morairamike Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 As many of you regular readers will know I have fitted TTS to my Mallard. I also own another which has been rebodied and is now Falcon. While looking at the bare bones chassis I got the idea that you could a sugarcube speaker in the loco and therefore not have to modify the tender or drawbar and add a 4 wire plug/socket assembly. So I mounted a sugarcube speaker and its enclousre on the chassis. The ones I ahve are from DigiTrains part number LSPECKIG ECKIG mini oblong speaker. There is a space that will take the speaker and this is at the front. If you look at the chassis of the DCC ready loco it has a DCC socket fitted and there is space for the decoder on the "shelf" in front of that. The front face of the shelf is just about the right dimensions to mount a sugarcube speaker with the following dimensions. 15mm x 11mm x 3.3mm mounted on its enclosure which is 15mm x 11mm x 4.9. The total depth becomes 8.2mm. The body of the loco still fits onto the chassis without interfering with the speaker. The speaker is in effect directly below the funnel and whistle.I am still a/w my second A4 TTS decoder so have only mounted the speaker. Hope that this helps those who feel modifing the tender chassis is a little to far for them to venture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamDavid Posted September 18, 2017 Share Posted September 18, 2017 The Sugar cube I have fitted to my Mallard and Golden Plover is the Flame 12, which is 20x15x12, and would probably not fit in the loco (shame, would have been so much easier)I wonder how the sound compares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morairamike Posted September 21, 2017 Author Share Posted September 21, 2017 Today my second A4 TTS decoder arrived. It is now fitted in my A4 Falcon. The sugarcube speaker is located inside the loco as I described above, at the front of the chasis directly below the chimney. The installation is very easy as there is no modification to the tender. When the sound is ON as the spoeaker is at the front the sounds come from the front, this makes it more realistic BUT and I say BUT you have to be near the lco/tender to really notice it. With both Mallard and Falcon running together the sound sounds the same, maybe the mallard tender fit is a bit richer BUT although it has the same size sugarcube speaker it is from a different supplier.If you want ease of installation then in the loco with a 15mm x 11mm x 3.3mm speaker plus enclosure is the way to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted September 21, 2017 Share Posted September 21, 2017 Mike When I did my GWR Pannier tank with a std speaker under the funnel I bored the funnel out as far as possible to let the noise out. Worked really well.Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamDavid Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Oh dear, one duff Golden Plover. After starting it up and letting it move off, it shuddered to a halt and lost its sound. It has been running fine for months.I took it apart to see if a wire had come loose, and found one of the wires in the Hornby plug, used to feed the tender mounted speaker, was not conducting. Ok, I can sort that out, I thought. No chance. The decoder now moves the loco a few feet and stops, and still no sound. A bit 'kind of had it', I think.I have ordered another decoder, but will be rather nervous in fitting it, as I could find no obvious reason for it to have blow.Could Black Tack across the board have some detrimental effect? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamDavid Posted September 26, 2017 Share Posted September 26, 2017 Morairamike,I find my Sugarcube, too, will fit on that shelf. I will modify mine like yours, and replace the fragile Hornby connecter with two wires hard wired to the tender pickups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morairamike Posted September 26, 2017 Author Share Posted September 26, 2017 RAF96, the second A4 chimney is just about on the internal bore limit. Williamdavid, did you put the decoder inside some heatshrink? Make sure that the wires to the speaker are insulated at the splice, if you make them longer and that the tender left wheels go to the same side of the decoder socket as the loco's ones. I redid all the wires on my A4's before the decoder was fitted. Also ensure that the decoder plug doesn't go through the chassis mounted socket and touch anything else. It shouldn't as it raised up on two pillars, if you have soldered on the rear of the socket make sure there is no wisker of wire or solder bridge between adjacent pads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamDavid Posted September 26, 2017 Share Posted September 26, 2017 I have added TTS sound to four A3 and three A4 locos and 0ne the 'dreaded' Tornado, some the latest design with decoder and speaker in the tender, some with the decoder in the loco.I have had two failures, the Tornado and this Golden Plover, where I have not been able to find the cause of the failure. Both worked for a while, and then just failed. I wonder how reliable these decoders are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted September 27, 2017 Share Posted September 27, 2017 @WDMy only TTS failure was temporary as I had overloaded the lighting circuits using an aftermarket lighting kit. Fortunately by adding an extra resistor it brought the currents back within limits and all was well again.Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiredmusicman57 Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 I have fitted the TTS decoder to my A4 Mallard which used to run perfect but now will run with sound maybe for a few mins or less then stops dead.It will restart after a few seconds but without sound i have to reactivate sound.The speaker is in the tender which is a ballache to fit.This is my first TTS decoder but i think it will be my last, it seems others have experienced the same problem. By the way the first speaker blew Hornby supplied new one. Roy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 According to another forum Sugar Cubes are out and Earthmover speakers are in.Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamDavid Posted October 7, 2017 Share Posted October 7, 2017 They look rather large. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
morairamike Posted October 8, 2017 Author Share Posted October 8, 2017 and those on DCKits are only 4 ohms. Pictures on the web show them fitted to a type 31 and taking up the space between the bogies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will Hay Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Hi morairamike.I've stumbled across this thread after a google search.This looks to give me everything I need on speaker type :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 Go onto RM Web DCC Sound forum and look at Richard Crofts page. Scroll through to see where he demonstrates various speaker types for the same sound decoder including TTS as well as steam and diesel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted April 16, 2020 Share Posted April 16, 2020 Direct link here: .This link has been posted on this forum before, which is where I got it from. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted April 17, 2020 Share Posted April 17, 2020 Great video, there were some surprises in there. Looking at the subscriber it looks like the person I get my iphone speakers from. The enclosed standard speaker was a surprise. The other think it didn't mention is some these speakers are 4 ohm, which means you cannot use them with TTS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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