Large Scale Central

Phoenix sound

I have a Phoenix P-5 installed in an Aristo-craft RS-3 and i can’t wire it correctly. The sounds works wth the engine not moving but I can’t wire it to run it with sound. I don’t understand the dummy plug and which part of the circuit board to use it on. so I run it silently. i would appreciate any help.

The P-5 is intended to be used with DCC input. Is that what you are doing?

I wasn’t using a DCC input but I can see now that I should be. I know nothing about a DCC input.

Take a look at the P-5 manual. If you are not using DCC, you will probably need to use a P5T add-on board to give the P-5 the speed information that it needs. Here is a link to the P-5 manual: http://phoenixsound.com/pdf/P5_Manual.pdf

Looking at the manual link Bill posted, it looks like you can also use reed switches and magnets to sense motion.

Bill Swindell said:
Take a look at the P-5 manual. If you are not using DCC, you will probably need to use a P5T add-on board to give the P-5 the speed information that it needs. Here is a link to the P-5 manual: http://phoenixsound.com/pdf/P5_Manual.pdf
Thanks for the help, Bill.i'm taking a good look at the manual.

The P5 cannot be used with regular track powered DC. The P5 requires a constant voltage supply to work at low speed such as batteries or DCC. There is no back up battery for low speed operation.

Jon Radder said:
Looking at the manual link Bill posted, it looks like you can also use reed switches and magnets to sense motion.
I saw the manual about reed switchss and magnets thought I would't use them but now I'm having second thoughts.Thanks, Jon

But like Tony says, without the battery back-up of the other units, once your track voltage goes below a certain level the sound will stop. You would be better off trading that back to Phoenix for a unit designed for track power.

TonyWalsham said:
The P5 cannot be used with regular track powered DC. The P5 requires a constant voltage supply to work at low speed such as batteries or DCC. There is no back up battery for low speed operation.
Thanks Tony, now I have some studying to do. This is all new to me.While i'm at it, I want to order the right sound components for a Bachman 2-6- 0 Spectrum engine. All I have for powr is a bridgewerks 15 amp. transformer.