cube that looked promising and watched a couple youtube videos with locos + this speaker installed, sounds great! 

I read a couple posts where operators had installed cubes in the roof of the cab and claimed awesome sound (but no video).  Seems like the wires from speaker to the speaker would need to be very long to allow removing the shell for maintenance.  Newbie question, are the wires long enough or does the installer need to splice in additional length?

One of the above installers said they chose not to sell ESU sound decoders because the operator must use the LOKProgrammer for programming.  Is that true?  Yikes, i looked up the price, $143!

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