Sound Chip Identification

[Simon G]

I have recently bought a job lot of 3 locos at an auction, knowing that one was DCC Sound fitted.  To my surprise, all three locos were equipped with Sound, but I am not sure exactly what the Sound chips are.

 

The first loco is an 8 pin Bachmann Class 37, D6826, and CV8 is 151, ie ESU.  CV7 is 059.  I suspect that it is a Loksound V3 or V3.5, but am not sure which.

 

The second loco is a 21 pin Bachmann class 37, D6984, and again CV8 is 151.  This time, CV7 is 255, so is probably a Loksound V4 or V5, but again I cant tell which.

 

According to online sources, both these Class 37s were not factory fitted sound locos, so they were added by a previous owner.

 

The third loco is a Bachmann Class 47 with factory fitted sound.  CV8 is 035, which according to the NMRA list is Elektronik and Model Production, about which I know nothing, and cant seem to find anything online.  CV7 is 059, which is the same value as the first loco, so I am wondering if it might be a rebadged Loksound V3 or V3.5.

 

Can anyone please help in identifying these decoders, or at least advising on what make and type of decoders Bachmann use on their Sound equipped Class 47s?  Many thanks!

[Nigelcliffe]

I think there are ways of telling ESU V4 and V5 apart from CV values  (because I think JMRI does it). 

 

Your third, I'd try reading a few more times, because I suspect its a mis-reading of an ESU decoder.   Why would Bachmann UK be fitting anything else ?  

 

 

- Nigel

 

 

[Simon G]

Thanks Nigel for the reply.  I have tried using JMRI via my NCE Powercab to see what the two class 37 chips are, but it gives a long list of possible ESU chips.  It could be because my version of JMRI is ancient as my old laptop is only running Windows Xp, and so wont run recent versions of JMRI.  I will get hold of the MRC laptop tomorrow as that runs on Windows 10 and will take the latest JMRI.

 

The factory fitted class 47 is rather puzzling!  I am sure that you are right about the ESU sound chip being misread, as every time I use the Powercab to get the CV8 value, it comes back with a different figure.  We have both a Lenz and Powercab system at the MRC, so will try them tomorrow and see what values they can see.

[Phil Bullock]

If you post photos I will recognise ESU chips …

[Simon G]

5 hours ago, Phil Bullock said:

If you post photos I will recognise ESU chips …

Phil, thanks for the offer, and here are the photos:

 

8 pin Class 37:

 

 

21 pin Class 37:

 

21 pin factory fitted Class 47:

 

I was quite surprised to see a load of blutack around the speaker in the Class 47.  Is that normal practice for Bachmann?

 

Thanks, Simon

[Nigelcliffe]

The blutack is probably owner trying to seal the speaker to a create a sound chamber. 

 

The decoders look like ESU's to me.  Top and bottom probably V3.5.  Middle not sure.   One very obvious tell-tale, is look at the back of the speaker.   If its a 100ohm, its a V3.5.   If its 8ohm its a V4 or newer.   

Edited April 27, 2023 by Nigelcliffe

[beejack]

The middle one has LS4 on the PCB so I would say it is a loksound v4.

[Simon G]

Thanks for all the help on this.

 

I hadnt noticed the LS4 on the class 37 21 pin chip!

 

Looks like the first 37 and the 47 are V3.5.  The speaker is a 4 ohm 1.5W one, so the second 37 is a V4 or later.

 

The class 47 was run on a club layout yesterday with the club NCE Powercab, and it was also returning different values for CV8 every time!  I am not too worried as the main thing is that it works OK, so I wont be messing about with it too much!

 

My efforts to read them using JMRI arent proving too successful yet.  The club laptop had JMRI loaded, but the laptop didnt appear to have the NCE drivers loaded, so I have followed NCE advice and uninstalled JMRI, and it is now doing countless updates.  When they are done, I will see if the laptop can load the drivers and then I can reinstall JMRI.

[NIK]

Hi,

 

If you gently press the loco down onto the programming track you may get a reliable read of CVs.

 

Regards

 

Nik

[Phil Bullock]

Hi Simon

Comparing to my chips and based on the component configurations:

 

21 pin Class 37 is a V4 

 

The other two are V3.5s as you suspected. 
 

The blutak around speakers will be home installs …. Nowt wrong with that, did many on 100 ohm speakers where the supplied chamber would not fit. There’s a much greater choice of speakers now for v4s and above.

 

HTH 

 

Phil

 

 

[Simon G]

I have finally got JMRI operating on the model club Windows 10 laptop.  It hadnt been updated for ages, so took hours for all the updates, then finally loaded the drivers for the NCE USB adapter.  After that, I discovered that I needed to install a newer version of Java to run JMRI, only to find that JMRI doesnt work with the latest Java, so I uninstalled Java version 20 and installed version 11 - eventually!!

 

Having done all that, it agreed with everyone on this thread that the 37s are V3.5 and V4.  It recognised the 47 as an ESU, but came up with a list of about 12 potential matches, including the V3.5.

 

It has all been an interesting learning curve for me, and thanks to everyone for the help and advice.