Sound for a Farish 108 ?

[boxbrownie]

As it is impossible to search for "108" within a search paramenter, I was wondering if anyone has records or produced a blog to fitting sound to the New Farish 108 ?

 

It appears to be possible, as far as people tell me.

[Savoyard]

I have fitted sound to both a 101 & 108. I took some pictures and when I get back later I will post them.

 

Peter

[boxbrownie]

Thats going to be really helpful, thank you Peter.

 

[Nigelcliffe]

Its very easy, Bachmann designed it into the 108.

 

Decoder - LokSound Micro or Zimo MX646/648 (all similar sized) with six-pin plug, plug on end of flying leads. On my current experience of both, I'd go with the LokSound.

Speaker - 13mm round.

 

Pull body off (its stiff/awkward). Fit speaker inside round two-part plastic thingie supplied by Bachmann, stand this at rear of power car near corridor connection, there are slots in floor-frame for it. Ideally fit back to seal speaker housing (DIY) to improve sound quality. Ideally drill some holes for sound to come out. Plug in decoder to decoder socket, lay decoder above motor/PCB area, fit wires to speaker, reassemble, job done.

 

Other speaker arrangements may give better sound; I'd be tempted to try a Zimo/CT "cube" speaker without the plastic cube box; instead build box sides from thick plasticard fitted to roof of body, and fit speaker plate to base of this box. Sound from this arrangement can be very good, but I've not checked a 108 for clearance to do it.

 

 

- Nigel

[boxbrownie]

Nigel, that sound very straight forward, excellent news. My son already has the Loksound Micro and I donated a CT cube speaker I had knocking around as now the Loksounds are 8ohm it opens more possibilities for speaker variations. Hopefully soon he will get the body off and give it a go, although at present he has just moved into a new flat so things on the railway front have taken a back burner for a few weeks.

[Savoyard]

As promised earlier.

 

I used the small CT Electroniks speaker with a Loksound Micro V4, the speaker is about the size of a sugar cube, it needed a small bit of filing to make it fit perfectly.

 

I filed down the seats to fit the speaker.

 

The 'Sugar Cube' speaker.

 

Two views of the speaker in place, with the sides painted black.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Peter

[Nigelcliffe]

That's the speaker I had in mind, but remove the plastic clear box, and build a new much shorter box in the roof of the model. It works well in other N diesel shells, so the only question is clearance over the PCB or motor block.

If willing to chop up the PCB to create space, the big inductors can go, though the resistors/capacitors near the front are required to drop the voltage to the lighting LEDs.

 

- Nigel

[Steven B]

If you're using the speaker mounting supplied with the class 108, then I think Farish suggest removing the windows from the ends of the unit (i.e. the ones either side of the corridor connection).

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

[boxbrownie]

That's the speaker I had in mind, but remove the plastic clear box, and build a new much shorter box in the roof of the model. It works well in other N diesel shells, so the only question is clearance over the PCB or motor block.

If willing to chop up the PCB to create space, the big inductors can go, though the resistors/capacitors near the front are required to drop the voltage to the lighting LEDs.

 

- Nigel

 

All good stuff this, thanks guys....Nigel...surely if using a loksound or zimo you could get rid of the OE board completely and control the lighting direct from the chip and thence control the voltage on the chips output? Thats what I do on my 7mm stuff.

[Nigelcliffe]

All good stuff this, thanks guys....Nigel...surely if using a loksound or zimo you could get rid of the OE board completely and control the lighting direct from the chip and thence control the voltage on the chips output? Thats what I do on my 7mm stuff.

 

No. The output of chip function wires is PWM at full voltage (ie. on/off very rapidly to control brightness). A LED has a voltage rating (around 3-3.5volts), and over-volts will destroy it pretty much instantly. So, you need a series resistor with a LED or the lights will go "pff". This is not a scale issue, its a basic bit of electronics in all chip designs.

Further, if you use the PWM to drop the brightness, rather than fitting a larger resistor, then the LED will tend to flicker. This can be tamed with a small capacitor.

 

The relevant resistors and capacitors are on the loco PCB as surface mount devices, so its worth considering chopping this board rather than fitting new components in the outputwires of the chip.

 

Yes, you can chuck out the PCB and fit your own components. I did this in my Farish 24 to give fully independent lights, cab lights, DCC controlled couplers, etc..

 

 

- Nigel

[BROADTRAIN1979]

Hi , i ordered the ct sugar cube speaker from digitrains yesterday ,,,, and with a loksound v4 micro from olivias with 108 sound on but will be fitting this in my 105 dmu.

 

Mark.