Digital Dynamics and Train America TMCC

Well, both firms are out of business, that should tell you something.

 

I liked the idea of the DD Equalizer, but the reviews I saw weren't that great.

There were "obsolete" electronic parts that were apparently irreplaceable because both those items were only made for a very short time. I don't remember them ever being available in fact.

 

Neil 

While there may not be exact replacements for parts, there are no barriers to circuit changes to use available parts.  I can assure you that any capability that was available before the part was discontinued is still available in some form.

 

Folks here have actually had a DD Equalizer, so I'm sure at least some of them were available for a time.

The TAS version was called the UCUB 2. I bought two of them when they came out. The first one I installed had a heat issue which allowed it to run for about 20 minutes before shutting down. gave it to one of the TAS principals who tested it and said "yes, there is a problem" and that was that.

 

So i took it all apart, mounted a huge heat sink and a fan, and un-sealed the tender. The sound system was terrible after that, but the loco ran.

 

The chuffing sounds were intermittent all along, in both configurations, because the UCUB did not accurately/consistently move the sound system out of neutral and into run mode.

 

I took it out of the loco and gave both sets away. Then, I installed an electric railroad cruise commander, sound commander, sealed the tender, and all was well after that.

 

 

I have at least 20 engines with TAS ucub, ucubII & SAW (Sunset-Atlas-Weaver) boards that are at least 10 years old and still run except for an occasional R2LC (Lionel component) failure. TAS didn't go out of business per se as Mike Reagan the owner got hired by Lionel.

Thanks, Gary for clearing up some of the misinformation, Mike Regan and staff were hired by Lionel to upgrade there service department and parts division. I don't need to talk about how well that turned out. they're doing a great Job.  I'm still running all my

EOB engines without a problem. EOB was a solid platform and had features some other systems didn't have. Many problems were associated with poor installation skills. I still run the only know A/C Pullmor EOB's at train shows to the surprise of many who swore it couldn't be done. I can also assure you that TAS would still be viable if Mike didn't go to

Lionel. I personally think it was a great move for Mike and Gang. I'm amazed how many times I read people bad mouth EOB once the company stop selling to the general public and went OEM, these same people praised EOB when it was available and couldn't buy them fast enough.

 

Hint: There is a new chip to make it quite!

 

Ernie

I'ver personally seen and have run the one and only AC/pullmor EOB engine-those pullmors are quiet and the engines run as smooth as the can motor counterparts! As for EOB, it is a very smooth running operation in any engine you install them in. I have it installed in a MTH DD40ax engine and the operation is top notch!

 

P.S. I heard about the quiet EOB.

Hint: There is a new chip to make it quite!

 

Ernie- you need spell check for quite!

I guess you guys have a different EOB than I have on the three locomotives I have here.  I find both the Legacy and MTH PS2 locomotives far superior to the operation of EOB.  I would rate the ERR stuff as slightly better, but not in the class of the other two mentioned.

quote:

I find both the Legacy and MTH PS2 locomotives far superior to the operation of EOB.

 

Can you do 4 chuffs per Rev ??

Well, we were referring to the cruise control aspect, but I see that option in the MTH locomotives, so I'd have to say yes.   I haven't tried to change the chuff rate of the Legacy steamers, but I didn't think there was anything wrong with the existing sound.  Plus, the Legacy sounds beat the pants off the RailSounds 4 that you got with the TAS stuff in any case.

If I were to replace the Odyssey system in my Lionel PRR M1a would I get 4 chuffs per revolution? Also is it still possible to get the EOB?

Unless you find one used, no.  The TAS stuff is no longer produced.

OK.. to throw in the monkey wrench. I have a PS1 Big Boy and have a DD AC/DC TMCC and Railsounds boards to install.  However, the Seiuth smoke unit board is fried, a crispy critter.  Other than the eight prong connect tether I have to install, will smoke units from the DL-110 / 109 work, and where may I find any wiring diagrams for the PS1 Big Boy from 1997?  Other than looking at it when disassembled, I would like to know more of the PC board mounted in top of the engine boiler before proceeding.  I believe it is only for the smoke unit and headlight/marker lights, firebox and cab lighting.

 

Any information is appreciated.  Have been O Gauger since 1958 and still have first Lionel set from 1958.. plus LOTS more !!!

 

Thanks,

 

Jesse     TCA Member

I've used products from both of the former companies and ALL of their equipment worked as advertised IF you READ ALL of the INSTRUCTIONS and actually FOLLOWED them.  Most of the problems with the products were caused user IQ errors.  

 

DD had the additional handicap of no way of doing installs and Ed was a one man show that was actually a part time one man show.  I believe the Motor Mite was the smallest full feature TMCC upgrade that was ever offered.  I never had issues in dealings with either company and their tech support was top notch.

 

The other issues with the UCUB and Equalizer were trying to deal with programming the board to deal with the way QSI designed the PS-1 equipment.  The Reset mode was kind of a nightmare to emulate.  

 

There was a third set of products that were even more scarce, the QSI-3000 board.  It had a socket for an RL2C receiver.  I've got the manual in PDF format somewhere but I've never actually seen one of these.

Jesse,  The wiring is pretty simple for MTH PS-1 engines.  If your bigboy is a 1997 I would think it has a fan driven smoke unit not Sleuthe?  If so it can be rebuild.  Are you sure this is a MTH not Williams?

The four wire harness has motor leads on the 2 outer pins and AC power on the 2 internal.  The engine has a smoke switch that takes AC center rail and powers the smoke unit.  The lighting is either driven from track voltage, or there is a 6V based CV Board that would power lights and markers.

 

Tender reverse light is 1.5V and driven off the PS-1 board in the tender, and if markers on the tender they would also be off the PS-1 board at 5 Volt. 

 

Following these basics you should be able to figure out the wiring.

 

Don't toss that smoke unit because getting one to fit could be hard.  Better to post picture and rebuild it.  G

The Q-3000 manual actually was available as a legacy document on the QSI web.  I have one, and it doesn't have a R2LC port available.  It has the same jumper terminals as any PS-1 or QSI top board.  Just a better processor and more features I believe.  G

I think that may have been the straw that broke the back between QSI and MTH.  The 3000 boards were advertised as having TMCC support.  I remember the 3000 was originally going to be a "3" with upgraded processor and may have been morphed into the 3000 to add TMCC support?  I called a couple of dealers about the 3000 when it first announced and they indicated they didn't know when it would ship.  This was about 6 months BEFORE QSI went public with the law suit issues.  I was looking for a TMCC upgrade that would include subway sounds and QSI had subway sound sets in their library so I was trying to order a couple of these for my R-21 sets.

If you're installing the TMCC/RailSounds stuff into the BigBoy, wiring diagrams for the existing locomotive probably aren't of much use.  You're going to be stripping out the old stuff and wiring for the new boards.  I replace any lighting boards as a rule with a conversion, I normally go LED for any lighting on an upgrade.

 

You can make pretty much any smoke unit work, if I'm going to the trouble of upgrading the smoke, I go for fan driven smoke.

Chuck,  NO mention of R2LC in the instructions.  The copy right was 1999.  IT mentioned how to use the Power Master in Conventional on page 134.  It was specifically a conventional system.  It also mentions the UCUB but states you must contact TAS for instructions.

 

Frankly this wonderful system came too late, and the command era made conventional control of multiple trains via ID number and Bell/Whistle buttons obsolete.

 

Plus they still used a 3 board system, and the need for a coupler board.  I wonder if MTH bottom board was an MTH patent that locked QSI out of a more compact 2 board system.

 

The instructions specifically state this still operated based on sensed voltage of the track to control motor and sound functions.   G

Can TMCC upgrades support command control of headlights, MARS, firebox, cab light and markers?  Or do you just wire LEDs for all those aux lights to track power?

 

Depending on the engine and features ripping out the CV board may result in lost features.

 

I thought the TMCC boards really only supported limited Command control features (2 couplers), smoke, directional lights.  Any thing else required a compromise of giving up a feature.

 

Do the ERR upgrades provide more functional control, or just source voltage for powering various aux lights?  G

You are not going to have independent control of each light type for any TMCC upgrade, at least not without some added circuitry. However, you're not going to have independent control of them with any existing board either, there's no control input to switch them.  What you'll have with that board is all the lights all the time.

 

For a steamer, I wire the class lights, markers, and headlight together, since you normally have the headlight on at all times.  This circuit is wired to the front headlight, so you can turn the lights off from the remote if desired.  The backup light is wired to the reverse light output.  The firebox glow I use a flickering LED and power it from track voltage with a diode, cap, and resistor.  You can also connect it to the headlight circuit if desired.  For a MARS light and cab light, I'd use my little circuit I've posted previously that senses motor voltage and activates a DPDT relay.  That way you can have the MARS light when you're moving, and the cab light when you're stopped.

 

Ok, but for the average guy that doesn't want to do all that, why not leave the CV board?  Some have used a relay triggered off the headlight function on PS-2 to turn the CV on and off.  That way when you shut down the engine, you can turn off the track powered CV board and lights.

 

For PS-2 Premier or other high function Steam engines, the first thing I do is see if I can put the PS-2 board in the engine.  If so, I can control all functions.

 

For TMCC you can't because there isn't that depth of control available.

 

If you want LED ok, but I wouldn't counsel folks to rip out all the CV and lights unless they determine they have other methods.  Another good example is on some brass engines, markers use very small LED or Bulbs that may not be easily replaceable.

 

JMO:-)  G

Good points, I guess I go crazy when I do a conversion.   My problem is sometimes it's not easy to figure out exactly the function of existing boards, and I've usually found out personally that it's easier to simply replace the functions. 

 

I doubt the BigBoy is one of the engines that you can't reach things, but I know what you mean about brass engines, I have a Cab Forward that looks "interesting" when I get around to doing that one.

I have a QSI 3000 with UCMB installed by TAS in a MTH camelback.

Once I figured it out, it has more sounds than my RS5 TMCC engines.

Passenger arrival, coal loading, water loading, Doppler effect, brakes,
Couplers noises as slack is taken up on departure And more engine idle and shutdown sequences.
FMH

I just recently had a DD Equalizer board installed in a MTH PS1 set of PAs.  The installer (Thank you JR Junction; Syracuse, NY) was Tom Edwards, and he made sure it worked as advertised when installed.  He was able to keep the PS1's battery charging system for the sounds, and it works flawlessly.  It even still has the tether to run the other PAs headlight when going in revers.

 

In this specific case, the quirks of the QSI system is that when the train is stopped, the horn and bell button trigger the bell.  while in motion, the horn and bell buttons trigger the horn.  If you start the bell while stopped and then move, you can't turn it off without stopping.

 

One cool effect is the fan / engine speed sounds during braking.  They sound more like dynamic break sounds, and not clamp breaks.

 

They are helluva pullers!  Able to pull a full rake of all 10 Lionel scale Commodore Vanderbilt cars, with an express reefer, and three or four other Lionel scale heavyweights!

 

Thanks,

Mario

I guess that DD Equalizer board worked after all.

 

I pulled some of the adds for the 3000 from back issues of the magazines.  The original 3000 indicated you could access the QSI sounds from TMCC via a UCUB (I don't think the DD board was out yet). This was mid 1999, mid 2000.  Late 2000 the QSI system was supposed to have a UCS top board that provided full TMCC control.   I don't know if the UCS ever saw the light of day.

GRJ, did you sell me a bum board? Ha!

Actually worked great, thanks to your generousity, and Mr. Jackson!

He sent me the connectors to make it plug and play.

Well, it was working when it left, I had done a quick test before I shipped it.  

My QS-3000 with a UCUB  was installed by TAS with an additional 1pin connector for smoke control in Dec 1999. Cost for UCUB was $139. QSI board was $$108.
Total install was $305.

It has full access to all the QSI features. And also full TMCC functions.
What it lacks is conventional control and has no battery. Sounds do not skip on dead spots. Must use a capacitor.
Shut down sequence is triggered at full voltage. Unlike my TMCC engines with batteries, sound cuts out immediately when track voltage is turned off.
It has multiple programing options for just about every feature.
Most done with the transformer throttle and some with the Cab-1

Can you post pictures and directions for the UCUB?  G

I will try this weekend.
Fred

just for reference, I was lucky to find a DD Equalizer board here for under $50, and the install was $200 (although GRJ says it is easy).  The MTH battery for still works and provides sounds after power shut down.

 

As we are moving, I can't get a video posted of it, but in November, the Great NY State Train Fair is in Syracuse, and I'll be working the CNY-NRHS layout, so I'll possibly have a chance to grab one.

 

Thanks and good luck!

- Mario

I said easy, but I guess it wasn't cheap.

 

Really! Wasn't just plug and play?? 

Actually, when I tested the two that I had, I just plugged them in and ran them, it was very easy.  However, I didn't do the mechanical stuff of mounting them, etc., but I don't see that as costing a lot.  I also didn't wire any lights, etc., just wanted to make sure the boards were functional.

 

Hi GGG,

Attached are instructions to mount the QSI-3000 to the TAS UCUB. The QSI will work in both conventional and in command. The UCUB is designed for command only.

If the QSI-3000 was not programed by TAS then you will have to do yourself per instructions.

 

you will also need the TAS UCUB install guide (maybe the UCUB 11 depending on your board) Uploaded previously by Gunrunner.

 

Photos of the boards installed in my MTH Camelback. With my "Krylon" speaker baffle.

Having just stuffed it all in , I did not feel like taking it apart any further.

Very important that both boards are totally isolated from any metal. Hence the electrical tape.

Thank you,  So the UCUB replaces the bottom board!  Anyone know what style/part number those jumpers/extenders are?  G