Success, ...almost

 

Test running the General 

I installed a Soundtrax Blunami decoder in the locomotive General today.  That involved installing the decoder, current keeper, speaker and adding a working headlight.  It went fairly well. Overall, I am very impressed, but there is one lingering issue.

Installation

All the electronics fit in the tender

The first thing I noticed was that the wire to the  electrical pick-up on the pilot truck was broken. This is a common problem with these locos. The Osceola had the same problem and I fixed that yesterday.
 

I had to remove the pick-up to clean off the solder joint and solder the wire. 

Next was the decoder. Installing that in the General was much simpler than my previous decoder installs because I did not add all wheel pick-up to the tender and I did not use the Stanton battery and battery power supply. Thus, there was enough room in the tender to install the decoder on one side of the motor and the current keeper on the other.

I added a sugar cube speaker on top of the gearbox for the lead truck. It sounds great.

This loco has electrical pick-ups for one rail on one side of the tender and for the other rail in the engine. I usually add all wheel pick-ups on both sides of the tender, but this locomotive seems to be running well without them. We shall see how it does when the wheels get some dirt.

I wanted to add a working head light. As installed at the locomotive factory, the headlight light comes on whenever there is voltage on the rails. So it was always on when placed on DCC. 

I had to take off the fire box to get  at the head light wires inside the boiler. The wires from the light were attached via a mini plug to the main power wires of the locomotive. It was easy to unplug it. 

However,  I misunderstood the Blunami instructions and connected the headlight to the decoder output without a ballast resistor. The headlight in the loco was working with 15V from the DCC track power.  So I didn't think I would need a ballast resistor. Oops, that was not correct. The bulb burned out after a brief moment of working. 

The dang headlight won't turn off

So I replaced the blown bulb with a micro bulb I had on hand with a 460 ohm resistor. Now the head light is on but it won't turn off. I suspect I somehow damaged the lighting circuit or perhaps I have an incorrect setting in the control application.  Which leads me to the next part of installation, the Blunami Application.

The Blunami Application

Downloading the Blunami Application to my iphone was easy. I fired up the app and it quickly connected to the decoder. The controls are easy use.  I really like it. The throttle response is excellent. I tested it from various rooms in my house. It works all over the basement and I can even control trains from the kitchen. 

The buttons on the ap have an audio or haptic response, so you  feel like you are pushing a mechanical switch instead of a screen on a phone. It is much better than I expected. One thing I noticed is a slight delay of about 5-10 seconds from when you open the ap to when you can control the loco. This caused a few moments of panic until I got used to it.

Programming is easy. I tried various settings for sound and speed control. It will take some more playing around to get things dialed in. I tried the digital engine calibration. It worked automatically. I really can't tell if it made a difference but it was easy to use. I think it might be chuffing a bit to much, so that is a parameter I need to play with some more. I have to say it easier to program the decoder functions with this device than any other way I have tried. 

I only have one iPhone, so I don't know how I will deal with multiple engines and users. My operators can easily download the ap if they have an iPhone. But not everyone does. What if I want to run two or more engines? 

It is perhaps fortunate that I am using this ap as two of my EasyDCC throttles have stopped working. So, I am down to one functional EasyDCC throttle and 3 throttles that work with the Stanton systems. I haven't decided if I will convert my other locos to Blunami.  

Remaining Issues

I need to find out why the headlight won't turn off or react to any controls. The Aquia Line doesn't use headlights in daytime, so I can disconnect it, but I want to get it working properly. 

Since this loco is the famous W&A RR General, I decided to keep the name the same. However, I made a sticker with the USMRR logo for the sides of the tender using my laser cutter and brass micro thin plastic.  The sticker is removable in case I need to sell the loco. It can go back to being the W&A RR General. 

I need to work on the woodpile and add some weathering. The front link needs to be modified for use with my couplers. I also need to tweak it a bit as I run it and find problems. But it a nice addition to the fleet.