I’m wondering if the ERR Steam Railsounds board has any capacity to activate the tender coupler and backup light through the data wire from the Ccommander board. Or, do I have to add the 2 extra connections through the tether from the Ccommander in the engine. I greatly appreciate this forum and I have gained so much knowledge and confidence from all of you! Thank you.
Replies sorted oldest to newest
The ERR sound card is just that, sounds only. It’s basically a version of a RS Lite board,…not same, same, but same but different…….The Cruise Commander has the outputs for rear coupler and rear light. The rear light common is same as frame ground, so you only need to carry one wire back to tender as long as tender is properly grounded.
Pat
Pat, if I'm understanding the Cruise Commander instructions right, would two independent wires need to be run from a locomotive mounted CC back to the electro-coupler on the rear of the tender?
With the rear light, that would be a total of 3 wires in the tether or 5 wires if one wanted to parallel track hot and common between the tender and locomotive for better performance over certain types of switches. Does that all sound right?
@SteveH posted:Pat, if I'm understanding the Cruise Commander instructions right, would two independent wires need to be run from a locomotive mounted CC back to the electro-coupler on the rear of the tender?
With the rear light, that would be a total of 3 wires in the tether or 5 wires if one wanted to parallel track hot and common between the tender and locomotive for better performance over certain types of switches. Does that all sound right?
In theory, you could use frame ground for one side of the rear coil coupler, …however, in my practice, I run both wires to the Cruise Commander to guarantee it fires and grounds back through the CC as advertised, ….I’m always worried that if tender ground is lost momentarily during a coupler energizing, it could possibly damage the coil coupler circuit, …….I’m sure some will say it’s fine, but that’s just the practice I do,……I don’t worry about the rear light, if the tender loses ground, then the light simply doesn’t come on, but no damage will occur…..color me funny I guess….
Pat
@harmonyards Pat thanks for the helpful info. 
That is what I thought. The ERR RailSounds board has all those extra pins. I know the digital signal has all the command data but apparently the RailSounds board only interprets the chuff, whistle and bell. It would be neat to have an add on board to activate the coupler and backup light. Thanks for replying.
Access to this requires an OGR Forum Supporting Membership
