Roy L S Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 Having followed John YouChoos suggestion above, I set to it and dismantled the chassis to get to the installed speaker which is tucked under the PCB. I was surprised when I removed it to find that there is no kind of resonance chamber attached, it just sits diaphragm side down in the chassis, "sealed" to that by some tacky "stuff" and sound emits (notionally anyway) through holes in the bottom of the chassis. Below is a picture of the speaker I removed in the foreground, together with the Sugarcube I replaced it with behind (complete with such a chamber as will be noted). The second picture shows the new speaker installed by soldering speaker wires to the contact tabs on the underside of the PCB, I routed the wires up through the aperture in the PCB where the rear of the motor is and thus to the speaker terminals. The speaker sits very nicely on the traction-weight as can be seen. However this is not how it ended up because Klutz as I am I failed to allow for one of the stiffeners in the roof of the Unit so the body wouldn't go on over the speaker! I therefore extended the wires and relocated the speaker immediately behind the cab-bulkhead and this time everything was fine 🙂 - forgive me not taking another picture but I am now too busy running it! Having tested the new setup, with the Zimo chip at default settings there is no "crackle" whatsoever and it runs and sounds very nice even without the body on, and once that is in place the sound is even better. As has been said by a few people it is the loco body that provides much of the amplification rather than anything else which is indeed fortunate. However by way of what I hope is received as constructive feedback, I would implore Revolution Trains to look again at the chassis design for the 120, because with seating units in place the benefit of the body as such a sound chamber will to a large extent be lost. It would seem perfectly feasible (for example) to install a better and beefier speaker with sound-enclosure above the chassis in the guard's compartment without any visual impact. I am going to leave it there, I am not encouraging anyone else to do as I have done, but for me it has provided what I consider to be a proper "fix" that doesn't need to compromise on the sound's volume and as the model is in every other respect exquisite I am now happy. Roy 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benn Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 43 minutes ago, Roy L S said: Having followed John YouChoos suggestion above, I set to it and dismantled the chassis to get to the installed speaker which is tucked under the PCB. I was surprised when I removed it to find that there is no kind of resonance chamber attached, it just sits diaphragm side down in the chassis, "sealed" to that by some tacky "stuff" and sound emits (notionally anyway) through holes in the bottom of the chassis. Ahh, nice one Roy. This explains it then, these speakers do not work without a sound chamber that is sealed, sound holes do the opposite of what is required. This isn't the first model that has featured a speaker to exhibit the same 'crackling' problem, and it was for the same reason. When I first saw the EP at TINGS a few years ago, I did mention to Ben and the chap who was with him, possibly Mike, that having 'sound holes' would not help with sugarcube speakers and they probably needed to go, I didn't realise that they were still there on the production models! My 128s haven't arrived yet so I have been following this with interest to see what the deal was here, at least it's a very easy fix. Now to find a sound file with the appropriate raspy exhausts in readiness... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John YouChoos Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 (edited) Pop a SugarCube8 speaker above the PCB part and it fits really nicely (not wired up here, but at least shows the position). Edited October 26, 2023 by John YouChoos 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy L S Posted October 26, 2023 Share Posted October 26, 2023 6 minutes ago, John YouChoos said: Pop a SugarCube8 speaker above the PCB part and it fits really nicely (not wired up here, but at least shows the position). It just didn't occur to me to put it there, the uncluttered space above the weight lured me in🤔! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu from EGDL Posted October 28, 2023 Share Posted October 28, 2023 Hi Gang; Just given my TMC Dealer Express Parcels 128 a quick test run on the rolling road. All seems well with smooth pickup and drive in both directions. Lights are nice and subtle too, not getting too bright. A credit to all concerned. Not adding a sound chip at this stage, so cannot comment on that aspect!! Just another two to arrive direct from Revolution now!! Later; STU from EGVN 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padishar Creel Posted October 28, 2023 Share Posted October 28, 2023 1 hour ago, Stu from EGDL said: Hi Gang; Just given my TMC Dealer Express Parcels 128 a quick test run on the rolling road. All seems well with smooth pickup and drive in both directions. Lights are nice and subtle too, not getting too bright. A credit to all concerned. Not adding a sound chip at this stage, so cannot comment on that aspect!! Just another two to arrive direct from Revolution now!! Later; STU from EGVN Still waiting for Kernow to have their 128s on stock. Looking forward to the Express Parcels livery to add to my BR Blue versions es grüßt pc Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan24 Posted October 28, 2023 Share Posted October 28, 2023 Received my BR Blue 128 this morning. Very smooth. Excellent, well done Revolution. 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alangdance Posted October 28, 2023 Share Posted October 28, 2023 Still waiting for mine. Still no confirmation from either Royal Mail or RevolutioN. I am a bit surpised that dealers are getting theirs before people who support the crowd funding for the 128. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
montyburns56 Posted October 28, 2023 Share Posted October 28, 2023 Mine also arrived this morning and although when it was first announced I didn't think that it would take five years to get to production it was worth the wait. I am slightly disappointed though that the model of M55990 doesn't quite match the prototype... 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Mike B Posted October 28, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted October 28, 2023 20 minutes ago, alangdance said: Still waiting for mine. Still no confirmation from either Royal Mail or RevolutioN. I am a bit surpised that dealers are getting theirs before people who support the crowd funding for the 128. Mike H and Simon packed and sent another batch towards the end of last week. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of direct customer orders to work through. Regards Mike B Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModRXsouth Posted October 30, 2023 Share Posted October 30, 2023 The outer sleeves of the boxes for Class 128s 55992 and 55993 state: Diesel Parcels Unit Royal Mail ‘Duplex’ What is the ‘duplex’ aspect of these two specific units? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Steven B Posted October 30, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted October 30, 2023 The twin yellow lines that make up the lining. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ModRXsouth Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 4 hours ago, Steven B said: The twin yellow lines that make up the lining. Thank you for the explanation. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedepot Posted October 31, 2023 Share Posted October 31, 2023 ah ok, I just thought it was because they had two engines! tim Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alangdance Posted November 2, 2023 Share Posted November 2, 2023 Anybody still waiting for their 128 from Revolution. Been 2 weeks now since I paid the final invoice. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Ben Posted November 2, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted November 2, 2023 4 hours ago, alangdance said: Anybody still waiting for their 128 from Revolution. Been 2 weeks now since I paid the final invoice. Hi there, We are working our way through the orders but please remember we are a tiny business; there are only four of us, we all live in different places and we have other jobs to do within the business, so we tend to save up orders for a packing session once a week. We have had a packing day today and send out another few hundred. cheers Ben A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bud Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 On 26/10/2023 at 15:56, John YouChoos said: Pop a SugarCube8 speaker above the PCB part and it fits really nicely (not wired up here, but at least shows the position). After reading (John YouChoos) suggestion. I was wanting to purchase a Zimo MS581N18 with a speaker, and I note that the SuparCube8 was recommended, but I also see that the MS581N has an output of (3 Watt / 4-8 Ω), and the SugarCube8 is rated at 1 Watt, so should I purchase 2x SugarCube8 speakers and run them in paralell ? Or is this overkill and if so what effect does the 3 Watt output do to the speaker? cheers Bud Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 @Bud - how loud do you want this unit to be - whilst the RevolutioN speaker might be at the cheap end, if you turn the sound down a little it's perfectly acceptable. Most speakers in N gauge are going to be at the quieter end of the scale as we don't generally have the space for a big speaker and really do you want the sound to be so big that it is totally out of perspective with the loco/unit in view. Why not get the sound chip, try it out and if it really isn't loud enough then the answer is to add the sugar cube, I only use a small sugarcube in all my N gauge locos/units not had any issues. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John YouChoos Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 Hi Bud, No, there is a typo on the Zimo website relating to the specs of the MS581... is should read 1W at 8 ohm, same as all the other smaller Zimo sound decoders. All the best, John 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodenhead Posted November 13, 2023 Share Posted November 13, 2023 16 minutes ago, John YouChoos said: Hi Bud, No, there is a typo on the Zimo website relating to the specs of the MS581... is should read 1W at 8 ohm, same as all the other smaller Zimo sound decoders. All the best, John I did think that sounded rather powerful but my reference site Digitrains seems to still have it's database offline - I assume as they've been at an exhibition over the weekend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
John YouChoos Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 Sorry, my mistake, apparently one of the major benefits of the MS581 over the predecessor MS580 is that is DOES support 4ohm and 3W, like the larger MS450 and MS440. A great improvement. So the Zimo specs are correct after all! 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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