I think I have one of those motherboards. I will check tonight. I am pretty sure the connectors are marked on the underside what they are for. Usually the two pin connector is the speaker. The black connector goes to track power. One connector will be for serial data and one for the chuff switch but I will try and determine which is which. 

Pete

I've been wanting to do this exact same thing, but Ken at Electric Railroad Co. said it couldn't be done.

"...What you need is an ERR stand-alone RS4 power board to plug your audio board into.  I was selling them here for a year or so after we stopped shipping RS4.  But they have been gone now for a year.  Sorry- Ken"

You're talking about using an RS 5.0 motherboard, power board, and sound board as complete separate system and running through the Cruise Comander. I don't know how different what you're doing is, but if you can get it to work, let me know! 

- RICH

Shouldn't be a problem Rich. Its just a matter of getting the serial data signal from the radio board to the RS boards. The ERR board they used to sell was a just neater as it eliminated the need for a separate motherboard.

Pete

Thanks all - yes, I will be getting all three boards - the motherboard (pictured above), the RS Power board, and the RS 5.0 board.  All three together should be stand alone, just like the old Digital Dynamics RS 4.0 boards.  I just don't know what will plug in where.  I'm sure the 3 pin at the top is for the speaker, and the black is the power, but I don't know where the serial and common plugs in to.

Here is what I will purchase if I can get this to work:

On the current board:

I think once I know where the serial and common go, then this should be a snap.

Ok Allan. I don't have the one you pictured but do have this one. It would also work. As you can see the terminals are clearly marked on the underside. I would suspect the one above has similar markings.

Pete

richtrow posted:

I've been wanting to do this exact same thing, but Ken at Electric Railroad Co. said it couldn't be done.

"...What you need is an ERR stand-alone RS4 power board to plug your audio board into.  I was selling them here for a year or so after we stopped shipping RS4.  But they have been gone now for a year.  Sorry- Ken"

You're talking about using an RS 5.0 motherboard, power board, and sound board as complete separate system and running through the Cruise Comander. I don't know how different what you're doing is, but if you can get it to work, let me know! 

- RICH

I have purchased the powered motherboards from Lionel parts and used them, so I know they will function.  In a previous post, I detailed the differences from the old ERR RS Commander, it's simple to use this board.  The sticking point for many is making the cables, I have the crimp tool, contacts, and connector shells so it's simple for me.

It's still available at Lionel for $45.  It's also a lot more compact than using the full RS MB with the two boards.

Here's what you need to know to translate the the ERR documentation to the Lionel part.

From a previous post:

There are three extra pins that are for an external volume control as this board doesn't have it on-board.  There are the red block on the right.  You can either use those pins with an external control or buy the proper volume control pot and solder it to the board locations for it.  You can also short two of the pins for max volume and dispense with the volume control.  For steam, a reed switch goes between the Trigger switch and DC Common on the lower right connector.  The 5VDC is for a hall effect sensor.

Hi All - I opened up my Railsounds 5.0 Berkshire Tender and saw the motherboard above is labeled on the bottom of the board, so I will order the 3 boards tomorrow and then install them when they come in.  I'll let everyone know the results when I'm done.

Three boards?

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Three boards?

Yes - the motherboard, the RS power board, and the RS Sound board.

OK, I thought you were going for the powered motherboard, that would have only required two boards and is a more compact solution.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

OK, I thought you were going for the powered motherboard, that would have only required two boards and is a more compact solution.

John - thanks - I re-read your post and I think I will try the 2 board solution instead.  As you said, compact would be good and cheaper to boot!

I just realized that the rail sounds I'm wanting to preserve as I upgrade to ERR for speed control are RS4.0.  I wonder if that's going to be a problem for my situation?

Rich,

From what I remember from my Digital Dynamics RS 4 upgrades, the plugs are the same (power/serial).  I don't think it will be an issue.

RS4 and RS5 boards have the same pinouts and both will work fine in the powered motherboard.

I got the boards, and hooked it up, but got no sound.  What I hooked up was the 3rd rail, common, and serial from the cruise commander, and the speaker leads.  I then experimented (bad idea), and smoked the power board, so I ordered another one.

What am I missing?  Do I need to reprogram once installed, am I missing some wires?  Any help is appreciated.

Without knowing what wires you currently have in place, it's hard to know what's missing.

Here is what I installed.  The pins circled are the 5 wires I attached.  The power/common/serial came from the 3 pin tether from the Cruise Commander.  I also highlighted what I did not install (as not used).

You need to jumper the volume pot if you're not going to install one.  I mentioned that pretty specifically.  For full volume, solder a jumper between the two holes indicated by the arrows.

Thanks - I'll do that on the next power board I get.  

If you wired it the way you indicated, how did you blow a power board?

Because I was dumb and tried to put an additional common somewhere it didn't go and the board didn't like it...

Here is the updated diagram showing the jumper for everyone else who wants to do this.

YIKES!

You're right, the DC common on that board is NOT frame ground.

Yeah, I figured that out really quickly the hot and smokey way...  

New board will be here Thursday or Friday...

That is why it said DC common, not AC common G

I think with the older TMCC stuff having frame ground and DC Common the same has fooled some folks.

And now all done!  Amazing how one little jumper makes a big difference!  

Now on to changing the sound in my upgraded Santa Fe PS1 to Electric RR TMCC Northern (to use the Railsounds 5.0 3751 chipset).

Sorry for the shakiness of the videos.

On the test track:

On the Lower Main:

What was the RS board you used for the cab forward?

I used the Railsounds 5.0 chipset from the Lionmaster Cab Forward since it was the newest model before the Legacy version.

I just looked, and they have a RS5 #4294, that's the cab number of the brass one in the closet, so I think I'll try to bag that one.

I just ordered the Santa Fe Chipset and the C&O F-19 #490 chipset to upgrade the sound in my C&O Yellow Belly.  

I'm actually using one of these with the magnet and reed switch now. Does the chuff switch connect to the DC Common, not the 5V DC? The old ERR diagrams for the RS4E upgrade board seem to show so.

If you are using the Cruise Commander with pretty much any RailSounds variant, you don't need any connection to the audio board chuff switch.  Just pipe the chuff into the Cruise Commander's chuff input, it'll be delivered to the audio via the serial link.  That's the way all my upgrades work.

I'm using the AC Commander in this case.

Same comment, it works exactly the same way.

Because the AC Commander doesn't have the chuff pin where the Cruise one does.

Love this thread, next upgrade I'll check out RS5.0 options

Sorry, I forgot that little detail.  Just wire it to Pin 17 of the R2LC socket, same effect.  I don't know why they assumed you needed two antenna connections on the AC Commander, that was kinda' stupid IMO.

Pin 17 is the chuff input, it's simply pulled to frame ground to generate the chuff.

I should have remembered this, I just did a couple of AC Commander steamers.

RS5.0 still may not be purchase without turn in.  So you may want to ask before all your hopes get up.  Most are contact Lionel and more and more parts are now turn in required.  G