Ian-1301567 Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Hi there, I recently bought a City of Salford DCC Ready Loco but when I looked in the tender what I thought was a decoder looked more like a Sound Decoder but noticed that there where a bank of Capacitors in the box wrapped in insulation tape which looked like they had come off from somewhere but I don't know where.Now when I tried to run the engine I noticed when set to 3 it didn't work. So I tried reading the CV code and it came up with 45 so i tried 45 and this worked but when I tried the sound function this worked OK as well but for some reason the sound decoder was really hot and was wondering if this is where the bank of Capacitors need to come into the equation or is Sound Decoders becoming really hot a natural part of the decoder. Please Clarify would be very helpful?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 (edited) The capacitors are for "Stay Alive", to be quite honest for the City of Salford you don't really need them because it has lots of pickups. If the capacitors are connected properly then leave them alone. It could be getting hot because you have the wrong loudspeaker fitted. Now here comes the tricky bit read CV 8 and that will give you the manufacturer. Now it is probably a Zimo or Loksound so you should read 145 for Zimo, 151 for LokSound. I suspect it is a Zimo as you just add capacitors to create "Stay Alive" whereas with LokSound you need a bit more electronics. So the next thing is look at the speaker, if it is 4 ohm then replace it with an 8 ohm speaker and then the decoder should run a bit cooler. Oh the other thing is the decoder needs to have some cooling, sometimes people wrap them tightly in tape, so it gets no cooling. In needs insulting as the City of Salford has a metal weight but just be a bit sensible. Do you know I have never checked how hot my decoders get, so I can't really comment on whether they get hot. Oh I forgot on some of the really old LokSound decoders they used a 100 ohm loudspeaker, but if someone has replaced it with an 8 ohm one your decoder would have gone bang by now. Edited July 29 by ColinB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-1301567 Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 Well that's my bit of a problem I have these bank of capacitors but don't know whether they belong?.As they look like that they have come away from something or other and not sure whether that was causing my over heating issue?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rog RJ Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Picture? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-1301567 Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 58 minutes ago, Rog RJ said: Picture? These are the bank of capacitors. See attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-1301567 Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 I have some more pictures of the sound decorder and the I'm not sure about the speaker and a soild unit saying P.U.T. on it?.See attached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 As I said before the bank of capacitors is the stay alive unit. You don't really need it on this loco if the tender and loco pickups are working properly. ~You appear to have two loudspeakers which I assume the previous owner used to get better high and low sounds. The square one I don't know the make but the other one is an Iphone speaker. By putting the two speakers in parallel you effectively a four ohm speaker which would explain it getting a bit hot. The Iphone speaker should be good enough on its own, so if it was me I would disconnect the square speaker from the setup but perhaps other people think you get better sound by using the two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-1301567 Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 21 minutes ago, ColinB said: As I said before the bank of capacitors is the stay alive unit. You don't really need it on this loco if the tender and loco pickups are working properly. ~You appear to have two loudspeakers which I assume the previous owner used to get better high and low sounds. The square one I don't know the make but the other one is an Iphone speaker. By putting the two speakers in parallel you effectively a four ohm speaker which would explain it getting a bit hot. The Iphone speaker should be good enough on its own, so if it was me I would disconnect the square speaker from the setup but perhaps other people think you get better sound by using the two. So is the big square one a speaker as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 20 minutes ago, Ian-1301567 said: So is the big square one a speaker as well. Yes -https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/PUI-Audio/ASE02808MR-LW150-R?qs=mAvO8%2BoAPriCiunl0BbxdA%3D%3D&utm_id=1065352468&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADn_wf0M0-dtt0jFMygZN-h39y02u&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-5y1BhC-ARIsAAM_oKmXWsfovbamo4E8JXLceDTOJd0gZxVSxbqSlq34S-B13ggfKTwSo6kaAiitEALw_wcB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian-1301567 Posted July 29 Author Share Posted July 29 10 minutes ago, 96RAF said: Yes -https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/PUI-Audio/ASE02808MR-LW150-R?qs=mAvO8%2BoAPriCiunl0BbxdA%3D%3D&utm_id=1065352468&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADn_wf0M0-dtt0jFMygZN-h39y02u&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-5y1BhC-ARIsAAM_oKmXWsfovbamo4E8JXLceDTOJd0gZxVSxbqSlq34S-B13ggfKTwSo6kaAiitEALw_wcB Right so I've detached the Iphone speaker and it's much better not as hot and loud enough really don't know whether having the other speaker changed anything really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 50 minutes ago, 96RAF said: Yes -https://www.mouser.co.uk/ProductDetail/PUI-Audio/ASE02808MR-LW150-R?qs=mAvO8%2BoAPriCiunl0BbxdA%3D%3D&utm_id=1065352468&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADn_wf0M0-dtt0jFMygZN-h39y02u&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-5y1BhC-ARIsAAM_oKmXWsfovbamo4E8JXLceDTOJd0gZxVSxbqSlq34S-B13ggfKTwSo6kaAiitEALw_wcB Thanks 96RAF. I am surprised there was enough room in there for two speakers I usually have trouble finding room for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 39 minutes ago, Ian-1301567 said: Right so I've detached the Iphone speaker and it's much better not as hot and loud enough really don't know whether having the other speaker changed anything really. I suppose the purists might notice but anyway you have halved the current, so it should last a lot longer. I used to use that speaker in all my locos until Road and Rails came out with a smaller better one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 You could check each speaker impedance with a multimeter set on ohms. It could be one of them has gone duff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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