Oxford Rail GWR Dean Goods 2301 - DCC sound need to know

[John YouChoos]

Having just completed an install of a Zimo MX649R into the Oxford Rail GWR Dean Goods, I thought it useful to share a problem (and solution) as others will no doubt encounter the same thing...

 

The model is great in fact, much better than I expected, so well done Oxford Rail on this one!

 

 

The tender houses an 8pin DCC socket, and a purpose-built plastic mount for a 15x11mm 'cube' style speaker.  However, you don't need an enclosure on the speaker - the mount provides one, and it actually works too!  YouChoos have a 15x11 speaker with a sticky gasket which makes it a doddle - no glue at all - just stick it into the clip and solder the decoder's speaker wires to the contacts.  The same speaker that works a treat on the latest N gauge Farish Castle.

 

 

There isn't enough room for a full sized MX645R sound decoder, but the MX648R or MX649R will plug straight in.

 

 

All very good, except that the motor won't run properly with the 648 or 649 because of the suppressor components.  Interestingly the 645 and also the standard (cheap) MX600R work out-of-the-box (I tried them all as a test).

 

The solution is to de-solder the tiny surface-mount capacitor (the little yellow/orange component) from the centre-back of the 8pin DCC socket board, and then everything works perfectly.

 

 

So, just with that minor modification, this is one easy install!  Well done Oxford - great design!

 

However... I reckon with a bit of effort and some hacking of the tender interior, I can fit the larger MX645 (hard-wired), small Dumbo speaker and some sort of capacitor... but that's for another day!

 

You can find more details of the install here:

http://youchoos.co.uk/Index-Resource.php?L1=Guides&Item=OO-OxfordDeanGoods

 

Hope that's useful!

Cheers, John

 

 

[jwd]

Perfect thanks John, you answered everything I was going to ask in the general thread. 

[John YouChoos]

As threatened... here is an update, same loco, with more aggressive kit... MX645 hard-wired, Zimo Dumbo LS26X20X08 1W speaker and a SuperCap for stay-alive.

 

Basically:

- gut the tender

- grind the socket screw mounts down

- cut all the hidden green plastic under the coal load

- hard-wire the kit

 

Full install guide can be found here (example 2): http://youchoos.co.uk/Index-Resource.php?L1=Guides&Item=OO-OxfordDeanGoods

 

Some of the key photos:

 

Enjoy!

John

[mikesndbs]

Quick question please guys.

 

My friends one is crossed wired so that it goes in the wrong direction on DC.

Looking at the connections on the dcc socket, which wires can he swap over to correct this please, i.e. which are the feeds to the loco motor?

Thanks

[mikesndbs]

8 hours ago, Richard Croft said:

The simple solution would be to turn the 8 pin plug round, if there’s no lights it won’t make any difference. You might find it’s already the wrong way round (which if it’s correctly wired would cause it to run backwards)

 

Another way is to read cv29 and add 1 to it

 

Richard

 

Hi Richard, this is just DC with the blanking plug.