ERR CC Lite connection to Lionel sound board

A CC lite comes with an R4LC. Pin 24 is serial data out. Pin 24 has to go through your tether to the Railsounds board. The Railsounds manual will show you where the serial data input pin is on that board.

I assume you also have a chuff switch. If its in the engine there is a chuff input on your cruise lite. If its in your tender there is second chuff input on the Railsounds board. You use one or the other, not both.

This is a pretty simple question that someone at 3rd Rail should have been able to answer.

Pete

Thanks for your reply Pete. I would have thought that since ERR has an email address, and it says to contact them about technical questions on that email address, that they would be able to help me with this. Definitely not the reply I expected. 

Unfortunately I do not have a manual for the sound board. I have searched Lionel's manuals on line but can't find anything on this RS board. This is from an older RTR set and the sound board is controlled by the horn and bell buttons on the transformer. I am not sure how the serial output on the CC Lite board sends its signal, so I'm not sure if connection directly to this sound board is possible. I have read where the older whistle and sound boards need to have a separate circuit board to create the higher and lower voltage signal to control the horn and whistle. I have also read about them being connected directly to the board on the newer RS boards. Some show them soldered to a circuit on the bottom some on the top. Unfortunately, I haven't seen it done for my sound board. I was hoping some one had done this to one of these boards before. I have attached a picture of the board, if it will help.  

Norm,

I do not believe you can drive the conventional Railsounds board you have directly from the CC Lite. ERR had sold a Sound Converter board which I was able to use to adapt my conventional Railsounds board to the ERR motor driver board but that board is no longer available, I wish I had purchased more of them.

Ray

I added a picture with inputs labeled. I have no idea what the other 2 and 9 pin connections are for.

Thanks Ray, I was hoping to make this work, but it's starting to look like I'll probably have to get the ERR sound board for this loco. I was trying to save a few bucks on this, but if I have to buy another board to make it work it, I will probably be better off spending the $$ and buy the Railsounds commander board. Thanks for your help.

My apologies to 3rd Rail. I thought you had a TMCC Railsounds board. As Ray pointed out you can't drive a conventional one in TMCC mode. Upgrading to TMCC generally means both the motor control and Sound board has to be replaced.

Pete

Pete, thanks for the reply... I thought that would be the case, but figured if I don’t ask, I won’t know, nothing ventured...nothing gained. Thanks again for yours and Ray’s responses. Looks like I’ll be calling ERR. 

After some thought...

The RS Command board operates directly off the track. Bell and whistle and voltage / speed are picked up directly from the track in conventional mode. There is no need to connect it to a Cruise Lite board for conventional operation. Just track power, speaker, volume ( if it's an OEM board). We actually use this method to test our boards before shipping. Scott

FWIW, some of the RS boards in conventional stuff are actually TMCC/Legacy compatible.  I have several that I've taken out of conventional locomotives and they work on my testbed in command mode.  I even have a couple of whistle/bell only boards  from conventional that accept TMCC serial data in command mode.

John, how would I go about getting the bell and whistle to work in command mode. Right now I only get the chuff sounds. Where on that board would I hook up the serial to?

Serial data goes to pin 1 of that 9-pin 1.5mm connector on the RS board.

This site is the BEST!!! Just had to say. 

Thanks so much John, your a veritable websters dictionary of Model Railroading........greatly appreciated. 

Normd55 posted:

Thanks so much John, your a veritable websters dictionary of Model Railroading........greatly appreciated. 

Perhaps some aspects of it, but there are oceans of model railroading that I'm a novice in.

Ok, so i did what you said John and it worked perfectly. I even got a pleasant surprise, not only did the Bell and Whistle work, but this board also has towercom, Crewtalk (the Crewtalk where they actually say things you can understand) and steam sounds activated by the Cab1. It's a generic steam board and the whistle sounds like a shay or 4-4-2, but it works! Now all I need is a tether and connector and I'll be in business. John and everyone else, who go out of your way to help all who ask, I can't thank you enough!!

Norm

Cool, you had a full function board all the time.

That is really interesting with the newer stuff.  That was not the case with the original 2.5 and 4.0 Conventional RS boards.  G

You're right George, I was pretty surprised when the new single-board whistle/bell board worked in command mode, I didn't expect that.

Ok, so this rtr sound board is tmcc compatable?

I have no idea if all of them are command capable, but obviously some are.

One more thing on this board, whenever it crosses over a turnout the sound drops out. I would like to install a battery to keep continuous sound. Does anyone know which 2 pin the battery connects to? There are 2 available, one by the Chuff switch in (J3) and one by the vol ctrl in (J8). Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

If you're talking about the board discussed previously in this thread, I don't believe it has a battery input.

The RS-Lite board that's used in Legacy and sold by ERR for the TMCC stuff, OTOH, does have a battery connection.  It's a 2-pin 2mm JST-PH connector, the only one of that size and spacing on the board.

Normd55 posted:

Ok, so i did what you said John and it worked perfectly. I even got a pleasant surprise, not only did the Bell and Whistle work, but this board also has towercom, Crewtalk (the Crewtalk where they actually say things you can understand) and steam sounds activated by the Cab1. It's a generic steam board and the whistle sounds like a shay or 4-4-2, but it works! Now all I need is a tether and connector and I'll be in business. John and everyone else, who go out of your way to help all who ask, I can't thank you enough!!

Norm

I might suggest looking at the draw bars for a LionChief berk, like the PE. Those have a 4 pin conductors and only 2 are used for sound. Just an idea. 

Thanks for the reply Gunrunner, I was hoping it would work, but it appears it’s not going to happen. It’s not a big problem, the sound comes back on a few seconds after clearing the turnout’s or by pressing the aux1 so I’ll live with it. Appreciate your quick response. 

Chris, great suggestion for the tether, However, I remember reading somewhere that the IR drawbars require some kind of protocols from the Main board to the RS board to communicate. I’m not sure about the ERRCC v4.1 having the protocol but I’m pretty sure the RS board I have doesn’t. I could be wrong on this, if so please let me know. I was able to make a 2 pin tether that works but it is quite a pita to connect and disconnect. If a wireless would work, I would definitely love to install it. If anyone knows for sure please let me know.

Thanks for a great idea!!

Norm

Chris, I think I’m having another senior moment....... the drawbar in your picture is a mechanical style not a wireless. When I looked at the picture, at first glance it looked like a wireless (haven’t gotten my new glasses yet).  That drawbar would work great!! Thanks

I do these conversions of the AF Berkshire.
Here is the wiring diagram I use.

It uses a 4 conductor tether

Normd55 posted:

I added a picture with inputs labeled. I have no idea what the other 2 and 9 pin connections are for.

Norm, how many pins does the plug for the chuff switch have ?   I can't be sure but it looks like three which would indicate a Hall sensor. Does your loco use a mechanical switch or a Hall sensor for chuff timing and which pins are used within that socket ?  I have several loco's kitbashed from Rivarossi Casey Jones kits and it looks like this board or the ERR Railsounds Lite and a speaker might be the only TMCC combination that will fit in the tender.  Railsounds 4 with two boards and a motherboard is just too large.  Thanks          j

Lol, put another command board in the tender....the heck with the tether