Farish Standard 4MT Tank with Zimo Sound and Stay-Alive

Kit: MX649 hard-wired; MicroCube6; SACC16; 2x 330uF Tantalums

Similar to Farish's Fairburn Tank, but subtly different, meaning we need a different decoder, and running qualities not so good, so the stay-alive is a very useful extra.

Comes apart easily enough, and we file carefully inside the bunker until the MicroCube6 sits nice and snuggly.

An MX648 is just too wide to go in the 4MT - there just isn't the width between the screw mounts in the bunker, even with some careful filing, so we opt for the slightly narrower, but longer MX649 instead. Unwanted wires removed from the decoder, and recovered in Kapton tape, this does sit between the mounts underneath the speaker.

We check that the bunker fits back on OK and give it a test run.

The main part of the body won't go flush down because the decoder protrudes too far foward. Therefore we remove a little off the bottom of the cab detail to make it fit - not much, but enough so it goes back down where it should be.

Initial running suggests that the pickups are not brilliant, so we look at adding a small stay-alive into the cab area. It will pretty much fill the cab, but can be disguised. We use the tiny SACC16 stay-alive connection kit, and a pair of tall/narrow 330uF Tantalum capacitors.

The stay-alive kit attaches to the decoder's GROUND and COMMON POSITIVE pads.

Now to squeeze it in...

Looks OK, so touch up with black acrylic paint to disguise it.

All back together, running beautifully.

All done...

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