# Help with installing Sound Bug



## johnhalford (Feb 2, 2010)

I have a Digitraxx Sound Bug, and want to connect it to my factory DCC equipped Bachmann On30 4-4-0. It says it is a 'simple' 2 wire hook up. I can solderthe wires to the 9 and 10 plugs on the Sound Bug. But what do I solderthem TO? It says attach them to the Track pick up. Is there a place on the circuit board for this, or is it a more complicated operation.
I know nothing about electronics and am scared to have everything blow up and melt.


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

The black and red wires leaving the DCC decoder are the track wires. They will be on opposite corners of the 8 pin plug. The other two wires on the corners, orange and gray, are the motor wires.


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## johnhalford (Feb 2, 2010)

Thank you, George. That is what I needed to know. So can I just cut those wires between the decoder and the circuit board and splice in the two from the sound bug. I'd rather not solder to close to the decoders if I can avoid it.


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

you can solder right to the top of the 8 pin plug if it has one. Alternately, you can see where the red and black wires go and find a convenient place to solder the SoundBug wires. Note that if you program the address of the SoundBug to the same as the existing decoder, you may not be able to use a programming track to make sense of either. 

Best to clip lead the SoundBug to your programming track FIRST, set a DIFFERENT address for it and then consist the two decoders together. 

Another slicker way to do it is to set BOTH decoders to different 2 digit addresses and the SAME 4 digit address. Then they will respond the same on the 4 digit address but if you use OPS mode to set CV29 to turn off 4 digit addressing, they will "split apart" and respond to different 2 digit addresses. Then you can use OPS mode to program them separately and when you are done, you can set CV29 back to 4 digit addressing individually and they will go back to their common 4 digit address.


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## johnhalford (Feb 2, 2010)

Uh - oh. I am already over my head here. I have MRC ProdigyAadvance system. The 4-4-0 has DCC installed and I programmed it to respond to '8'. I bought the Sound Bug hoping I could easily add sound. It seems a bit more complicated than I had anticipated.

What I was planning to do was to first program the Sound Bug to another number as you suggest by clipping it to the program track. Then I was going to cut the red and black wires on the decoder and splice in the two wires I have soldered to the soundbug's 9 and 10 terminals.Then reprogram the whole thing to - say - 9. Are you saying this will not work?


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

Pre-programming the sound decoder is the way to go. However, if you want to RE-program it later, it can get a little complicated when you want to change CV's in one but not the other. 

I don't know the programming capability of the MRC system so best to keep it simple, it is not likely that this system has all the programming capability that you might need to do trickier stuff.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Another simple way if the CV addressing "merry go round" is too confusing is to put in a couple of switches to separately turn each decoder off. Then you can have them both set to the same short address (that is what you are using). 

Not elegant, but sometimes easier. 

Regards, Greg


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