Flyerchief sound problem

I am drawing a blank right now but, I have a couple of the Flyonel steam sound cars. One would not give the chuff sounds, I played around with it and got it to work but I can't recall what I did. Have to see if I can jog my memory.

Ray

The tender only holds a speaker. The main board in the engine contains the radio, sound and motor control functions.  The board reads motor speed on the flywheel of the motor. That should also provide the input for the chuff.

Art,

I just went and put one of my Flyer-chief locomotives on the track and powered up with the sound switch turned off, the start up steam sound, the whistle, bell, and crew talk all sound with switch off. The only thing that is not working is the chuff, maybe try moving the sound switch on and off a few times, if that does not work see if wire is detached from or connected to wrong side of on off switch.

Ray

OK, that gives me two areas to check, the switch (which I have cycled on-off several times) and the flywheel area.  Thanks.  I sure hope it isn't a sound board.  Art

Art, try the engine with the switch in the off position.

Ray

@Rayin"S" posted:

Art, try the engine with the switch in the off position.

Ray

Ray,  I just did that and the idles sounds ceased, but whistle, bell, and crew talk function fine.  All that as expected.  I also cycled the chuff switch on and off several times. No change, so next would be to remove the engine shell and look for something loose when time permits.   We set up a loop in the office to test some new purchases after hours.   Art

I had the same problem with my new Berk when I got it.   I was under warranty.   It took 3 trips to North Carolina before Lionel fixed it.    I got it back and tested it and it worked fine.....Then I converted to TMCC with sound........Got the board  75.00

Regards

Jackie

@William Jack posted:

I had the same problem with my new Berk when I got it.   I was under warranty.   It took 3 trips to North Carolina before Lionel fixed it.    I got it back and tested it and it worked fine.....Then I converted to TMCC with sound........Got the board  75.00

Regards

Jackie

Jackie,  Have you done a report on the TMCC conversion?  Details?

Art

Art, the conversion of a FlyerChief Berkshire to TMCC/Railsounds is documented at www.tuveson.com. It is under "TMCC For S", scroll down almost to the bottom. I have one (Berkshire) as well as a FlyerChief Northern converted to TMCC/Railsounds.

I followed Carl's article to the point where he designed the two boards.   I tried and tried and could never get my boards to work.    I finally realized that I needed 5 wires from the engine.  I used hilly Billy engineering to solve the problem.  I used heat shrink tubing and (I do not know what the proper name is) Brass thumb nails with 2 flat fingers that you bend after pushing it threw paper of anything else.  You can purchase these anywhere usually in the school supply section of a store. (Walmart)

I then cut off the fingers and bent one (15 to 20 degrees). soldered wires on each finger  and used heat shrink tubing to hold them in place on the engine tongue and tender tongue. after that I now had 5 wires across the tongue. I soon learned that the connection pins would loosen and loose contact. I solved the problem by using a large shrink tube and pushing it over the tongue and then shrinking the tubing .  Only problem is that the tender cannot be disconnected now.  Use a razor blade knife and cut the tubing if you want to disconnect the tender

Now I know this is confussing..... So If you get serious about doing this .....let me know and I will take some picture to better illustrate what I am talking about. It's simple once you see what I am talking about. E-mail me at my e-mail address       jmeade21@hughes.net

Jackie

PS   I am not saying Carls board will not work......I am saying it was a problem on my end that I could never solve.

Jackie, what you did is impressive. I had Carl do my engines, his boards work as advertised. It is nice having an electrocoupler and the rear tender light.

AmFlyer...........Yes, it is great to have both rear light and electro coupler on the TMCC Berk.   When I tried and tried to get the board to work but it never did.....I even remade the boards 2 times and failed ....I know it was something I was doing wrong but could never solve it........Necessity is the mother of invention, I guess.

Jackie

I am a big fan of Carl's layout and advice.  Mixing detailed High Rail with scale scenery is a great ideal.