Adding Capacitors to Bachmann Econami DCC Sound Decoders

gatrhumpy May 10, 2022

  1. gatrhumpy

    gatrhumpy TrainBoard Member

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    So I have an N scale 2-8-0 that I just bought, and want to add capacitors to it in order to mitigate the sound and movement stopping. Where on the board should I do that? I'm used to wiring regular wired decoders, but these Econami decoders are a whole other animal.
     
  2. Mr. Trainiac

    Mr. Trainiac TrainBoard Member

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    See if the Tsunami manual on their website shows you how to do it. ESU decoders have a section in the manual for adding capacitors; some have a pad on the board for it. I suspect there is a way to do it on Tsunami too.
     
  3. woodone

    woodone TrainBoard Member

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    You should have a blue wire and a green with yellow stripped wire coming out of your decoder. You can add caps to these wires. Blue is the positive with the green with yellow stripped wire being the ground. Use a cap with at least a 20 volt ratting. You will need at least a cap with 100 uF , better if you can get more uF by wiring your caps in parallel. Using two caps would give you 200 uF.
     
    Moose2013 likes this.
  4. gatrhumpy

    gatrhumpy TrainBoard Member

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    @woodone There is no blue or green wires. It's an OEM Soundtraxx Econami/Bachmann board DCC sound decoder. I would take a picture but don't want to mess with resizing pictures on this website. It comes with the newest version of the N scale Bachmann 2-8-0 in the tender.

    You can see a picture of the decoder and tender here, halfway down the page.
    Bachmann (China) 2-8-0 Consolidation (spookshow.net)
     
  5. woodone

    woodone TrainBoard Member

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    Well then, you might be SOL. That must be a special decoder built just for this Bachmann locomotive. Has the Econami sound build but made to Bachmann specks- that is the problem with decoders built for a manufacture.
    They leave out a lot of features to lower the cost of the decoder to them. Not always friendly to the end user.
    You do not have any
    documentation from Bachmann on this?
    This is not what I would call an Econami decoder per say?
     
  6. woodone

    woodone TrainBoard Member

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    You might try to contact Bachmann and ask them- after all they did not install any capacitors to eliminate the start/stopping you are getting. This is a fairly light loco so having clean rail & wheels will be a must.
    I do not think that SoundTraxx will be able to help you has this is a proprietor board.
    I am sure there is a place we’re you could add capacitors if you knew were positive and the ground was.
     
  7. gatrhumpy

    gatrhumpy TrainBoard Member

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    On the side of the plastic insert, it says, "Econami DCC Sound Value."

    It does have a 100uF capacitor - the giant silver cylinder on the board.

    So, question for all the electronics engineers out there. What happens if you connect a 16V, 220uF cap to a 25V, 100uF capacitor in parallel? I know the capacitance will be added, but I assume that is only for the same voltages.
     
  8. woodone

    woodone TrainBoard Member

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    Well’ I think that I would match the volts. Even when I add caps I use 20 volt rated ones. 16 volts is too close to the track voltage- very little room for error!
    A normal Econami decoder would use one 220 uF at 20 volts. So right now you are 120 uF short.
     
  9. Soppy

    Soppy New Member

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    The capacitance values will add so you will have 320uf. On the downside , your voltage rating is now only 16 volts , the same as the lowest voltage rating of the capacitors in parallel .
     

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