Lionel Trainsounds Boxcar 6-36789 Speaker Crackling and Addition of a Capacitor

Do the instructions say whether the car can be operated on a layout powered by DC?  If so, you could probably install batteries and an on-off switch, which would keep the sound going no matter what.  (I'm guessing that the diesel rev level or chuff rate is determined by a Hall effect wheel on one of the axles, and is not voltage-dependent, otherwise my battery idea won't work.)

There are many on this Forum who have forgotten more about circuits than I'll ever know.  But if you're going to use a capacitor on the AC track feed, it has to be of the NON-polar type, and probably rated for 50-100 volts.  Hopefully someone else who knows more will chime in.

I can't imagine this is a problem that a cap would solve.  I suspect that the Trainsounds board just gets unhappy with low voltage.

It's simple to swap in a different speaker for a test, but my sense is that the crackling will still be there.

@Ted S posted:

Do the instructions say whether the car can be operated on a layout powered by DC?  If so, you could probably install batteries and an on-off switch, which would keep the sound going no matter what.  (I'm guessing that the diesel rev level or chuff rate is determined by a Hall effect wheel on one of the axles, and is not voltage-dependent, otherwise my battery idea won't work.)   If you're going to use a capacitor on the AC track feed, it has to be of the NON-polar type, and probably rated for 50-100 volts. 

These are all Lionel, 3-rail AC items

The instructions say the car is designed to operate on 6 to 18 volts AC.  Thus a battery won't work.  I agree that the crackling sound is due to low voltage as the speaker sounds are good once the voltage is raised.  I am going to try the speaker swap, but most likely won't change things as gunrunnerjohn suggests. 

Thanks for all your input.

Did the speaker swap - Same Results - Crackling when voltage is first applied.  Crackling stops once things get powered up.

@Zeke13 posted:

Did the speaker swap - Same Results - Crackling when voltage is first applied.

The limitations of trainsounds. It's not a super advanced board, didn't support battery backup like full railsounds for conventional- this sounds like an expectations issue. You want trainsounds to give you the features of full railsounds.

Vernon Barry. No expectations.  I knew what I was getting.  Just wanted to know if it was possible to not have interruptions when running conventional and changing directions.  Also wanted to know if there were issues with the speaker.  Which both were answered.  I rather like this car for what it does and how it sounds.  I may even look to get others to run behind RMT BEEPs.

I think a lot of us experience crackling sounds until we get going.

@breezinup posted:

I think a lot of us experience crackling sounds until we get going.

Or even after we get going!