Life Like Nscale E6 econami decoder install

[sahinsha]

Greetings,

First post here. I wanted to thank everybody on the forum for the help they've unknowingly given me by posting very helpful builds on here. particularly, jdcolomb, whose speakers and enclosure design I have stolen inspiration from for this build.

The model is a Life Like Nscale E6 from the mid to late 90s vintage if I remember correctly. Don't laugh! I love Life Like's old E6 models, even though some details (most obviously the single headlight for roads that had dual headlights) are incorrect. They are heavy, silent pullers that track very well and have good paint jobs. They were also fairly cheap back in the day. I think I got several for around $40 for an A powered, B unpowered pair. At any rate here's the finished product (I added a second headlight per the prototype).



This was my first hardwired decoder installation of any kind (though I'm pretty handy with soldering, etc.) I used an econami 100 with a knowles wildcat speaker. I think it sounds great!



The econami sounds great to my ear (this is my first sound decoder though, so I have little frame of reference). I paid $63 for it, which I thought was quite good. My only complaint about the econami is that it is faster at speed step one than my other (non-sound decodered) trains. for reference, I have a lenz equipped Atlas H15-44 and a NCE equipped Intermountain FT AB set. I think it will be ok as long as I only use the E6 with other econami units.

Again, thanks for the inspiration!
-Scott

Fixed img and url tags - they were improperly nested.  Not sure if it was a photobucket issue or user error. -gfh

[sahinsha]

Well, it looks like my images didn't make it through and I didn't realize I can't edit until 25 posts.  Sorry

[jdcolombo]

Hi Scott.

Congrats on your successful install! 

The issue you are having with speed step 1 probably can be cured by adjusting CV2 down in the Econami, or by adjusting CV2 up in the slower locos.  There are tutorials all over the web on how to do speed matching between DCC locos.  It's not that hard and requires more patience than anything.

John C.

[tehachapifan]

Nice install!

[sahinsha]

Ah my images showed up after all!

Thanks for the comments!
I have had to speed match my Intermountain FT AB set, but what I meant by the econami not matching up well was that it just doesn't have any really slow speed steps. Step 1 is moving at a slow, but definitely not crawling (like my Lenz or NCE decoders can) speed. I suppose I could raise the lowest speeds on the Lenz and NCE decodered locos to match the econami, but I most likely won't.  I actually had a long discussion with the tech support at Soundtraxx about the speed issue. They were very kind and helpful (even exchanged the econami I had to see if another would work better), but the econami just doesn't seem to have the ability to crawl like the Lenz or NCE.

-Scott

[sahinsha]

Also, I meant to add that I had seen some discussion about the speaker facing out or in (with regard to it's enclosure). I tried it both ways, and this particular setup sounded much better with the speaker facing in.

-Scott

[peteski]

Also, I meant to add that I had seen some discussion about the speaker facing out or in (with regard to it's enclosure). I tried it both ways, and this particular setup sounded much better with the speaker facing in.

-Scott

Scott, a speaker's cone is like a piston which moves air. It should make no difference (sound-wise) which side of the piston is facing in.   But maybe when you had the speaker facing out the seal between the speaker frame and the enclosure wasn't airtight. That would cause sound degradation.