AC Commander & Railsounds 2.5 Trigger

You should have:

1. Volume up
2. crew talk
3. RPM up - if you set it as a steam engine (AUX 4) you should have blow off
4. Volume down
5. shut down
6. RPM down or steam release
7. Tower Com
8. smoke (on/off
9. smoke boost

Whistle and bell have their own buttons.  You will not have squealing brakes or couple sounds.

I think it depends on the RS 2.5 chip, I don't believe all of them had crew talk and tower com.  Also, if this started life as a conventional locomotive, not all the RS 2.5 chips have serial data enabled.

Two or three years ago I purchased a Wabash Hudson #700 (6-18046) and got a great deal because the sound didn't work.  Nothing but static.  It turned out to be a bad ROM on the RailSounds 2.0/2.5 assembly (8046-T40).  For the longest time I could find neither a replacement ROM nor an entire replacement assembly, and so I substituted a complete CV RS 2.0/2.5 Assembly (6918045T40, purchased from our friends at S&W Parts).  Although not "factory" this arrangement has worked marvelously.  Both the CV and the Hudson have TMCC/RailSounds of the same vintage so the replacement was 'drop-in' functional with no rewiring.

Rhinoh, your proposed CV substitution should work as long as you use the same CV RailSounds 2.0/2.5 ***'y (6918045T40), and the AC Commander's Serial Out has enough amplitude to drive it adequately .

Mike

(By the way I did eventually find a replacement 8046-T40, just a few months ago.  I need to get back on this and install it.  Thanks for bringing this up as a reminder.)

I seem to have stumbled onto "net nanny" processing.  My apologies for accidentally invoking it.

In my last posting this:

got transformed into this:

during the posting process.

(I'll have to keep the net nanny in mind when I post in the future.  By the way I'm very glad that it's there -- for the sake of our younger followers if nothing else.)

Mike

Thanks for all the help. Attached is the board I would like to install. Trying to figure out how and where to run connections from this board to the AC Commander.

Take a look at this.

Thanks John. That helps a lot. It looks like I would need to run a wire from the serial pin on the Railsounds assembly to, I’m betting, pin 3 on the AC Commander.

That connector has track power, ground, and serial data.  Make sure you don't connect power or ground to the serial data on the RailSounds card.

John.....

Thanks again for the help.  I would like to add puffing smoke to this mid 80’s Hudson too. What’s the best way to acquire your super chuffer and what Lionel 27ohm fan driven smoke unit would you recommend?

Adding smoke I look at the actual locomotive to see what form factor smoke unit will fit the best and how to mount it.  I use a lot of the MTH PS2/3 smoke units in upgrades, as well as the Lionel rectangular smoke unit.  For the Super-Chuffer, you will need a chuff source, if you're using the chuff switch on the tender, you will have a problem.  That is totally isolated from ground and only feeds the RailSounds card.  In order to use the Super-Chuffer, you need a chuff switch that is ground referenced as that's what the TMCC board and Super-Chuffer expect.

I was planning to use two magnets and a reed switch on a tender wheel to feed the Railsounds board in the tender. Would tapping into this for a super chuffer work or would a chuff generator in the loco be a better alternative?

The RS 2.5 chuff input MUST be isolated, so if you generate the chuff there and feed it to the RS board, you can't use it anywhere else.  The way to do this is to generate the chuff in the locomotive and have it come across the serial data to the RS board.  One issue with that is, some of the RS 2.5 boards, even if they recognized the serial data, didn't recognize the chuff commands on the serial data stream.

I suspect this vintage locomotive has the AC motor and no flywheel, so the Chuff-Generator isn't an option.

You’re correct. I enjoy the challenge of shimming, tuning, breaking in and lubing these old pullmors. I can get their low speed performance close to my newer can motored Hudson’s. This one is running really well, but want to improve upon Lionel’s Mighty Sound of Steam and get it to smoke close to my 6-38000 ESE Hudson.  Am I out of luck, or is there a path you could recommend?

A number of variables.  If the chuff isn't recognized over the serial data, I don't see a way to use that RS 2.5 board with the Super-Chuffer without some extra parts.  Obviously, the first thing I'd do is test that ability.

FWIW, the AC or DC Commander doesn't have chuff on the terminal block like the Cruise Commander.  You have to tack the chuff wire on pin-17 of the R2LC socket, I do it on the bottom of the AC Commander.

If you need to use the tender switch for chuffing, then I'd use a DPDT relay on the reed switch and use one set of contacts for the RS board and another for sending the chuff to the locomotive for the smoke chuffing.  There's always a way, just depends on how hard you want to work at it.

Thanks again. Great ideas......and a few things for me to think through. I’ll try and post progress. Appreciate you helping a new member.