Kit: MX644D; IceCube28X18X08-2W
Dapol have innovated with their 14XX in O gauge, with a plug-in PCB to house both decoder (21pin) and speakers. The PCB comes
with a pair of clip-in housings which will take a pair of the 15x11mm Sticky Gasket speaker components. Once the housings are
clipped back onto the PCB, spring clips on the speakers make contact with points on the board. Very neat.
If you want simple, then stick with that approach, and the results are quite reasonable. However, if you don't mind just a
little more effort, a dual IceCube 28x18x08 2W speaker can be used instead, as shown here...

Wires from the IceCube can be neatly threaded through holes in the PCB, and soldered to one pair of the contact pads. Then,
using the sticky pads provided with the model, the IceCube is secured to the board, also acting as an insulator so that none of
the metal parts of the speaker touch the board. The speaker could just as easily be placed the other way up too (with the
metal parts away from the board).

The whole assembly, with the small example stay-alive capacitor, simply slides back into the boiler, using this neat little
arrangement that Dapol have come up with.

Looks like the space is perfect for the 8mm dual IceCube!

Photos courtsey of John Myall
Kit: MX644D; IceCube28X18X09-2W; LifeLink+17000uF SuperCap; Bi-Colour Lamps
Ok, so that's pretty good so far, but just how big can we get a speaker in, and is a big stay-alive possible too? Turns out
the answer is positive to both questions...

Same approach, but this time with 9mm dual Ice28X18. Solder speaker wires direct to a pair of the speaker pads on the model's
PCB and secure the speaker with some BlackTack, plastic side against the PCB.

SuperCap17000uF sits at the other end of the speaker-side of the PCB. Wrapped in Kapton tape to protect the SuperCap's metal
body from touching any pads. Blue and Grey wires from the capacitor can feed through one of the holes in the board.

LifeLink sits between the capacitor and the decoder, also wrapped in Kapton tape, and the whole assembly neatly slides into the
boiler - a perfect fit!

However, we didn't want to stop there, so we've wired on a front and rear bi-colour YouChoos lamp, soldered directly to
appropriate feet of the 21pin adapter on the model's PCB, and of course added the obligatory crew figures.


Kit: MS440D; IceCube28X18X08; MGOBLOCK
A very simple update here showing the 14XX with the more recent MS440 sound decoder and latest stay-alive - very easy
install...

IceCube28X18X08 is BlackTack'd to the PCB after soldering its' wires to the contact pads, and a Zimo MGOBLOCK stay-alive unit
(array of mini GoldCaps) is positioned in front of the speaker, attached and insulated from the PCB with BlackTack. The MS440
simply plugs in on the other side.



|