DCC Lionheart Auto Trailer DCC Upgrade

daifly

Western Thunderer
In a moment of affluent impetuosity last October, I purchased at the Langley show a Lionheart LHT750S DCC upgrade for the autotrailer that I had previously bought. I felt it was worth placing my experiences of making the upgrade on record as I identified a number of wrinkles and cures that may be of help to others doing the same. Correspondence with Richard Webster of Lionheart has clarified some of the questions arising.
The original autotrailer packaging had a small accessory pack ready for the upgrade. This pack contained two small springs, two brass rods and a pair of brass screws. Also included were a brake standard and five small, mysterious black plastic parts. More on these later. There is a sheet giving instructions on how to remove the roof. The coach has been factory-fitted with a speaker housing in the luggage compartment and electrical pickups from the bogie wheels taking power to the cabin floor.
The upgrade pack contained a very long, flexible PCB, a Zimo 21-pin DCC sound chip, a capacitor, a speaker and pair of purple speaker wires. There is a sheet in colour with blow-by-blow instructions and another sheet listing the function codes.
Removal of the roof was not easy. You need to push down on the roof and simultaneously slide it about 5mm towards the driving end. There are 6 pairs of clips on the underside of the roof which, when clear of the lugs on the body side, allow the roof to be lifted clear. I managed to shear off one of the roof vents in the process but Plastic Weld soon fixed that.
With the roof removed, access to the speaker cover in the luggage compartment is possible and this needs to be removed. The instructions tell you to file a slot to allow the speaker wires to exit. This seems an odd instruction because the speaker cover already has a slot moulded in. Closer inspection reveals that the speaker cover is not quite square and the moulded slot will bring the wires out in a position visible through the windows. The new slot should be at 90 degrees to the original so that the wires will emerge at the rear of the compartment. The speaker wires are soldered to the speaker tags. Refitting the speaker cover was a bit of a faff as the speaker solder tags interfered with positioning of the cover. These tags will require careful bending back so that they don’t touch the speaker frame. The cover is refitted with the wires emerging at the rear and fed up through the compartment partition ready for attaching to the circuit board.
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The floor & seat modules can be removed for painting and fitting of passengers if required and the driving end false floor is removed to allow fitting of the brake standard and a driver.
DSC02583sc.jpg Lionheart’s original plan was to have an operating tail lamp. This was cancelled but one of the included mysterious parts was intended to cover a small PCB for the lamp. The remaining 4 black plastic parts were intended to secure the speaker and lamp connections to the main PCB but a redesign of the main PCB made these unnecessary so they can all be discarded.
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The brass springs, rods and screws carry the power from the floor level, through a cabin partition up to the main PCB.
DSC02582sc.jpg The provided instructions cover the rest of the installation without issues. However, what to do with the capacitor? Apparently it comes with the Zimo decoder but Richard says that it is not needed so does not require fitting. Add it to your spares box!
All of the seats, cabin partitions etc are easily removable for painting.
Dave
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave,

by coincidence, I received my Zimo MX645R sound chip for the 121 conversion today and the box contained a capacitor identical to yours - apparently, it is a 'stay alive' capacitor and is hard wired to the blue/grey wires (the grey one is negative) that come out of the back of the chip.

With a bit of luck and a following wind, I hope to be ready to test fit mine later this week. I'm also fitting red/white combined LEDs and now need to find out which of the three wires is + and which is - no hints in the packaging, so a phone call to Digitrains seems to be on the cards tomorrow.

Enjoy your Autocoach.

cheers

Mike
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
It might be worth downloading the Zimo manual to work out where that cap goes and fit it; it may well help with any flicker on the lights as well as the sound. In general, if I can fit stay-alive and set CV29 to DCC-only I do it...

Those clips are very common on US HO stuff to hold wires to the circuit boards.

Steph
 

daifly

Western Thunderer
It might be worth downloading the Zimo manual to work out where that cap goes and fit it; it may well help with any flicker on the lights as well as the sound. In general, if I can fit stay-alive and set CV29 to DCC-only I do it...
Hi Steph

Richard Webster suggested that the 'stay-alive' had considerably less relevance on a trailer. Most of the sounds are intermittent - gong, guard's whistle, door slam etc (these last two are when the coach is stationary anyway). The main reason fro fitting would be, as you suggest, to keep the lights on.
The original Lionheart plan was to have a red tail lamp LED and the connections to the PCB are visible on the photo of the driver's end. There is no indication of whether the Zimo chip was ever set up to accommodate it.
Hi Dave,
by coincidence, I received my Zimo MX645R sound chip for the 121 conversion today and the box contained a capacitor identical to yours - apparently, it is a 'stay alive' capacitor and is hard wired to the blue/grey wires (the grey one is negative) that come out of the back of the chip.
With a bit of luck and a following wind, I hope to be ready to test fit mine later this week. I'm also fitting red/white combined LEDs and now need to find out which of the three wires is + and which is - no hints in the packaging, so a phone call to Digitrains seems to be on the cards tomorrow.
Mike
Thanks Mike

I have recently received a MX645R from Digitrains to fit into my Ixion Hudswell Clarke so will report back on that in due course. I've got the 'how to' from the March Hornby Magazine. I have an Easybuild 121 to build at some time so may have to ask you for info! Hope your installation goes OK.

Cheers

Dave
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
Now that the Dapol re-release of this carriage is near... with the tempting offer of lights, sound and action... the obvious question is:-

* do you, Dave (@daifly), consider that the lighting upgrade is worth the candle?
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
The original Lionheart plan was to have a red tail lamp LED and the connections to the PCB are visible on the photo of the driver's end. There is no indication of whether the Zimo chip was ever set up to accommodate it.

I've come into this a bit late Dave (and assuming the decoder is of the MX640 - MX658 series) to have the red tail lamp just use one of the other auxiliary lighting functions (being a standard NMRA conformance requirement) and disguise the power cables as motor train control lines if using the loco decoder. Although Zimo decoders do not carry the NMRA conformance logo they exceed their requirements (as do ESU decoders).
 

daifly

Western Thunderer
Now that the Dapol re-release of this carriage is near... with the tempting offer of lights, sound and action... the obvious question is:-

* do you, Dave (@daifly), consider that the lighting upgrade is worth the candle?
Hi Graham et al
Having done the Lionheart upgrade (c£155 as I recall for the kit - no longer available) I wouldn't bother again. It's very good, with both sound and lighting incorporated. If operating in the dark is a feature of your operation then you might be tempted. The lighting is far too bright for realism in my view. The gloom that should pervade the interior is replaced by chip shop brightness! The sounds are fun for a few minutes and then become somewhat repetitive and thus tedious. If sound and lighting are included at a sensible price point then I might go for it but the price differential last time around was too much in hindsight.
Dave
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
The gloom that should pervade the interior is replaced by chip shop brightness!

You can reduce the brightness by altering the relevant CVs.

The sounds are fun for a few minutes and then become somewhat repetitive and thus tedious.

I know what you mean. Even in my SSW GP9 I will not always use the bell or horn. They're okay for demonstration purposes - but all the time - no thanks.
 

Frank J Sharp

New Member
I found this page after a search on how to remove the roofs. Nothing worked so I rang Dapol who said they sometimes push the coach up to a stop on the bench. That didn't work either so I made a stop which fitted just below the handrails either side of the driver's window. The actual contact is 4mm ply covered with two layers of gaffer tape. I then took a wooden peg, dismantled it and covered the sharp end in more gaffer tape. I then took a HAMMER and drove the peg end against the gas lanps. Tapping gently didn't work but a bit more force did. I'm new to tis grop but if WT lets me there are pictures
 

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