Bachmann C-19

Rhinochugger said:
It's all very complicated :emo::emo: I might go back to the principal behind my very first model railway - before n gauge arrived it was called Treble-0; all diecast, including the track, and you pushed the trains round :nerd::nerd::nerd::nerd:
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Lone star trains? I had some of these in the early 60s.
 
The schematic is laid out a little unusually in that top corner..
I wonder if it is correct? :think:
 
PhilP said:
The schematic is laid out a little unusually in that top corner..
I wonder if it is correct? :think:
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I'm pretty certain that is George Schreyer's working out of the circuit, and on his pages, he mentions that it may not be perfick. However for most of our purposes, it is what it is, and we don't need to know much more.


The big issue is that the Annie sound board is activated by completing the circuit between the two chuff sensor leads - just close the circuit with a strip of metal and it goes chuff.

The C-19 sensors are optical, so somehow you've got to get some current to them to work.

After that - I'm lost :mask::mask::mask:

My sound board goes chuff when you make the contact, but I'm not sure how to test for what is happening on the C-19 tender motherboard - that faded diagram in post #22
 
Greg Elmassian said:
At the risk of invoking your ire: why are you taking a $1200 loco and putting a $1 sound card in it? Surely a $50 sound card can be justified, and would already have the trigger lead for chuff to directly connect.

Greg
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You know that thread where Mike is building a turntable out of 'stuff in the garage', rather then spending money..??

Same theory on this one.. :rolleyes:;)
 
Greg Elmassian said:
At the risk of invoking your ire: why are you taking a $1200 loco and putting a $1 sound card in it? Surely a $50 sound card can be justified, and would already have the trigger lead for chuff to directly connect.

Greg
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Well, good question well presented. I can explain ......................... I think.

Firstly, I only paid £365 for the loco - although it was 'previously enjoyed' :devil::devil: I don't believe it had seen the rails in anger.

Secondly, I'm a bit of a cheapskate, and the cheapest after market sound card in this country is £59 plus postage (Mylocosound), and in any case, this one also relies on the Bachmann axle driven chuff trigger (same as the Annie) and would still need a bit of work to operate with the C-19 cylinder sensors. You can drive the chuffs by the current draw on the Mylocosound card, but it makes more sense to have them driven by the wheel rotation / motion.

And then there's the issue that with those, and the much more expensive ones, you're paying for a lot of features that are seldom, if ever used.

Having found that George Schreyer's modifications to the Annie card produce quite a reasonable chuff sound at the right sort of volume for garden use i.e. you can hear it as the train goes by, but you can't hear it at the opposite end of the garden, it seemed that this was really all I would need.

OK, the bells and whistles are interesting, but on analogue, you've mostly got to do that either by manual intervention, or a lot of track electrics, and I keep my track electrics to an absolute minimum ('cos I'm also bone idle and don't want too much maintenance).

I've said before, nobody understands how hard it is to be a real cheapskate :D:D:D:D:D:D

If I could have found a sound card for $50 - say £35 - £40, I might have gone with it :think::think::think:
 
Hey Rhinochugger.
You are wrong about complicated connections on the MyLocosound.
Just hook the chuff wire from the MyLocosound to the chuff trigger connection on the C19 PnP board.
As long as the MyLocosound card ground is connected to the Bachmann pcb ground it will work just fine.
 
Tony Walsham said:
Hey Rhinochugger.
You are wrong about complicated connections on the MyLocosound.
Just hook the chuff wire from the MyLocosound to the chuff trigger connection on the C19 PnP board.
As long as the MyLocosound card ground is connected to the Bachmann pcb ground it will work just fine.
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Thanks Tony - I've put one in a Bachmann Connie a couple of years ago, and was going by memory, but it may well have been upgraded since then as well.

Doesn't alter the fact that it's well over Greg's $50 dollars though :devil:

Mind you, I'm not moaning about that - I reckon it's good value for money - it's just that I wasn't wanting to pay that sort of money :mask::mask:
 
$77 dollars vs $50 on a $1,200 loco for a reasonable sound card... no matter what you paid, it's what it's worth... if you got a Ferrari 1/2 price as a windfall, would you put volkswagen bug tires on it?

In any case, it's going to cost you in parts to try to modify the botchmann sound card to work with the C-19, so maybe the delta is $20 all told... which is now 15 pounds.

and you get bell and whistle with triggers, magnets on your track, which does not take "a lot of track electrics" in fact NO track electrics, just magnets ;)

Where is Peter Lucas now? He piped up on another thread offering his sound card..... Peter??

Greg
 
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Greg Elmassian said:
$77 dollars vs $50 on a $1,200 loco for a reasonable sound card... no matter what you paid, it's what it's worth... if you got a Ferrari 1/2 price as a windfall, would you put volkswagen bug tires on it?

In any case, it's going to cost you in parts to try to modify the botchmann sound card to work with the C-19, so maybe the delta is $20 all told... which is now 15 pounds.

and you get bell and whistle with triggers, magnets on your track, which does not take "a lot of track electrics" in fact NO track electrics, just magnets ;)

Where is Peter Lucas now? He piped up on another thread offering his sound card..... Peter??

Greg
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Mmmm - I've never got into track magnets :think::think::think:

Peter's sound cards are distributed by Steve at Fosworks here in the UK - I just installed a diesel card of his in my Bachmann 45 tonner - big Bertha - produces some nice sound.

249271
 
Greg Elmassian said:
$77 dollars vs $50 on a $1,200 loco for a reasonable sound card... no matter what you paid, it's what it's worth... if you got a Ferrari 1/2 price as a windfall, would you put volkswagen bug tires on it?

In any case, it's going to cost you in parts to try to modify the botchmann sound card to work with the C-19, so maybe the delta is $20 all told... which is now 15 pounds.

and you get bell and whistle with triggers, magnets on your track, which does not take "a lot of track electrics" in fact NO track electrics, just magnets ;)

Where is Peter Lucas now? He piped up on another thread offering his sound card..... Peter??

Greg
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I suppose I'm also quite close to this position :D:D:D

249275
 
John S said:
As per Rhinochugger's suggestion....using a Relay, does overcome the connection problem.
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That relay will be doing a heck of a lot of mechanical work.. :eek:
I wonder about it's life in this application? - I know they are cheap..

Wonder if it is designed to overcome contact bounce, whilst being switched at this sort of rate, as well?
 
Yes, I likewise considered suggesting a relay, but I have seen them fail, they are not rated for this kind of operation. That said, relatively cheap, but you might research the estimated lifetime of the part, looking for how many cycles it is rated for. You almost surely will get bounce also, but I'm not sure you would hear it.

I think some kind of 555 timer circuit to substitute for the relay and with it's inherent debounce would be what I would use, should someone be holding a gun to my head to make me do this.

Greg
 
Greg Elmassian said:
Yes, I likewise considered suggesting a relay, but I have seen them fail, they are not rated for this kind of operation. That said, relatively cheap, but you might research the estimated lifetime of the part, looking for how many cycles it is rated for. You almost surely will get bounce also, but I'm not sure you would hear it.

I think some kind of 555 timer circuit to substitute for the relay and with it's inherent debounce would be what I would use, should someone be holding a gun to my head to make me do this.

Greg
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Can be arranged

249280


However, standing on the end of the gangplank while dispensing this wisdom - I suspect that you wouldn't hear bounce because the chuff is largely dispensed by capacitors, (one of George's mods was to shorten the over-long hiss on the Annie sound with a heavier capacitor).

As to rounds per minute, and lifetime expectancy ................... ahem.

But then, how many times does the indicator in your car tick before the relay fails? Yeah, I know, probably not used that much of you drive a Beemer, but most average cars use them on a reasonably regular basis
 
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