Speaker?

I assume you've attached a speaker, since all sound decoders are pretty quiet without one, so the question is what kind?  

Scott Chatfield

Speaker makes all the difference

. . .

Speaker plus some type of enclosure for it makes a world of difference. 

Marc

What model is it in and what speaker are you using?

What model is it in and what speaker are you using?

AND, is it compatible with the WOW Sound speaker circuit ie. 8ohms?  or different?

Power

If memory serves, all WOWs have 1 watt output and use 8 ohm speakers.  I think all Econamis and Tsunami2s have 2 watts output.  This can be a problem since most smaller 8 ohm speakers are only rated for 1 watt.

Scott Chatfield

The Loco I put it in is a

The Loco I put it in is a Kato SD-40.  Speaker came with the kit from TCS.  Installed the speaker facing down over the rear truck, mounted in the hood. But can barely hear it.  Really liked the kit with the included stay alive mounted on the board. Makes for a easy install. 

The Soundtraxx  I have is a Kato AC4400 and it was too loud, had to turn it down. Sounds really good though.

Also have a couple of older BLI's, same thing, had to turn them down.

Joe: where do I find iphone speakers? Did you make an enclosure for them?  Ear-piercing is a problem I would like to have to correct.

Power: I used RailMaster  Hobbies speakers with enclosure, 8 ohm in my Soundtraxx. I don't see an amp rating. Where do I find that

Speakers

The iPhone speakers Joe is probably referring to are the iPhone 4s ones, which have been popular with modelers for years, until they were discontinued. The required no baffling, as they had a natural baffle inside of them. Cheap, small, and immensely powerful and crisp, it's hard to find anything else out there. I snagged about 20 of them when they were $1.25 years ago, but even that inventory is running out. Putting two of them in with a WowSound decoder always required me to turn down the volume. There might be some replacement for the 4s speakers, but they're frankly impossible to find below $15 now.

Re: Power

TCS's tech support page says don't use speaker less than 2 watts.  Decoder amp output can be as high as 2.2 watts.  Resistance across the speaker should be between 7.2 and 8.8 ohms.

Also, did you use an enclosure for the speaker?

iPhone 4 speakers

The speaker was in the kit

The speaker was in the kit put together by TCS, the speaker came with an enclosure. I am going try calling them on Monday.

Scale Sound Systems

Go check out Scale Sound Systems. 

The owner is a professional sound engineer and he custom designs each speaker enclosure for each locomotive application then tunes them in a sound room.  I bought one for a C30-7 project and it blew the OEM speaker that came with the TCS WowSound decoder kit out of the water.  You can hear so much more going on that saying it's night and day is an understatement.  I have zero relationship with Scale Sound other than my credit card has been getting a workout with them since that first install.  Going back and reworking all my Alco C-420's now.  Amazing!!

I do go in and mill out the weights so I can fit the largest enclosure into each GE which adds to the lower range somewhat but only because I have a mill and it's easy to do.  Nothing wrong with the application-specific enclosures he sells but physics is physics.  He has some YouTube videos out so you can heard for yourself.  I was totally skeptical while watching but after that first install, well, your ears will thank you.

I checked out Scale

I checked out Scale Sound Systems. Everything is out of stock till April. But with little volume don't see how a speaker will be the fix. I am sure better fidelity , but volume? Was your problem fidelity or volume levels? The TCS was a kit & came with their speaker in an enclosure so you would think the volume levels would be reasonable. 

I hear guys talk about milling weights, how is this done? 

I have emailed TCS twice & tried a phone call. Crickets.

On the other hand I have gotten excellent service from Soundtraxx for any questions.

I  am going to stick with them from here on.

My Hobby Shop ( Hiawatha Hobbies, Waukesha WI) tells me I am the only guy with this problem, he's never heard of this before. So far I am stuck with a decoder you can hardy hear. Money down the drain. Almost like running silent. Hoping TCS has a fix for this. Hoping it is a defective decoder.

I am judging what I want to hear on some old BLI's and a new Sountraxx that had to be turned down.

Check out my August 2012 column

It discusses the physics of getting the sound out of a locomotive.

https://issuu.com/mr-hobbyist/docs/mrh12-08-aug2012-ol-h1?viewMode=presentation&pageNumber=20

And the accompanying video:

Speakers

I put  my speakers under the exhaust fans on my locomotives.

Just for the Heck of It

Temporarily wire in a different speaker (on the bench) to see if there is a difference. Helps to determine if the problem is because of the speaker or the decoder. So far you are assuming that everything is in perfect working order, might not be the case.

Espee over Donner

I will give that a try.

I will give that a try.

Bruce: youtube doesn't load &

Bruce: youtube doesn't load & the MRH loads really, really slow. Might be a problem on my end. Thanks anyway. I do believe this a decoder problem.

you tube ;This site can’t be reached

Check if there is a typo in https.

• If spelling is correct,  try running Windows Network Diagnostics.

DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NXDOMAIN

Properly-formed URL (remove duplicate http, etc)

 Patrick Stanley Tried a

Patrick Stanley

Tried a different speaker, no difference. 

I'm hearing TCS is really backed up. But a least an acknowledgment that they got the email would be nice. Going on two weeks and several attempts. I'm going to find out if the dealer will take this back.

Bruce, Interesting, thank

Bruce, Interesting, thank you,.

 I have tried a different speaker & tried with and without a baffle. No volume. I believe the decoder or amplifier is defective. 

Baffle

I always make sure speakers have a baffle. If not, I add one. Always improves the sound. Most speakers are too loud and a baffle gives them a slight muffle that IMHO improves the sound.

Scale Sound Systems / Volume level

I think he's showing out of stock until April because he's behind getting orders out from the holidays.  He custom prints the enclosures so "in stock" might not have so much meaning. 

For sound volume, I have to turn all the TCS WoWsound decoder volumes down with every install as I find them too loud (especially the bells) when running more than one consist. I'm 50+ so my ears are not what they used to be either.  If you're having volume issues and have changed speakers it's most likely a decoder issue if you're able to change the volume settings using a programmer such as Decoder Pro.  Have you used sound assist?  On the throttle hit "8888" then "111" to get to the master volume, next 1 or 2 to go up and down.  Her voice should be getting louder or softer accordingly.  Then hit "8" to save and "0" to exit.  TSC decoders like 8 ohm loads but can use 4 ohm speakers.  There are a few 16 ohm speakers out there but you really need to try and find them.

Do take a look at the solder pads. The speaker pads are really close together on TCS motherboards and if you have a solder bridge or even a random wire strand, you've effectively placed a resistor in parallel with the speaker which can mess up the output.  Use a hobby knife blade and make sure no bridges or short conditions exist.  You should see all red between the pads.  A short here will drive the total resistance really low forcing the output IC into protection mode (if it has one) or force it to supply more and more power until it destroys itself.  A high resistance condition (like a random wire strand just touching a pad) is really no problem as once you get above about 1K ohm, all the current will be flowing through the speaker anyway and the resistance "seen" by the decoder is basically 8 ohms. 

You asked about milling weights. Here's a milled front weight from one of my C30-7's.  This is more extreme as I was going for a large enclosure but trying to keep some extra weight up front.  The front part of the weight has also had a slot milled to aid in getting a nose light installed as these are all L&N units. I just use a mini-mill from Grizzly/Harbor Freight/Micro-Mark which are all basically the same unit.  The thing has a million uses for modeling.  I like using it for body work as well such as opening up radiator grills for etched parts which can be used to "let the sound out" if mounting a speaker in the rear.

Don't know what happen there, but anyway, I will keep the info, I sold the Scale Trains loco.