Atlas U23B Sound Decoder Install


D&J RailRoad

D&J RailRoad

Professor of HO
I installed a Tsunami 2200 into a Atlas U23B for a friend. The loco has a built in speaker box on the rear of the cast metal body that only requires the install of an oval speaker. Despite that, there is no room for a Sound decoder though. I had to completely remove the existing light board in order to get the decoder to sit down low enough so the body would fit properly. Once again, a product that isn't actually tested for it's implied function.
 
The last lighting board I left in was with a 9 pin silent NCE 'quick plug' installation. Even with them, the factory board is superfluous. On some of the older Athearn's with the so called "high speed" open frame motor, I've used the lighting board that's clipped over the motor as a base to sit the decoder onto with automotive double sided body trim tape, after completely stripping all the electronic bits off. The Econami PNP and TSU2 PNP decoders are generally thinner than the shrink wrapped ones because of the enclosed metal heat sink under the bottom of the decoder. The PNP's do both come with a 2 pin CK socket mounted on the edge of the board, which to me, is a nuisance because of it's height and the fact that the wiring from the plug would hang out over the board's edge. I made inquiries on Soundtraxx's FB page, as to whether it could be safely removed and the current keepers wires directly soldered. I got somewhat grudging agreement. All the other functions above #2 are soldering pads (and very close together), so why not those as well. When you're looking for fractions of space, everything helps. The iPhone 6s plus speakers I am using mostly now, are also very slim, 5mm o'all in a step down shape of 3mm thick each end.
 
Pictures of the TSU-1000/iP6s plus 5.5" speaker into Atlas Silver DCC ready, SD35 (HO)
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The old lighting board is the green piece and the decoder is stuck to it with DS tape. The Speaker above is just attached with a couple of spots of blue tac. You can see how thin the speaker is. It "fires" to the right.
 
If they had not had the plugs/sockets for the wires mounted on the board and soldered on instead, that would have been a lot thinner too. An ESU Loksound would have been a better choice.
 
I did sound decoder installs on two of mine, U23B and B23-7. I was forced to use the factory speaker provision instead of the phone speaker in them, there wasn't enough room even for the smaller iPhone 4 speaker on top of the 21 pin decoder. It's tight in there. I had to carefully route the speaker wires so the shell would sit back down where it should.
 
bnsf971 said:
I did sound decoder installs on two of mine, U23B and B23-7. I was forced to use the factory speaker provision instead of the phone speaker in them, there wasn't enough room even for the smaller iPhone 4 speaker on top of the 21 pin decoder. It's tight in there. I had to carefully route the speaker wires so the shell would sit back down where it should.
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My initial intent with this Atlas, was to mount the speaker on the underside of the shell's top with the Auto trim DS tape, which has a firm grip and use the decoder's long wires to connect to it, but then bundling them up would have presented a problem, so I did the somewhat more unstable method as shown. The DS tape I used between decoder and the board was different also to get the height down as much as possible. It basically has no tape in it at all, just leaves a strip of "sticky" in place. Peel it off the roll to reveal 1 sticky side, press it on and then peel off the backer to show the other and press the item on. Not as strong a grip, but holds well enough.
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"there wasn't enough room even for the smaller iPhone 4 speaker on top of the 21 pin decoder. It's tight in there."

The iP6s + is 2mm shorter that the iP4s and slimmer by about .5mm o'all, but the fact that it has that stepped arrangement, making each end only 3mm, is quite useful. When I replaced the speakers in my late production w/sound Athearn RTR SD40's, I was able to sit the long part on top of the rear weight/original speaker housing and hang the short firing end, out over the decoder. This left the wiring contacts on top and accessible. There is another iP6s as well, which is 35mm long, but about 19mm wide. The plastic and a bit of metal plate can be judiciously filed/ground off the sides to let them slip up inside similar long hoods
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The advantage both have over the "4s" is the sound opening is at the small end and quite a bit bigger. The only loco I've so far found I can't get the Plus model into, is the Kato SD80MAC. Must have thicker shell walls. With all the other gear out (light tubes) that's in the way, I should be able to use a pair of iP4s on edge, firing down.
 
flyboy2610 said:
I'm gonna have to go with Ken on this one. That does not look like a 5 and one half inch speaker to me, either.
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Ah! I see the confusion now. It's not the speaker's size that is being referred to in the item's description, but the phone's screen size. I've seen them described as 4.7"/5.5" as well. Even dieting couldn't reduce them that much, I don't think. There actually seems to be a plethora of speakers of all different sizes configurations for the different iPhone models. Here is one listing where you get to choose the one you want from a drop down menu
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There are more smaller ones, etc.
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I've bought a few to experiment with, as well as some HTC one M8 replacement small speakers. I have one installed into a Proto 2k GP20 in a balsa enclosure. Seems quite good. I am going to try a revision with 2 in an isobaric enclosure to see (hear) if I can improve it
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