# AirWire Convrtr & Bachmann Climax



## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)

Has anyone successfully installed an AirWire Convrtr in a Bachmann Climax with a Soundtraxx Decoder? The manual states to connect the receiver to the battery terminals and set the switches to battery and DCC, but after doing this, I get no response from the decoder. 
Both addresses are set to 3.


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

How is the Converter connected to the decoder?


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## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike, that's my question. The manual says connect to the battery input terminals on the PCB.


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## Michael Glavin (Jan 2, 2009)

Jim

Did you connect the CONVRTR "OUT" of said PCB to the decoders battery input?

Do you have a Soundtraxx sound decoder or a combination motor control/sound decoder?

Michael


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

Jim, are you working with factory installed DCC and sound?


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## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)

It's the factory installed decoder, if I replace it with the dummy board I get the same results, no response.


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## Fern Creek & Western (Mar 15, 2016)

One simple thing to try is leave the Convrtr wired as it is with the sound decoder in place and make sure your switches for track and battery power in the rear sand boxes are thrown to battery power and that all the other switches for lights and smoke and such are thrown to DCC. If this doesn't work here is my guess as to whats going on. The Battery coming into the PCB Board is exactly what it says it is. It's for battery power coming into the PCB. The Convrtr is sending DCC signal to the Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder in the engine, and the battery ports don't allow you to do that as far as I know. I don't have my Climax in front of me right now but I know that the battery ports would most likely not work. It definitely would not work with the dummy board in pace as now you do not have a way to have motor control on your locomotive. my suggestion is to try to see if there is a way to hard wire a DCC-in plug. I am not sure where this would be on the board.

Hope this helps.
Trevor Park


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

It "should" work with the output of the Convertr wired to the battery input terminals on the PC board, but as Trevor mentions, there may be something in line with the battery terminals which is modifying the DCC signal (bridge rectifier, perhaps?). 

Try this... flip the track/battery switch to "track," and connect the output of the Convertr to the wheels of the locomotive. The Convertr outputs a standard DCC signal, so the decoder should read it the same as it would a DCC signal from a traditional trackside command station. 

If it responds to the DCC signal coming out of the Convertr when run through the wheels, but not when run through the battery input terminal, then there's definitely something in line with the battery terminal input. If that's the case, wire the Convertr to the inputs coming from the rails. Just remember to cut the connections to the trucks so you don't back-feed the DCC signal to the track.

If it doesn't work in either case, then something's definitely wonky. Check first to make sure the Convertr is working properly. If you have another DCC decoder handy, make sure you're able to control it with the Convertr. (I'll presume you've set the Convertr to the same frequency as the transmitter.) 

If the Convertr is working properly, remove the DCC decoder from the climax, connect the Convertr output directly to the track input pins, then connect a motor to the motor output pins. That'll let you know if the decoder is working. If it works, but the loco doesn't move when you plug the decoder back into the loco, then there's something weird with the locomotive wiring. 

That's at least how I'd attack troubleshooting things. Good luck!

Later,

K


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## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)

Thanks Kevin and Trevor for stimulating my brain. The DCC switch is in the smoke box, the DCC switch in the back of the tender is for the lights (as marked). I assumed the switch in the smoke box referred to the smoke unit.
The AirWire Convrtr is now controlling the sound equipped Climax.


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

Jim, What did you do with the battery? Trailing car?


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## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)

Mike, the battery will be in a trailing car.


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## Jim Agnew (Jan 2, 2008)




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