Help with lionel railsounds issue.

Actually it probably is not a problem, although the stock board would have the neccessary front-end rectification and filtering to handle an AC input, a DC input should work just fine.

 

The reason I don't want to do a hurry-up job on this is because of the potential other uses.  Although I do want to fix the sound issues and have constant brightness low input voltage lighting for the conventional locomotives, a more 'general' power solution might enable some other cool things.  I want to marinate on this for a bit in case there are other possibilities and features to add. In the meantime I can prototype something up on the breadboard.

I think the capacitor solution is the best. Maybe something similar to the BCR? I also really like this  and am excited to see where this will go. 

This loco has Railsounds RTR. It needs the processor reflashed with S2 code. Have your technician email me directly at mreagan@lionel.com and we can get it arranged. Thanks, Mike Lionel

Now that's great service!!

Mike I spoke with my tech and he will get in touch with you

Great, looking forward to it!

a little update to my dilema.  i got my berkshire jr back today and did some testing.  what i found out is kinda interesting.  i noticed that my mth train needs around 6.5-7 volts of power which is more than enough to power proto sound and for that matter railsounds.  I turned off the proto sound and then pulled the railsounds tender around and it works beautifully.  I then put the berkshire back on the track and checked the voltage and that loco starts pulling at 3.5 volts which is no where near the 6-15 that lionel states is needed to operate railsounds.  I am thinking that part of the solution could be to step down the voltage going into the motor in the loco in order to supply more voltage to the tender.  or am i just being to petty??

That's pretty easy to do, use a string of back-to-back diodes in one of the motor leads and you can cut down the voltage to the motor while keeping the track voltage up.

Wow, I find it amazing that the engine starts moving with track voltage at 3.5V AC considering the rectification that occurs and the associated voltage drops through the diode(s).  So is Mike talking about flashing S02 code in the reverse unit of the engine or into your tender RS board?

I have seen the S02 code on the Polar Exp. engine reverse board.  G

I agree.  i couldnt believe that loco would start moving with so little voltage.  I tried to put a pretty long consist behind it to see if that would help improve.  Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you want to view it the berk jr is a strong little sucker!!! 

Sound board. Has nothing to do with the loco. Mike