LGB 65006 sound module hints and tips

idlemarvel

idlemarvel

Neither idle nor a marvel
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This is a bit of a peculiar beast. I bought it for my LGB 24520 narrow gauge diesel which has a built in MTS decoder. The 65006 is more or less designed for this diesel although you could use it with any diesel if you’re not too fussy about authentic sounds. It is a self contained sound decoder which works independently of the motor and lights decoder, taking power directly from the track, so it’s similar to the Massoth S decoder in that respect, although nowhere near as functionally rich. in fact it is the same from a sound perspective.

So why would you buy one? Well the kit comes with a quality speaker and a replacement motor switch with built in volume control, so it is cheaper than buying the Massoth equivalent of those items, and very easy to install. But if I was doing this again I’d probably go for the Massoth S or even remove the whole lot and have a Massoth XLS, but that’s a lot more work and I like the easy life.

Anyway if you happen to have one there are few things to note:

1 – The brake sound is triggered if you gradually drop the speed down to speed step 1 and goes off again when you stop (speed step 0). It does not get triggered if you drop the speed rapidly through speed step 1.

2 – The engine sound only supports 14 speed steps. It works with more speed steps, but the engine tone increases from 0-14 then at 15 you hear the brakes being applied as the engine tone drops again before rising as you go from 16 upwards, It’s like it thinks it is back to speed step 1 again. This is with 28 speed steps, not sure how it would behave with 128 speed steps. This is not too much of a problem for me as a rarely go beyond speed step 14 (out of 28) as I like to keep to scale speed 25kmph or less. I have tried setting CV29 in the sound module to more than 14 speed steps but it has no effect.
See posting that follows for an update on this.

3 – The horn sound (F7) is documented but not configured by default, so change sound module CV142 from 0 to 7.

4 – The master volume should be set to use the external volume control, which if you installed the kit is inside the luggage compartment, so set sound module CV200 to 255 to use this.

5 – If you want to configure the sound module after installation that is normally a problem as it shares some CVs with the motor and lights decoder. If you put the loco on your programming track and turn the motor switch to 0 (again this is inside the luggage compartment) that turns off power to the motor and lights decoder but there is still track power to the sound module. So you can configure the sound module CVs without impacting the motor and lights decoder.

Finally the documentation for the loco decoder provided with the loco is incomplete; in particular it does not mention CVs 49-56, apart from CV55 (reset). There is a full description here, which I got from another thread on this forum.

CV description for LGB onboard decoders
http://www.reutimann-ch.ch/pdf/onboardCV.pdf
 
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This is resurrecting an old posting (above) which I have corrected based on some new information.

I had this problem with my LGB 24520 1’Bo’1 diesel with an LGB large decoder factory fitted, and an LGB 65006 sound module fitted by me. The symptom was that the diesel engine pitch would increase with the speed steps, but half way through the range the brakes would squeal and the engine pitch would drop and then start rising again as you went through the upper half of the speed steps. This was running under DCC with 28 speed steps.

I thought perhaps the LGB sound module (which is a basically a Massoth S sound decoder) was running at 14 speed steps whereas I had configured the motor decoder to 28 steps. I set both decoders to 28 speed steps, but the problem still occurred. Then I thought maybe the sound module only supported 14 speed steps, so I set both decoders to 14 speed steps but that had no effect either.

Long story short, the problem was that somehow the LGB sound module mid speed CV6 was set to zero, once I set that to be mid point between the min and max voltage, all was well, running with either 14 or 28 speed steps. This is important as the LGB sound module is connected directly to the track power, not the motor decoder.

BTW the motor voltage CVs (2, 5 and 6) are not even mentioned in the LGB documentation, but you can use all settings for a Massoth sound decoder. Strangely, the decoder type CV 255 shows as 157 which is defined by Massoth as XLS On-board Sound decoder. The version number CV7 shows as 31.
 
Not sure how I ever missed this but interesting that Märklin some years back started doing the equivalent of the older LGB Sound Boxes. My interest was only aroused because scoop is hunting for one.
 
dunnyrail said:
Not sure how I ever missed this but interesting that Märklin some years back started doing the equivalent of the older LGB Sound Boxes. My interest was only aroused because scoop is hunting for one.
Click to expand...
What one are you after Jon?. I've just bought some secondhand ones from Germany. The seller might have some more.
 
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