Large Scale Central

Puttin phoenix sound in a usa sd40-2

We are beginners and when we ordered our loco did not realize sound was separate so we just received our phoenix 2k2 sound board and don’t know where to begin on install. Ok I did take gas tank off and mounted speaker now what?

First, I would suggest snooping around the Phoenix site. Here is the install intructions for the GP9. Their SD40-2 won’t be all that much different.
http://www.phoenixsound.com/pdf/GP.pdf

With the speaker in the fuel tank, and before you reinstall it, get some silicone and seal around the edges of the speaker. That is very important and a detail many instructions leave out. If it leaks the sound will be crappy. Also, when you run the speaker wires through the floor seal that too. You will need to take the locomotive apart and the instructions will hopefully tell you how. If your sound system is correctly for the SD40-2 all the correct plugs should be there. You will find a plug with red and green leads…these go in pins 1 & 2. Skip pin 3 and hook your volume control switch to pins 4, 5 & 6. The speaker goes in pins 7 & 8. On the other side of the board…if you are using magnets place them in the appropriate pin and the other to ground (16). Pins 9, 10 and 16 also get the plug for the computer cable. I suggest installing it even if you don’t have the computer program. You may find someone else around that does have the program and can tweak your system if needed. I generally install the volume control and the computer port in the tank with the speaker and run all the wires through the top to the board. Mount the board and battery somewhere inside the locomotive with the provided double stick tape The battery plugs into the board on top…not in the screw pins and the red/green leads with the plug go into a plug on the locomotive board marked “power”. Button it back up and have fun…!

well thank you very much I chickened out on taking cab off I couldn’t get to some of the screws and was afraid i would pull wires and such apart so some one suggested I hook power to wheels and everything fit in gas tank so that is what I did. It is working fine so far. Is there any worry in the way I did this. the only draw back i can see is u can’t turn off the sound, but my dad would never run it without the sound anyway. I did not silicone the speaker but will do so.

Under the loco are small switches----Lights, motors, sound.
If you wired the sound right, that switch will turn off the sound.

jb

I just re-read your post. You said you didn’t take the car body off. Then that sound switch will not work for you, since you didn’t hook the sound up according to Phoenix’s instructions.

jb

The secret to getting to the hard to reach screws is a looooooooong thin Philips screwdriver.