Example 1: Speaker at front, Decoder and Stay-Alive at rear

Kit: MX648; SugarCube7; LifeLink + 17000uF SuperCap

We're going to mill various parts of the cab floor in order to get most of the kit at the rear, including sinking the decoder into the floor.

Remove body, decoder socket PCB and mount pegs.

File the area behind the motor to fit new decoder, MX648. Stay-alive interface (LifeLink) fitted and heat shrink added, with wires to capacitor. Speaker test fit.

Body cut to accommodate capacitor. It could lay on the cab floor, but the driver have to be dissected to fit. Fitting on the back of the chassis keeps all components and wires together.

The capacitor is insulated from the chassis and glued in place. All wired and tested. A 1.5K resistor is under he cab light PCB. The original surface mount resistor was on the Bachmann decoder socket PCB. Capacitor painted black for some camouflage.

Refit body and slide cab into place.

Above approach, photos and notes courtesy of Michael Beardshaw

Example 2: Decoder and Stay-alive at front, larger Speaker in cab

Kit: MX648; IceCube18X13X08-1W; LifeLink + 2x 470uF Flat Tantalums

Bigger speaker, but smaller stay-alive...

Electrics are stripped down and MX648 re-covered in Kapton, laying flat on the cab floor.

The IceCube speaker fits at the front of the loco, vertically... just ensure that the end of the motor shaft does not foul on the speaker.

LifeLink and a couple of 470uF Flat Tantalum capacitors fit in above the motor block. Any more than this and we'd have to do more major surgery on the chassis. Green wire from the decoder is used for the cab light, and we spur off a +VE blue wire from the input to the LifeLink.

The cab light LED must be protected by a new resistor, as the original protective resistor was on the 6pin PCB which we removed.

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.