Installing ESU LokSound Micro v3.5 into ICE 3 (Piko)

Next challenge with installation of ESU LokSound Micro decoder was the Piko ICE 3. Here I found no space to fit the standard loadspeaker, eventually it would be possible to fit the 2 pieces of the smallest loudspeakers - each at the end of bistro car, which serves as engine in the model. However waiting for the smaller loudspekers would be too long and I was quite unpatient. So I took a steel micro saw, steel scissors and decided to make a place enough to fit the standard loadspeaker 16x25mm. First of all, the 8-Pin connector NEM652 is located on one side - this allows only to fit the decoder itself. The other side has more space, but it's moslty occupied by half useless PCB with supressor parts. First I cut in half this PCB, leaving on it only the capacitors, the two parts I cut out and coldered directly to wires, not embarassing the space needed for loudspeaker any more.

Then I took sealing tape and tried to protect the inner space against dust from sanding and sawing. I started to make a round hole with a diameter of the lower part of loudspeaker into the metal top body part. It went very well, after about 10 mins. the hole was finished. I secured with a sealing tape the lower part of loudspeaker - to isolate it from the metal body and put in the place. I had to make the wires to the loudspeaker longer as well. Then I cut again the connector from LokSound decoder - again no space for it and soldered the wires directly onto the connector on ICE. You can see the reference of the NEM652 and NEM651 stadnards on http://www.opendcc.de/info/decoder/schnittstellen_e.html. Finally I sanded the plastic cover on the top sides of the loudspeaker to fit more easily under the cover. The work was complete and test made successful. However I found almost all the sounds too weak - I will have to increase the volume for most of them. However the ICE3 with all cars together is simply too noisy as well.

You can see the ICE 3 with LokSound decoder in action on my YouTube channel.

TT layout - part 002 (custom crossings)

During planning of the layout I realized, that I want to have almost in scale (just not having long enough space) a real railway station. Suprisingly the Zurich Stadelhofen city centre station fits into my layout just from the side under the planned main station. So I decided to compose the Stadelhofen into my layout. During planning and measurements I found, that the standard TT Tillig rail components and turnouts do not fit the scale size of Stadelhofen - the rails are much closer together than what offer the standard turnouts.

So the only option I had, was to build the custom crossings myself. I needed to have one crossing between two rail lines on right side and a single crossing, but in turn on the left side. For the crossing I used 2 straight switches EW2 and 2 curwe switches IBW, left & right. Standard distance between 2 rail lines is 43mm, but in Stadelhofen this is as low as 32mm. Using standard components, I could use either DGV combined switch, having the standard 43mm distance or 4 switches with a crossing between them, but this would lead into an even bigger distance. Both cases would lead also to shorten track length in the station.

With help of thin diamond sawing micro wheel I cut the 4 switches and saved the cutted parts for later use. with a steel knife I cutted the plastic sleepers in the way that all 4 switches will fit together, while keeping the correct rail line positions between the opposite switches. They will be later connected using the parts saved after cutting. When all 4 pieces fit together I glued them via plastic sleepers. Then I cut and sanded the rails to fit into the place - see the photos for reference. The edges needed to be sanded and some of them also isolated by glueing between them plastic strips. After glueing together all was sanded to allow smooth wheel movements across it. The last thing to do was to insert guiding ribs, made of ABS plastic strips 2x0.75mm. I used only Loctite 401 fast glue, everything is OK, after several weeks of traffic.

Installing ESU LokSound Micro v3.5 into TT Piko Taurus

Installation of ESU LokSound micro v3.5 into Piko Taurus isn't difficult. Taurus has quite a big space for standard loudspeaker which comes together with LokSound micro decoder. However the decoder itself does not fit with it's connector. I had to cut the 6-pin connector, which anyway doesn't fit the Piko's 8-pin and solder the wires individually into Taurus connector directly. How the wires are connected is described on http://www.opendcc.de/info/decoder/schnittstellen_e.html, or extracted tables below, showing only NEM651 (6-pin) and NEM652 (8-pin) connectors.


Locomotive Interface Pinout

NEM651 (6 pins)

Signal	Color	Pin
motor right	orange	1
motor left	grey	2
track right	red	3
track left	black	4
light front	white	5
light rear	yellow	6



Note: The light can either be connected against the right track or common (+).
Common is unfortunately not on the interface, you can either use the rectifier on the decoder (with an extra cable)
or create it externally with two diodes from the track signals.




Plug: round or rectangular pins, 1.27 mm grid

NEM652 (8 pins)

Signal	Color	Pin		Color	Signal
motor right (+)	orange	1	8	red	track right (+)
light rear (-)	yellow	2	7	blue	Common, (+)
F1 (may be open)	green	3	6	white	light front (-)
track left (-)	black	4	5	grey	motor left

Plug: round pins, 2.54 mm grid




You can see the Taurus with LokSound decoder in action on my YouTube channel.