I have on my workbench one of the early 2000s conventional camelbacks with the modular electronics package. I need to add TMCC (easy, already swapped the original modular board out for an ERR R4LC) and Cruise Control (harder, see below). I want to keep the original railsounds system. There have been a number of threads on this forum dealing with this exact problem, but there have been no finished installation photos.
There are two options:
1. Use a Cruise Commander 'M' in place of the original DCDR.
Pros:
- All the harnesses transfer over, with one additional wire tapping into the serial data coming out of the R4LC.
- No serial data issues through tender tether.
Cons:
- Based on forum posts, its slightly longer than the DCDR which means relocating some PCB connectors, a task I'm not keen on.
- Not in stock at ERR until March
- Costs just as much as a full Cruise Commander
2. Remove all the modular electronics in the engine and install a normal Cruise Commander
Pros:
- I have a Cruise Commander on hand (where I stole the R4LC from)
- Would not need to hack up a PCB
Cons:
- Heat sink is slightly wider than the one on the DCDR, so I could not use the combined heat sink/mounting bracket already in the engine. Need to figure out something else.
- Potential need for a serial data buffer due to tender tether.
- No harnesses - need to manually route all the existing wires.
Which route have other forum members gone down, and how did it work out? Any pictures to share? Does the Cruise Commander 'M' really need to be hacked up, and how difficult is it? Alternately, is there some obvious way to mount the normal Cruise Commander that I'm just missing? Any serial data issues in the camelback when using the normal Cruise Commander?
Pictures for reference below.
Current installation (with R4LC in place of original conventional board):
Size comparison of DCDR vs Cruise 'M', from the ERR instructions:
Wiring diagrams for loco and tender, with the tether wires (I think properly) identified; correct me if anyone knows better:
