Kit: MX658N18; LifeLink + 3x 470uF Flat Tantalums
Another wonderful model from Bachmann, the 1P is well designed, with DCC Sound in mind. It comes with firebox glow (2 LEDs) and
a SugarCube style speaker on board already, so if you just want simple, then the MX658N18 sound decoder is a piece of cake to
pop in.
3 screws and the body pops off, take out the Next18 blanking plate and put the MX658 in, and you're done!
Just being nosey, we have a peek at the speaker box, which is securely screwed on underneath. This also reveals a line of
solder pads, which Bachmann have very thoughtfully provided for us to add stay-alive and even extra lighting if we wanted it.
We'll just go with a small stay-alive.
Just because we are super nosey, we disassemble the whole loco to see what other space there is, which reveals a little room in
the bunker - could be used for more stay-alive potentially. We don't bother with this installation, but it is just interesting
to poke around!
Instead, we add the required wires for stay-alive (+VE and GROUND) to the provided pads on the model's PCB.
The stay-alive kit is connected... 3x Flat 470uF Tantalums and the LifeLink PCB, then this is connected to the blue and grey
wires that we added previously.
Wrap the stay-alive in Kapton tape and place losely above the decoder. The fit is quite comfortable in the curve of the
boiler, and this improves running enough to make it worthwhile.
The model reassembled and working very nicely.
Kit: MS580N18 'G' version (comes with 2x mini GoldCaps for stay-alive)
One of the range of MS sound decoders is a variant of the MS580 which does not have any onboard Tantalums for stay-alive, but
instead comes with trailing wires for an external one. Supplied with the MS580G are a pair of mini GoldCaps which wire in
series to give a few seconds of back-up power once charged up.
Below you can see an MS580G being loaded up with the 1P sounds.
Here the 1P's PCB with and without the Next18 blanking plate.
The MS580G all ready to plug in, with the GoldCaps wires up in series.
The GoldCaps are protected in Kapton tape and sit on top of the decoder - there is enough space in the 1P body to allow this,
so a very simple installation.
|