Example 1: Next18 Easy Option

Kit: Zimo MX658 (Next18) and YouChoos 15x11mm Sticky Gasket SugarCube speaker

Wonderful Farish design here with Next18 DCC interface, and provision for a speaker, so pretty easy DCC Sound installation...

Tender body clips off revealing the Next18 DCC socket. Here's our MX658N18 sonnd decoder too.

Remove the blanking plate from the model and note the enclosure frame inside the back of the tender, designed for the 15x11mm speaker. YouChoos have a version perfect for this with a peel-off sticky gasket.

Short lengths of wire are required to be solder to the speaker terminals, which you should do before sticking it into place in the model. YouChoos will solder the wires for you in preparation if you ask!

Stick it into place firmly and solder the other ends to the speaker pads provided on the underside of the model's PCB. You'll need to unscrew the PCB temporarily to gain access to them.

Screw the PCB back down and plug in the decoder. Ensure the wires are tucked in sensible places as you close the tender body back on.

All done!

Example 2: With Stay-Alive

Kit: MX648; SugarCube8; LifeLink + 3x 470uF Tall Tantalums

Yes, the Farish Castle runs pretty well anyway, but what if we want more volume from a better speaker, and would like a decent stay-alive to get over all our trackwork? Well, in this example we show how this can be done, and quite easily too, as long as you don't mind a bit of modification and soldering work...

Pop off the tender top...

Remove the Next18 PCB and remove the pickup wires...

Strip out the built-in speaker enclosure and peel out the whole mount to reveal a nice flat interior...

Bend back the SugarCube8's terminals and cut short - this will allow the speaker to go flush against the tender roof.

Prepare the rest of the kit, including assembling the stay-alive, which is a LifeLink PCB with 3x 470uF Tall Tantalum capacitors joined in parallel. We also remove the sleeve from the decoder, as we'll be unsoldering all the unwanted wires (no lighting required here). In fact, we also unsolder the motor wires too, as we'll be soldering the motor wires in the model directly to those pads.

On go the motor wires...

Solder the decoder's pickup wires (red and black) to the pickup tabs, and attach the speaker too. Now is a good time to test it, and ensure that the loco travels in the correct direction - if not, reverse the motor wires. Note we have grey (GROUND) and blue (+VE) wires ready to accept the stay-alive too. When you're happy with the setup, cover the decoder with some Kapton tape.

A quick check with the tender body back on reveals lots of spare space.

Connect up the LifeLink, cover in Kapton tape too, and slot this on top of the decoder (probably have to do this with the body off, rather than trying to push it through the hole.

Fits quite comfortably, so just pop the metal coal load back on top and all is done!

We added some crushed lump coal to this one too, but this is all about the bigger speaker and the stay-alive - fabulous runner!

Please note that these guides are provided as useful resources for you, as-is. YouChoos cannot be held responsible for errors in the information, or for any damage caused to your models or equipment if you choose to follow any of the steps detailed here.