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How to fit a Zimo MS490N 6 Pin Mini Sound Decoder + stay-alive into a Hornby TT120 08 Shunter. Without any modification!


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I must have been tired from all the drystone walling at High Fell! I looked to see if it said sound and somehow missed it completely! I am considering upgrading my Black 08 to sound, so this is interesting  😁

Edited by Rallymatt
More spilling areas…errors
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Thanks Guys. Yes, indeed sound is fitted and I went for the sound download from Digitrains end of the day (Protodrive) as the sound from Youchoos and Coastaldcc aren't that good in my opinion they sound tinny. The service from Youchoos was first rate they even swapped the original decoder as it appeared to be faulty and their communication pipeline is second to none. It was John from Youchoos who told me that Zimo insists on an antistatic wristband to be worn when handling their decoders.

The 3 staco's fit at the back of the chassis and the charge plate goes over the worm drive at the front. The staco's fit vertically. If you enlarge the photos that Digitrains sent me you can make it out even though the photo shows 2 staco’s. So I would think 2 would easily fit!

by the way I take it that this new forum doesn't have a spellchecker?

Cheers!

 

2 stayalive.jpeg

3 stayalive.jpeg

4 alaive.jpeg

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Just to set term usage right:

'Staco3' is the pcb (2nd photo, RH) that contains a step-up converter to supply a CONSTANT 10V taken from the small 0.3F 'supercaps' (2nd photo, LH). If two are fitted, they charge to ~5V. The effective capacity is 0.15F. The stored energy is 1.875 Wsec, of which according to ZIMO 1.2 Wsec can be used. Buffering time is ~1.5sec, which is fine to overcome even the worst dead spots. Charging time between two contact losses with total drain is ~30sec - so don't overdo shoddy track state!
Here's an example of what I did, using a prismatic capacitor of 0.47F, later replaced by two 0.3F ones:
K1.thumb.jpg.b84510fe0566e1e6e2b5fe5fb50da764.jpg

The step-up converter sits vertically under the decoder.

 

Edited by ateshci
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