Large Scale Central

Dallee Sound

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

I’m back and in need of more info. I went ahead and bought a MylocoSound unit from Peter and I’m having a bit of trouble with tuning it. I had hoped that it was going to be good enough for me to seek out 2 more so I could outfit my diesels but… In the meantime I found 2 used dallee boards cheap.

They are older units so I had to go into the archived instructions where I think I found them. I think they are #585 since they match the diagram
The only markings are "sound unit microcontroller p/n ALCO-SW-1c.729. I’m pretty sure the Alco and SW stand for Switcher, like a S4 or NW2 and the 729 is dallee code for the horn type.

Anyways I printed out instructions and put a 9 volt battery to each card and they sound pretty good. What I cannot figure out is how the horn or bell is sounded?

Does anyone use these boards and can offer advice?

#2

I emailed Dallee the other day but have nnot heard back yet. I’m trying to determine if the bell and horn can be sounded without using triggers.

#3

Dan just put in reed switches to get my bell and horn to work on my RDC-3

#4

Sean, I think he wants to be able to either remotely control the sounds, or as I take it, have the sounds fire off on voltage levels/changes.

Is that right Todd?

Greg

#5

Todd from what i read, DC sound controller #585, is the sound controller not the sound board you hook the 585 to the track it has 2 buttons that control horn and bell for DC. did you look at this http://www.dallee.com/PDFs/DSL_DCv2.pdf and here is some more http://www.dallee.com/PDFs/DCV3-DIESEL-r16.pdf

#6

You are correct Greg I would like the bell and horn to sound with voltage.
I might be incorrect with the #585. I printed out the first 3 pages of the instructions since they cover what I’m trying to do with a simple DC track power hook up. page 3 has a heading “DC track power installation using batteries and Dallee controller #585”
I just read through the instructions again and looks like the #585 is a seperate unit that is used to sound the bell and horn.

I have tried both these sound boards on the bench and when voltage is applied the diesel sound increases in RPM the way it should. now if I can just get the bell and horn to work when starting and stopping.

My desire is to have a bit of sound in all my locos both steam and diesel.
My ear is not finicky which is good since my budget is small.

Buying preowned sound systems is a gamble and there is a learning curve to them so any advice to help me is appreciated.

#7

Yeah, read both documents, keeps mentioning 585, but never shows it.

Here’s a link to the 585: http://www.dallee.com/PDFs/dc-sound-controller.PDF

It is a board that passes the track power through, and “adds” a signal. Based on what I see and read, there must be some AC signal added, that the board can detect. Not much information about interference with PWM power, or other power techniques.

Greg