Lionel RailSounds history

Mikado 4501 posted:

RailSounds 1 was first released in 1989, and the reissue of the Pennsylvania B6 scale switcher was the first to try it out. It consisted of (now) spacious double stack boards that used a hall effect sensor with a magnet in one axle to speed up either the chuff or diesel RPM. The bell and whistle/horn were all the same in every engine that had it, but this system sounded a lot better than the Mighty Sound of Static Steam.

 

I agree with Mikado 4501.....RS1 was a tremendous advance over the Mighty Sound of Steam.....when those 1st boxcars were available with either steam or diesel RailSounds, it was an amazing change over what we had been used to!

Peter

PaperTRW posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

That is RailSounds 4, the boards all have RS3 on them.

Not quite.

It is a RailSounds 4 board incorrectly labeled RS3. 

But only the boards made at the two US vendors were mistakenly screened RS3. 

The boards from the two Chinese vendors are properly labeled RS4.

TRW

Is there an easy (aka plug-in) upgrade to get to RS 5 or 5.5?

PaperTRW posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

That is RailSounds 4, the boards all have RS3 on them.

Not quite.

It is a RailSounds 4 board incorrectly labeled RS3. 

But only the boards made at the two US vendors were mistakenly screened RS3. 

The boards from the two Chinese vendors are properly labeled RS4.

TRW

A butt-load of those RS3 labeled boards are out there, I checked half a dozen at random in my parts box, all were screened RS3.  AAMOF, I can't find one that isn't labeled RS3.

So - come on -share "the story"!

GeoPeg posted:

 

 

Is there an easy (aka plug-in) upgrade to get to RS 5 or 5.5?

You can pull out th RS4 Board and put in a RS5.

Works fine. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

PaperTRW posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

That is RailSounds 4, the boards all have RS3 on them.

Not quite.

It is a RailSounds 4 board incorrectly labeled RS3. 

But only the boards made at the two US vendors were mistakenly screened RS3. 

The boards from the two Chinese vendors are properly labeled RS4.

TRW

A butt-load of those RS3 labeled boards are out there, I checked half a dozen at random in my parts box, all were screened RS3.  AAMOF, I can't find one that isn't labeled RS3.

Here's a photo showing a properly labeled RS4 audio board, so yes, they do exist.

As I mentioned above, the error wasn't corrected until Lionel's electronics production moved offshore in 2002-2003. But you're right in that there are probably more boards out there incorrectly labeled RS3.

TRW

Mikado posted:

GRJ,

I do not believe they are compatible (RS 3.0 power boards and any audio board versions beyond RS 3.0). The older RS 3.0 Power boards do not generate the 5V on pins 5 and 6 as the 691RSPRA00 Universal sound power board does, hence RS 4.0 and beyond does not work.

Besides, space is the real premium inside a loco, why would you want to try to stuff something so large into a loco? If you had to have RS 3.0 sounds just take the PIC and ROM from the RS 3.0 audio board and drop them into a RS 4.0 audio board coupled with the 691RSPRA00 power board! 

Mike

 

So with something said earlier, RS 3.0 is known to be different slightly. We know the PIC and ROM use 5V likely generated by the RS3.0 power board, however not on pins 5 and 6. Does someone have an updated diagram pinout specific to RS3.0?? Just wondering what voltages are present (maybe 8V or 9V for audio amp?) and what pins are 5V. Just trying to complete my little book of knowledge for troubleshooting and repair or mod purposes. Also potentially produce modern repair PCBs as replacements become exhausted. Again, it has been noted and understood RS3.0 is unique. You can put RS3.0 PIC and ROM into other RS versions- they all are 5V "systems".

Jetguy posted:

So with something said earlier, RS 3.0 is known to be different slightly. We know the PIC and ROM use 5V likely generated by the RS3.0 power board, however not on pins 5 and 6. Does someone have an updated diagram pinout specific to RS3.0?? Just wondering what voltages are present (maybe 8V or 9V for audio amp?) and what pins are 5V. Just trying to complete my little book of knowledge for troubleshooting and repair or mod purposes. Also potentially produce modern repair PCBs as replacements become exhausted. Again, it has been noted and understood RS3.0 is unique. You can put RS3.0 PIC and ROM into other RS versions- they all are 5V "systems".

It's been awhile since I've looked it up, but RS3 systems have both 5v and 12v lines. You correctly surmised that the bigger voltage is for the pair of audio amps.

The two diodes and large caps found on the RS3 power board act as a voltage doubler to get the system to function under 12 volts. One-piece RS2.5 boards function in the same manner.

For RS4 and above, the system was redesigned with more efficient audio amps needing lower voltages.

TRW

All, 

This is all great info, and the main reason I was interested in this hobby was my son's excitement with all the sound features.  Is there any resource material that breaks down the version of railsounds that each engine has.  I find I am drawn to purchasing those from the railsounds 5 era, and some can purchased for a reasonable price used, except the SD70s from that time-frame, I see these new for $600-800.

thanks

Frank