Loksound XL speaker ohm ratings?

[boxbrownie]

Hi all, I have my XL all ready to install into my Heljan 37, odd thing is upon reading the Loksound instructions it states you have to use the loksound speaker which is rated at 32ohm, if thats the case then why according to the instructions again is the onboard jumper jumper set to 8-16 ohm and sealed?

 

The alternative jumper position is 16-32 ohm....now is this a mistake or or did ESU decide to just test us?

 

As an aside I have tried this decoder with two speakers from an old pair of very high quality KOSS headphones, together these rate at 32 ohms and in the sealed fuel tanks with damping sponge (from the headphones) they sound pretty great! Although I am at present waitng to try the two LOKSOUND 40mm speakers I had delivered and although recommended to me for the XL they are 100ohm

 

What to do.....what to do?

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

Loksound XL speakers are rated at 32 ohm. The two40mm speakers you have are for Loksound 3.5 which is capable of 0 gauge installs but the power output is less so the volume is less. If you wire the two 40's in parallel you will get a 50 ohm set up but no real extra power handling.

 

I have no practical knowledge of the XL as to jumpers et al but I do know that wiring up directional lights can involve a fair degree of extra circuitry.

 

In general, the smaller Loksound chips are capable of accepting down to 50% of the given ohm rating but be aware that the XL gives out a lot more power than other sound chips so the power rating of any speaker you use will be vital, perhaps more than its ohmage..

[malc125]

Have used both standard and XL loksound sound decoders, the standard ones need a 100 ohm speaker but the XL use 8 ohm. As usual the bigger the size of the speaker the better. I put a XL into a DJH class 37 and found the 8 ohm speaker worked great too loud for indoor use great out in the garden. The decoder is clear wrapped and I also noticed the jumper for different impedance speakers, I contacted SW digital who supplied both speaker and decoder who told me to leave the jumper as it was. Hope this helps

[boxbrownie]

Have used both standard and XL loksound sound decoders, the standard ones need a 100 ohm speaker but the XL use 8 ohm. As usual the bigger the size of the speaker the better. I put a XL into a DJH class 37 and found the 8 ohm speaker worked great too loud for indoor use great out in the garden. The decoder is clear wrapped and I also noticed the jumper for different impedance speakers, I contacted SW digital who supplied both speaker and decoder who told me to leave the jumper as it was. Hope this helps

Yes, as it comes the XL is configured for 8-16 ohm speakers, so SWD were correct to tell you to leave it as it is....I just wondered about the discrepency in the instructions and if anyone has any experience on changing the jumper settings?

[Cliff Williams]

It is very important to set the jumper position to the correct position to match the speaker you are using.

There is no point in trying to use the 100 ohm speakers supplied to you, the 40mm ESU speaker should be 32 ohms for the XL.

I have a few ESU Loksound 57mm 16 ohm speakers which will be fitted to something in O Gauge, not sure yet though.

 

I bought a South West Digital A4 project and installed it in my DJH A4 last year and set it up accordingly, removing the jumper to change the ohm output to 32 ohms, which was the rating on the supplied speaker from SWD.

 

When I bought a Golden Age Models A4 from Quentin, which had been configured by SWD I was bitterly disappointed with the sound performance and immediately took the tender apart to analyse the installation. I confirmed the speaker was a 32 ohm but I noticed that the jumper had not been removed, or simply re-positioned, so this was done and the sound output improved dramatically.

I discussed this with Quentin who was unaware of this so I gave him instructions on what to do and he heard the difference immediately. John Ryan who has 14 Golden Age Models A4s has had all of his sound cards adjusted accordingly and Quentin will happily inform any of his clients what to do thanks to my advice, this happened at Telford where a shed scene layout had two A4s, one quiet and one noisy. When the quiet one was altered it became the louder model. I know of many other models supplied by Quentin that have been tweaked, if anything the sound level has been unjustly turned up to try and overcome the muffled sound with this issue, so when you do remove the jumper on these locos CV63 does need lowering a little bit to about 25 to 35 maximum in my humble opinion.

 

I discussed this with SWD as well and they said that in 7 years they had not had a problem. Later in the year at the Warley NEC show 2009 I was offered their new fact sheet on the XL decoder, which had been written as a direct result of my instructions and advice given and SWD did say a nice hello when I informed them I was the one who had made all the fuss!

 

On the other hand I have several XL sound decoders from Howes and Bryan Robertson gives explicit advice on what has to be done with this jumper, so it depends on who you speak to for the most informed advice. I now have some other locos to re-instal things correctly including a few SWD Deltic projects which improve dramatically with correctly installed parts.

 

Interestingly I was displaying on L H Loveless's stand at Telford Guildex two LHL A4s installed with a Loksound XL decoder, one with the SWD sound project and one with the Howes A4 sound project, both running 32 ohm speakers installed in the smokebox. Within the Exhibition hall myself and many others found that the Howes sound file gives a better bark, the SWD A4 has a lot of hiss in the background when chuffing as well, but is good in other areas.

Bryan from Howes and I discussed at length what needs doing for a good effect and I think right now his chuff is better and his A4 whistle can be played as long as you like as well as short bursts.

 

I was finding at the Telford show that the Howes A4 could be run at level 15 on CV 63 (range is 1-64) whereas the SWD A4 had to be up as far as 35 to get some volume, but still with the softer bark.

 

Hope this helps, I hope to have some more LHL locos fitted with the Loksound XL decoder on Lawrie's stand at Warley MRC to give you a taster of what can be done!

[boxbrownie]

Hi Cliff, thanks for that detailed reply.....I had already thrown caution to the wind and cut the shrink wrap on the XL a little so I could adjust the jumper (I wonder how the warranty holds out, part of the instructions say if the wrapper is removed the warranty is void and another part shows you how to change the jumper which requires the wrapper to be "modified").

Anyhoo, I have tried several speakers Monday evening, a large 8ohm 41x71mm (excellent sound, but might need a smaller "tweeter" in the body, not sure yet) which I will be using in my Heljan 47 as the fuel tank is the perfect size and location for this speaker, a Digitrax "high bass" 8ohm 23x23mm speaker (very nice sound actually considering its size) the two KOSS headphone speakers approx 40mm round and together rated 32ohm (and sound very, very good indeed!) and finally the two 40mm boxed ESU speakers @100ohm each, I wired these to give 50ohm and have presently fitted these into the fuel tank of my Heljan 37, I might pop in a resistor to bring the ohms down a bit more, but they do sound particulary good considering they have just small sealed "lids" albeit I have now filled these with acoustic foam and properly sealed around the seam and wire holes.

 

All the above testing was done with the jumper set to the correct setting for each speaker of course, just want to try and bring the twin 40's down to 16-32ohm paired, might not make a difference but worth a try!

 

This is all with a Howes XL Class 37 chip...most impressed, apart from the fact that some of the "F" functions are not as listed in the Howes instructions, but worked out which is which and will probably custom set the functions at a later date.

 

Oh yes volume, at the correct jumper setting I found that the best sound quality is at around 10>15 and on the large speaker even 7 is loud enough! No wonder some people complain at exhibitions if they are left at default.....or anything over 20 IMHO, then again for garden work it might require a little more.

 

One thing I have not been able to do is adjust the horn volume seperately from the general sound, found the CVs I believe are the correct ones 121/122 (according to the ESU booklet, Howes instructions do not mention this) but these seem not to tweak anything....

 

Next thing on the list is to make a little circuit board to act as an interface between the Heljan lights/fan and the ESU wiring, I would like this to be "plugable" for easy maintenance.