Hello!
I’ve been converting four Lionel Ready to Play F7 engines over to LocoFi. I’m a life long RC guy but spent a lot of time as a kid with my dads old ‘50s vintage Lionel O gauge trains and I love the concept of the LocoFi product! Obviously the Lionel Ready to play line is not the most scale stuff out there but I somehow ended up with tons of track and 5 train sets of it! After having lots of fun trying to juggle a consist of 4 Locomotives using 4 different handheld transmitters for awhile my research led me to LocoFi And I promptly ordered 4 DDLLHA units! My approach to this project is keep It lighthearted and have fun with this cool product from LocoFi!
So I figured if anyone is interested in this process I’d start a thread for it!
Starting with this guy! Outside:
Inside:
more Pics and notes to follow:)
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Great way to blog and track progress on your project! Thank you! If there’s no objection, we will move this post to O Scale Forum.
Also, try ‘Add an image’ instead of ‘Add a file’ for displaying images inline.
Oops sorry yep send it where I should’ve started it
No worries. You can start anywhere 🙂 We will do the move for you (of course with your permission).
I utilized the original power switch and headlight LEDs. I removed the stock one-piece black plastic windshield and installed semitransparent windows to allow the cab to be lit up from the inside.
Here I removed the cap plate that houses the old battery tray so I can use that space to hold up to a 4000 3s lipo! This also means I can utilize the original battery access door and easily remove the lipo to swap it out for a fully charged one.
I needed a way to mount the LocoFi DDLLHA unit in the front of the Loco so that wiring it was simple, the SD card was easily accessible and in a way that allowed the front trucks to pivot freely. So a doghouse/stand was created. The LocoFi module is simply attached with double sided “servo” tape. This is kind of a working mock-up approach to test as I go..hence the blue tape isolating some conductors..
Couple things to note from the last couple pics: I honestly don’t know if the original F7 had ground lights but these will! Also the original speaker was removed for a way better sounding option. At this point I’m not sure what to do about the blue power light on the DDLLHA, in the dark it does light up the cab with a faint blue color.
BTW I can’t say enough about what a great kit the DDLLHA is! In Addition to the LocoFi unit you also get extra wires, heat shrink, a micro to standard SD adapter and 4 LEDs!! Plus their willingness to respond to questions in great detail is simply amazing!!! Awesome job guys!!
One of the most fun aspects with a project like this is testing, modifying things and learning what works and what don’t! I tried the large original Lionel speaker and it’s ok but I wanted better! So I ordered a few of the silver ones(pictured here for size comparison). So far they sound awesome! Much more fuller rounded sound reproduction! I have some other ones (same size as the large one) ordered and I’ll try those as well when they get here 🙂
After a lot of research and trial and error I’ve determined that the original motor in the Lionel RTP F7 is a 3 pole RS-360 type. This motor does not work well with the DDLLHA unit. In this discovery process I tested a couple of 5-pole motors, an HO Walthers 5-Pole Skew-Wound and an O gauge MTH RS-385PH and both of course run beautifully with the DDLLHA unit! So I ordered a few Mabuchi RS-365 motors. The 365 motors are a direct physical replacement for the old 360’s and have similar performance specs to the MTH 385 and of course are a 5-pole motor.
You can cover it with black tape, paint, putty or some mixture of glue and paint. It can also be desoldered or simply destroyed (carefully) with the hot soldering iron. Removing the blue LED will not have any effect on the performance or functionality of the module. To access the LED, it’s okay to make a small cut in the yellow Kapton tape around the LED using an Xacto knife (again carefully not to damage the board/antenna).
Thank you!
Yes. For louder sounds, a 3W 4ohm speaker is recommended. Look for a higher sensitivity. Generally speaking, larger the speaker, better the sensitivity. Of course, there are other factors like the range and truthfulness of sound reproduction to consider as well. The silver ones do look great. Please share the model you settle on.
If that’s the case with this motor, then any PWM output source would cause the same results. A 3 pole motor in general needs more juice to get going. Please make sure that before it starts to spin, it’s not exceeding 2A.
Yes sir, once I get the 365 motors I will test them to make sure they don’t exceed 2A!
I ordered these speakers to test how they perform installed in the Lionel F unit with the LocoFi DDLLHA. Sadly the one on the right is just slightly oversized and won’t fit without modifying the loco. The left one however fits perfectly and sounds amazing! It really makes the locomotive sound big and powerful
Great! Please share the part numbers if possible. If they are 3W 4ohm speakers, you may share the details on https://www.wifimodelrailroad.com/forum/installation/3w-4-ohm-speaker thread.
Will do! The slightly larger one is 4ohm 3W.
( https://a.co/d/07W5w1D ) Amazon
I plan on installing them in 2 Super Chief Locos. I will reporting on how that one sounds as soon as I get it into a loco. The other is actually 4ohm 5w.
Just a short clip of my current state of mods! Not sure if I’m done with these just yet 😉
Love the sounds! They sound so real! Really!
Well I guess it’s time to do another loco mod with a slight difference!
MD13S for a high(er) current application!
A little bench mock up to make sure I don’t let the smoke out of any components 😉
Everything worked great!
Some cooler horns and windows..
WAAAY better speaker! Had to modify the chassis a bit With a dremel. This speaker is a little bigger that 50mm
