Need Help Finding Train America Studios TAS Tach Reader Board

I might suggest GRJ's Chuff-Generator if you cant find a tach reader. The CG works and plays well with ERR TMCC items.

Chris,

I’ve been reading up on that option as a possibility if I end up changing over to ERR. Have you used it? Pros & cons? In the meantime, I’m trying to stay with what I currently have without dropping the coin for all the components for the ERR swap.

Thx,

Dan

I have nothing but good to say about the Chuff-Generator and Super Chuffer. These are quality products produced by a forum member, GunRunnerJohn. I have 2 of these in 2 different engines and they are awesome. Very easy to install IF you follow the directions. I did find that if you leave an engine sit too long without running or power, it loses its memory. I had the CG programmed for 4 chuffs per revolution. It sat all spring and summer, now I have 2 chuffs per rev. Simple fix will be to reprogram it for 4 chuffs.

John might jump in here, but there is only 3 wires for the Chuff Generator. Positive 5 volts, ground, and the "chuff" wire. I don't know if the CG will work with the TAS electronics or not. But it does with ERR.

Dan....I am in the same boat as you. I purchased a TAS board set from a 2 rail member . It is their cruise version called EOB.

Turns out it will not work without the matching Tach reader. I found a member or two with spares that did not wish to sell one, Pretty rare it seems. There are three Lionel boards that if working could be re purposed by using a Lionel mother board that is still available from Lionel parts. GRJ did mention that his chuff generator would not work with the EOB,but you might want to check with him. I am currently working to build a TMCC test unit to test the 3 Lionel boards from the EOB unit and a number of other boards that I have on hand. See TMMCC Tester Discussion thread on OGR.  https://ogrforum.com/...1#113207422980567051I also use ERR products on projects but I hate to see the TMCC boards I have on hand go to waste. Be aware that the TMCC 4 and 5 sound boards have a removable chip if you are wanting a chuff and whistle that is correct for your engine.

Richard

The Chuff-Generator wouldn't work as it for the tach generator for TAS.  OTOH, if there was a significant interest, I could reprogram it so that it would generate an output for every tach stripe, which is all the TAS board does.  I have thought about this if it ever came to not being able to get the EOB boards.

Another option is to simply layout the TAS tach generator and build one, it's a simple circuit.

Jayhawk500 posted:

I did find that if you leave an engine sit too long without running or power, it loses its memory. I had the CG programmed for 4 chuffs per revolution. It sat all spring and summer, now I have 2 chuffs per rev. Simple fix will be to reprogram it for 4 chuffs.

First time I've ever heard of this, and I have this in a number of locomotives that have sat for over a year and work fine when I fire them up again.  This has also never been reported by the hundreds of users that have installed the Chuff-Generator.  There's no reason it should ever forget the calibration, it's stored in FLASH when you do the calibration.

I suspect you're seeing an issue with the tach strip or sensor spacing that is resulting in not reading every stripe on the tach tape.  That's a lot more likely than the FLASH forgetting the calibration.

Richard,

I’ve done a ton of research and comparison and I’ve come to the same conclusion as you. Even the MTH tach reader is completely different therefore incompatible. And since there aren’t any TAS suppliers out there, we’re basically out of luck. However, if John will entertain the idea he proposed of reprogramming the Chuff Generator to possibly work with the EOB boards, I’d be interested in giving it a go. I’m sure there are others out there in the same situation. I’ve seen mother and daughter boards listed online frequently but I haven’t seen the tach readers come up. 

John,

Will you consider reprogramming a Chuff Gen to potentially work with an EOB board? Or, if I can get my hands on a TAS tach reader, I can reverse engineer it unless you already have it figured out? 

P.S. You guys are the best!

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Jayhawk500 posted:

I did find that if you leave an engine sit too long without running or power, it loses its memory. I had the CG programmed for 4 chuffs per revolution. It sat all spring and summer, now I have 2 chuffs per rev. Simple fix will be to reprogram it for 4 chuffs.

First time I've ever heard of this, and I have this in a number of locomotives that have sat for over a year and work fine when I fire them up again.  This has also never been reported by the hundreds of users that have installed the Chuff-Generator.  There's no reason it should ever forget the calibration, it's stored in FLASH when you do the calibration.

I suspect you're seeing an issue with the tach strip or sensor spacing that is resulting in not reading every stripe on the tach tape.  That's a lot more likely than the FLASH forgetting the calibration.

Chris,

I agree with GRJ’s response in regards to your situation. The Chuff boards are non-volatile memory and flashed during programming/calibration therefore they should never reset. Possible wiring issue or like GRJ said, misalignment of the sensor? Please let me know if you figure it out. 

Dan

DanVW posted:

John,

Will you consider reprogramming a Chuff Gen to potentially work with an EOB board? Or, if I can get my hands on a TAS tach reader, I can reverse engineer it unless you already have it figured out?

Well, I looked at a TAS tach reader, and while it could be done, an unknown is the sensor they used, it's not the same as what I use or what is on the MTH tach reader.

I also looked at my Chuff-Generator, that that seems like it would be a lot easier, at least for me.  It appears that EOB sensor takes the same thing 5V, ground, and outputs a TTL compatible tach pulse.  Since I already have a board design and parts that I know will work, I'd be looking to go that way.  I'd just have to make some code changes to make the C-G output the tach signal.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

DanVW posted:

John,

Will you consider reprogramming a Chuff Gen to potentially work with an EOB board? Or, if I can get my hands on a TAS tach reader, I can reverse engineer it unless you already have it figured out?

Well, I looked at a TAS tach reader, and while it could be done, an unknown is the sensor they used, it's not the same as what I use or what is on the MTH tach reader.

I also looked at my Chuff-Generator, that that seems like it would be a lot easier, at least for me.  It appears that EOB sensor takes the same thing 5V, ground, and outputs a TTL compatible tach pulse.  Since I already have a board design and parts that I know will work, I'd be looking to go that way.  I'd just have to make some code changes to make the C-G output the tach signal.

John, I have a TAS tach reader board I would be willing to mail it to you for inspection but I need it back.  I can also make close up photos of it for you if that would help.      J

BTW If you were to build them I would buy two, even a kit.          J

I have the TAS tach reader,that's why I know what it has on it.   Otherwise I couldn't have looked at it.

DanVW posted:

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Jayhawk500 posted:

I did find that if you leave an engine sit too long without running or power, it loses its memory. I had the CG programmed for 4 chuffs per revolution. It sat all spring and summer, now I have 2 chuffs per rev. Simple fix will be to reprogram it for 4 chuffs.

First time I've ever heard of this, and I have this in a number of locomotives that have sat for over a year and work fine when I fire them up again.  This has also never been reported by the hundreds of users that have installed the Chuff-Generator.  There's no reason it should ever forget the calibration, it's stored in FLASH when you do the calibration.

I suspect you're seeing an issue with the tach strip or sensor spacing that is resulting in not reading every stripe on the tach tape.  That's a lot more likely than the FLASH forgetting the calibration.

Chris,

I agree with GRJ’s response in regards to your situation. The Chuff boards are non-volatile memory and flashed during programming/calibration therefore they should never reset. Possible wiring issue or like GRJ said, misalignment of the sensor? Please let me know if you figure it out. 

Dan

Dan and John, I'm going to look into this shortly, I'm just finishing up my Christmas layout. I'm almost positive that there isn't an issue with the wiring since the engine hasn't been opened up since I originally assembled it after the Pitman mod. But there is an good possibility the tach sensor or the tape is out of wack. Thanks for the suggestions.

It would be far more likely to be the sensor spacing or tape, wiring issues would result in no chuffs.

Sometimes this assembly comes loose.  There are three wires attached to the board.  I had one model, one of the wires broke off or was not soldered properly.   Tach strip can be secured with an additional scotch tape applied over the tach strip.  As the models progressed, the flywheels were built with the tach strip.  

Actually, the wires are soldered fine, the issue was the wires were not super-flex wires, so they'd break right at the board.  I've repaired a ton of those.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

DanVW posted:

John,

Will you consider reprogramming a Chuff Gen to potentially work with an EOB board? Or, if I can get my hands on a TAS tach reader, I can reverse engineer it unless you already have it figured out?

Well, I looked at a TAS tach reader, and while it could be done, an unknown is the sensor they used, it's not the same as what I use or what is on the MTH tach reader.

I also looked at my Chuff-Generator, that that seems like it would be a lot easier, at least for me.  It appears that EOB sensor takes the same thing 5V, ground, and outputs a TTL compatible tach pulse.  Since I already have a board design and parts that I know will work, I'd be looking to go that way.  I'd just have to make some code changes to make the C-G output the tach signal.

John,

Big question: Will you set a few of these up for us please? I’d purchase at least two and JOHNACTON stated he’d buy two as well.  Let me know if you need an EOB board assembly. I can send you mine if needed but I’m guessing you already have it covered. 

I have several EOB boards in my stock and I have the tach sensors, so I have that covered.

When I get a chance, I'll see about hacking the code to make this work.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

I have several EOB boards in my stock and I have the tach sensors, so I have that covered.

When I get a chance, I'll see about hacking the code to make this work.

Hey GRJ,

I have a few questions for you if you have the time;

1. By chance, have you looked into altering the code in your CG to possibly work with a TAS EOB?
2. I need to order a CG & SCII for one of my projects. Where should I go to order them?
3. I'm installing alternating ditch lights on SD70 MAC using an AD20B board connected to TAS SAW board w/ RS3 from an Atlas SD-40. Have you used an AD20B board and is it a pretty straight forward install? I have the pin-out diagram already.

Thank you,

Dan

Dan, I honestly have not had the time to fool with the code on the C-G to simulate the TAS sensor, too many projects, too little time.

You can order the units from Henning's at the following links.

Super-Chuffer II    Chuff-Generator

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Dan, I honestly have not had the time to fool with the code on the C-G to simulate the TAS sensor, too many projects, too little time.

You can order the units from Henning's at the following links.

Super-Chuffer II    Chuff-Generator

Thanks John. Figured as much. Don’t we all have bigger and better projects all the time? 😜

Another question: I’m planning on using an MTH smoke unit from a PS1. Can I completely omit/cut off the track voltage circuitry on the smoke unit when using the CG & SCII? Essentially making it a PS2/3 smoke unit? And I’m guessing I to have to replace the dual smoke resistors for a 20ohm single resistor?

Thanks,

Dan

Yep, you can also use the smoke regulator as is and just unplug the fan, I've done that for some as well.