Loksound install in n scale LifeLike GP60

[Steveruger45]

This is one I did a little while ago and reworked a little.
I was never really happy with the wiring, so this was tidied up and there was a slight deformation on the long hood as space in this loco is really limited.  The frame was modified by basically removing the top of the frame above the motor and rounding the corners to give enough room to pass wires.  The speaker is an 8x12mm in a soundtraxx  enclosure with the speaker mounted upside down.
I slimmed down the long hood a little more with a nail file card and removed the shrink wrap from the decoder and also rubbed the decoder sides a bit on the same nail file card before re-wrapping in kapton tape.  This just gave enough room to take away the slight shell deformation.

This one is a real PITA to fit for above reasons.  If only ESU would make these decoders 0.5mm narrower this install would be pretty easy.

Photo and video attached.

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[tehachapifan]

Sounds great! Isn't that the Walthers version of the GP60? If so, I wonder if the new ESU 73100 board might now be a better option as I believe the Walthers version has the more typical DCC-ready frame arrangement, unlike the LL version. The GP60 is on my sound to-do list but I have only LL versions and will need to use the same board you used. The hood width issue has been keeping this project on the back burner, however. Like you said, if that board was only a shave thinner!

[Steveruger45]

Hi Russ,
Thanks and Yes, this is a walthers version with the micro trains sticker on the box and the dcc ready board. The 73100 would probably fit pretty easily but you would have no room for speaker on the top.  Also we will need Peteski to decipher where to put keep alive caps on the 73100.
I have a project in mind for the 73100 but unless I can connect keep alive I will go with the select micro.
I was a bit concerned about removing the entire top portion of the frame above the motor on this one but as I got this loco real cheap used and I have an sd60 waiting on a sound install, I thought I’d give it a go.
The loco ran a little noisy when I got it, spookshow says they run real quiet, probably why I got it so cheap. It now runs really really quiet after beardenizing the worm drives and other maintenance and loss of the top of the frame is no issue at all.

[tehachapifan]

Yeah, room for a speaker is certainly an issue! I've been pleasantly surprised that there's been enough room for a speaker with the couple 73100 installs I did in six-axle locos (SD40T-2 and 45T-2), but I haven't tried the 73100 in a four axle loco yet. However, eyeballing a couple four-axle frames, it looks like it might be doable if the speaker is installed partially under the board and with a really funky-shaped, custom enclosure...but I don't know for sure. Regarding keep-alives, I'm curious as to what the six brownish blocks are near one end of the 73100 board. Might those be on-board keep-alives? I don't recall seeing anything like that on the board like you used above, but I don't know electronic components very well.

[Steveruger45]

IIRC, Peteski answered that very question on that bunch of blocks you mention, in another thread which  can’t recall now.  I believe he did say that these were caps but ceramic ones with really tiny capacitance value.  In short not a keep alive of any use

[tehachapifan]

That thread does ring a bell, now that you mentioned it. Regarding keep-alives, I'm still yet to add any as I've been experiencing surprisingly few sound dropouts up to this point (Knocking on wood). I really expected there to be far more when I started getting into sound. I do occasionally get them, but they are infrequent and only crop up once the track or wheels start to get dirty and are probably due for a cleaning anyway (I also sometimes get them where the track may be too remote from a track feeder and the power drops too low, but that's just a theory). So far, thankfully, track and wheel cleaning isn't something I'm having to do all the time.

[Steveruger45]

I like the 73100 for a few reasons over the 73199.  The shape fits dcc ready frames easier and the biggest one for me being the speaker wire connection tabs and motor wire tabs are on the top of the board.  There are motor tabs on underside too.  Keep alive are a must for me.  The location of my layout is not ideal. It is in our third car stall of the garage. It’s not air conditioned, gets really cold in the winter (which usually lasts a day or two down here) and gets really hot the rest of the year with tons of humidity.  It was one reason I went with kato unitrack, despite its unprototypical appearance.  Plus it got the track down quickly.  This is the furthest completed layout I have ever been able to do. Of course it will never be really finished. It started out as an 8x3 board which was hinged to a home made cabinet  and folded out much like a Murphy bed. It is based on the Carolina Southern track plan.  Then I moved it to the garage as a free standing table and extended it around the walls.
The original cabinet is now my work bench.
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[peteski]

I'm getting close with the decoder deciphering.  Well, it is deciphered - I need to make it clear and easy to understand.
One thing that worries me about the 73100 is the fact that the frame contact pads are only on one side of the board, while on the other side the decoders internal ground plane (large copper area on the bottom of the decider) is very close to where the frame will be contacting the board. Yes, the board is coated with a solder mask, but that is basically tough paint or ink in a fairly thin layer.  I hope that it won't eventually cause a short of the frame to the internal ground.  Also, the top frame contact pads are very narrow - again, I'm worried that when installed, the frame pieces will go further inwards than the contact pads, possibly shorting out to the nearby traces.  I need to find a loco whihc can accept this decoder and see how  the metal frames contact the decoder.

And to answer the other question, these brown cubes are multilayer ceramic capacitors.  They are likely less than 50 uF each.  So in the best case, with 6, there is around 300uF stay-alive capacitance on-board.

[Steveruger45]

Thanks Pete.
Your work on the 73199 worked out real well for me.

[RBrodzinsky]

I like the looks of the layout, Steve.

[GM50 4164]

I used the 73100 in a Atlas 8-40B. I found the light shield worked out well for a custom speaker enclosure.

[Steveruger45]

I used the 73100 in a Atlas 8-40B. I found the light shield worked out well for a custom speaker enclosure.

Looks good.  Pls show us a photo of the loco with the decoder and speaker installed.  Did you put keep alive caps in too?