I picked up a sound card from Dallee; Alco Road Eng. Diesel Sound. All of the installation instructions assume track power. I am battery. Now my question is, the way I understand this to work, is it reads the increase in voltage from the track to gauge the throttle response. It also requires an auxiliary battery to operate the sound when at idle.

I assume I can substitute track power with the power output from my loco control board. So as voltage from the loco control board increases to run the loco it will be the same as recieving track power. Am I right in this?

Also can I ditch the auxiliary battery altogether and wire these leads directly to my main battery. It says battery voltage can be 9 volts and can not exceed 35v. So 14.4 is right in the wheel house.

Any flaws on my thinking?

I think I answered my own question after reading it s second time. They have the option of using the track power for only sensing voltage for rpm sound, and using the battery to actually power the sound board. In their case these are two separate power sources. But when the main battery in the battery/RC units is used in conjunction with a loco control board we effectively turn the battery into two different power sources, one which is variable like track power and one which is constant like their auxiliary battery.

By connecting the motor leads out of the RC control board to the track power leads on the sound card this is will be the variable power source and by connecting the auxiliary battery leads straight to the battery this will give the constant power replacing the auxiliary battery.

Am I on the right track.

YEP!!!

Although I am surprised that is not explained in the instructions. Dallas is well experienced with battery R/C and they used to cover it.

If it does explain it Tony, I am to dense to understand it. All the diagrams show “track power”. But after looking at it a second time and more in depth it was fairly easy to deduce what they were doing with the track power so that I was able to surmise what needed to be be done with the RC board.

Hi Devon.

If it is a bit vague try contacting Dallas Guttacher (sp) for some help. He is very helpful.

Hi Guys, I have the instructions sheets for older and newer versions. The older sheets are not posted on his web site. Devon I think you have the you have the version before the current Hi-Line. If so on page 8 is the correct drawing.

Do you have the red/gray wires with the little white plugs? Is your volume control a small black trimmer pot mounted on the board ? If so that is the previous version.

I do not have the a pdf but can scan the page if you need it.

Don

Don Sweet said:

Hi Guys, I have the instructions sheets for older and newer versions. The older sheets are not posted on his web site. Devon I think you have the you have the version before the current Hi-Line. If so on page 8 is the correct drawing.

Do you have the red/gray wires with the little white plugs? Is your volume control a small black trimmer pot mounted on the board ? If so that is the previous version.

I do not have the a pdf but can scan the page if you need it.

Don

Bingo Don,

What you describe is exactly what I have. It has several wire/plugs (5 I think, not sure if they are red and grey, but maybe. I am at work but sounds right) and the volume control (and throttle notch) are little black dials on the side of the control board. If you could scan it for me that would be great, to at least compare it to what I have. I do have a set of directions with multiple ways to install it. All in all I think I have it figured out but having the right directions would be nice so I don’t inadvertently ruin it.