Is a current Legacy powered/soundless unit just missing a speaker?

Woody,

I can think of two possibilities:

1. Only the speaker has been left out (as you've mentioned)
2. Or, the software that produces the sounds has also been left out.

You may get lucky and find that all that is necessary to get sound is to add the speaker -- or maybe not.

Mike

Lionel does not put sound in its powered b-units🤬 Makes me really mad🤬  I can live without power, but not sound.  No “dead” units on my layout.

I think they do it to force you to buy its SuperBase b- units.  It can’t cost that much more to add sound for the return they would get.

I either run wires from the speaker in the a-unit (need to change the speaker size), or buy the missing modules from Lionel parts.

You need to post what model number set you have.
The Legacy F-2 set I just looked at on Lionels website doesn't have the Railsounds board in the D unit. Only the A unit.

just adding a speaker didnt work for me.  @gunrunnerjohn tried it for me the a powered e8 set where the lead unit has sound and second doesnt.  hooked up a speaker & no sound.  i agree they should just put sound in both units,  just ridiculous not to.  might eat into super bass unit sales tho.

@Mellow Hudson Mike posted:

Woody,

I can think of two possibilities:

1. Only the speaker has been left out (as you've mentioned)
2. Or, the software that produces the sounds has also been left out.

You may get lucky and find that all that is necessary to get sound is to add the speaker -- or maybe not.

Mike

Sorry, it's #2 Mike.

I had a sick feeling it would be that the software was left out.  All the hardware sitting there wasted and no software loaded...go figure.

You have to swap out the LCP board to get sound.

@Catonsville Central Railway posted:

I had a sick feeling it would be that the software was left out.  All the hardware sitting there wasted and no software loaded...go figure.

@gunrunnerjohn was still able to add sound to my soundless powered unit.

Oh I figured it would be easy, just swap boards and add a speaker.  Just a shame at $250 a pop they couldn't have loaded some software on the perfectly good LCP2 board that came with the engine.  It means that the whole portion of the board that handles the sound is sitting there on the non-sound units completely unused.  Seems like a waste.

@Catonsville Central Railway posted:

  It means that the whole portion of the board that handles the sound is sitting there on the non-sound units completely unused.  Seems like a waste.

That's not a waste that's called marketing. If you want sound, you'll need to buy some expensive upgrades to get it instead of giving you the power to update the software yourself for free.

@Catonsville Central Railway posted:

Oh I figured it would be easy, just swap boards and add a speaker.  Just a shame at $250 a pop they couldn't have loaded some software on the perfectly good LCP2 board that came with the engine.  It means that the whole portion of the board that handles the sound is sitting there on the non-sound units completely unused.  Seems like a waste.

You can actually do it cheaper.  There is serial data coming out of the LCP board, so I just added a Legacy RS-Lite sound board to add sound.

Good Afternoon,

Your situation is very familiar as I had brought up this very same question this past February.   In my case,  I have a Lionel Legacy 2133420 Cotton Belt Alco PA AA set with both units powered but no sound in the trailing A unit.   The above discussion is identical.   In my case,  I had purchased the AA set brand new for $599 so I had some "wiggle room" as far as the cost to add sound.   What I eventually did was wait for the Lionel 50% parts sale this past September.   I purchased the same LCP2 board that is in the lead A unit(with sound),  a baby fat boy  40mm dia 8 ohm 2 watt speaker,  a 40mm speaker gasket,  and the 3 washerhead speaker mounting screws.   I think it was $108 for everything.   I had to make the wire harness/plug that goes from the speaker to the board(I was lucky and had a plug left over from another project that was the right size).   After swapping everything,   I powered up the Trailing A unit and bingo!,   everything worked perfectly including the sounds.   As GRJ says above,  this can be done cheaper with another method-that's your call.

Gotta have sound in all the units, it makes a big difference.  I have an ABBA F3 set with sound and smoke in all units, it sounds like thunder when I fire it up and all the sounds cranked up.   It started out with only two sound units, I enhanced it.  I'm going to put sound in the other two units of my Legacy D&H ABA Sharks, I have the boards, just haven't allocated the time.

Not only do they not add sounds to boards that are driving powered but "speakerless" units, they don't add motor control logic to boards that have sounds and smoke.

The boards have all the circuitry there. Just no software on the chip!

@rplst8 posted:

Not only do they not add sounds to boards that are driving powered but "speakerless" units, they don't add motor control logic to boards that have sounds and smoke.

The boards have all the circuitry there. Just no software on the chip!

Correct, I tried connecting a motor to one as well, no dice.

Sounds like the standard operating practice for certain tech companies: use a single reference design, and sell downmarket versions by disabling some functionality. That's probably where the recent automotive practice of selling "subscription features" (like heated seats) came from

---PCJ

@RailRide posted:

Sounds like the standard operating practice for certain tech companies: use a single reference design, and sell downmarket versions by disabling some functionality. That's probably where the recent automotive practice of selling "subscription features" (like heated seats) came from

---PCJ

The subscription heated seats are where they jumped the shark IMO.