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Installing my first lot of ESU - LokSound Select Direct decoders... Journals/Blogs
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JLandT Railroad Super User 2,508 posts
JLandT Railroad

To have a little break from the layout build I decided to start installing my two 

ESU - LokSound - Select Direct decoders.

 

I originally got these to go into my new Athearn - Genesis RDG GP39-2 locomotives.  I was however a little hesitant to attack two brand new locomotives before trying it on something a little less expensive.

 

So as a start I have upgraded an Athearn RTR - RDG GP35 & Atlas Silver Series - GP40-2. The Athearn RTR GP35 had already been weathered but I wanted to upgrade the truck power pick ups, replace the Athearn bulbs with LED's and give the motor a good service.

 

 

This unit will have one of ESU's Sugar Cube speakers (50321) which is a 15mm x 11mm 8Ohm speaker.  The photo below shows the temporary location for the speaker, it will eventually be stuck inside the shell towards the rear series of fans.

 

 

The second unit being the Atlas Silver Series - GP40-2 was a straight forward change out.  After doing the Athearn first which required a few fixes and servicing the Atlas was a easy changeover.  It took around two hours even though I had to cut out sections of the weights and OEM speaker enclosure too.

 

 

The Atlas already comes with LED's so the installation of the board and wires was a 30min job.  The only modifications required was to trim down the decoder lugs a little to get the decoder to sit down straight above the motor.

 

I also had to remove a small section of the Atlas speaker frame to get the decoder into place.

 

 

The speaker setup originally installed into this was the same ESU Sugar Cube setup as the GP35.  I however changed my mind and tried out the "closed coupled" ESU sugar cubes by two in the supplied baffle and wired in parallel.  This is an awesome combination in this unit!

 

 

The location is still in the same spot even though the size has double.  The photo above shows a much deeper baffle for the single speaker too.  The closed couple set is a little shorter in height to make the fit above decoder better.

 

Next step is to fine tune the unit with the LokProgammer and post a video too...

 

Jas...

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Dave K skiloff Prolific poster 4,040 posts
Dave K skiloff

Interesting

I'm going to be doing an Atlas Silver Series GP40-2W as well when my decoder arrives from Tony's, but I didn't go with the Direct, opting instead for the basic Select.  I had ordered the Direct thinking it should be a drop in, but it of course is not.  I was toying with modifying it like you have, but I thought I'd play with the Select in hopes of avoiding modifications, as I'd kind of like to try at least one, if not two, round speakers in the housing that is there.  If that doesn't work out, I'll likely use an iPhone speaker.

Dave
Playing around in HO and N scale since 1976
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Nick Santo amsnick MRH Advertiser and MRH Author 2,996 posts
Nick Santo amsnick

See if this might work on the GP 40s

image.jpeg 

 

The adapter board from ESU makes a great place to mount SMDs for LEDs (far right) and some breadboard makes a good place to mount a connector.  The six pins use all of the decoder outputs so I can light front and rear headlights, ditch lights and number boards.  The only solder point is the hot wire from the decoder.

I pulled the capacitors and put the sugar cube in their place, wired it in series with one of the original speakers and plugged the other speaker hole with a piece of 0.040" styrene.

Old eyes and old ears work about the same.  The upgraded sound is good to my ears.  The upgraded ESU sound files and lighting and motor control are worth the effort.

Nick

Nick

https://nixtrainz.com/ Home of the Decoder Buddy

Full disclosure: I am the inventor of the Decoder Buddy and I sell it via the link above.
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