Atlas ALCO C420 Low Nose

Scale:
HO Scale


WOWKit used in this installation

WDK-ATL-6

Which includes the following items:

Decoder
Motherboard

AS-MB2

Speaker Kit
Keep Alive®

KA4



Installation

This installation is for a HO-Scale Atlas C420 low nose using a TCS WOW121 Decoder, AS-MB2 Motherboard, a KA4 Keep Alive® 
and UNIV-SH4-C WOWSpeaker kit by TCS.

HO-Scale Atlas C420 Ph1 low nose prior to installation.
HO-Scale Atlas C420 Ph1 low nose prior to installation.
For this installation, we do not have a complete photographic record, but the above photo is shown with the shell off and the unit just prior to the speaker installation. To accomplish this, the rear weight must be removed and milled to accommodate the UNIV-SH4-C. If this is not something you can accomplish yourself, this complete installation, including the milling service, can be found at DCC Xpress Installations: dxinstalls.com
For this installation, we do not have a complete photographic record, but the above photo is shown with the shell off and the unit just prior to the speaker installation. To accomplish this, the rear weight must be removed and milled to accommodate the UNIV-SH4-C. If this is not something you can accomplish yourself, this complete installation, including the milling service, can be found at DCC Xpress Installations: dxinstalls.com
Shown here is the rear weight, upside down, milled out to accept the UNIV-SH4-C. If your speaker enclosure installation covers the portholes on the enclosure, we recommend adding new port hole(s) similar to the original porting. Be sure that the new portholes are the same size and amount of the original and are vented freely into the locomotive We have found introducing a port of the correct size greatly increases the volume and sound quality of the installation. Too much or too little porting decreases the sound quality.
Shown here is the rear weight, upside down, milled out to accept the UNIV-SH4-C. If your speaker enclosure installation covers the portholes on the enclosure, we recommend adding new port hole(s) similar to the original porting. Be sure that the new portholes are the same size and amount of the original and are vented freely into the locomotive We have found introducing a port of the correct size greatly increases the volume and sound quality of the installation. Too much or too little porting decreases the sound quality.
The ALCO C420 shown with the UNIV-SH4-C installed into the milled rear weight. TCS motherboards include on board current limit resistors for LED use. There is no need to apply external resistors for LED use.
The ALCO C420 shown with the UNIV-SH4-C installed into the milled rear weight. TCS motherboards include on board current limit resistors for LED use. There is no need to apply external resistors for LED use.

Important Soldering Tip

Please do not use any flux either liquid or paste on the mother board. Over time, the acidic properties of liquid or paste flux will begin eating away at the fiberglass PCB and will damage it. Use only Rosin-core solder or no-clean flux approved for electronics use.

TCS recommends the use of Kester "44" Sn63 Pb37, .015" diameter Rosin-core solder. Kester part number 24-6337-0007.

You can order this solder from the following retailers:
Digikey - PN:KE1110-ND
Techni-Tool - PN:488SO6775

Other solder tips

When stripping wire, only strip a tiny little bit of the insulation. Strip no more than a 1/32 of an inch. When the wire gets tinned with solder, the insulation will shrink back more. Try to not expose any more wire than half the length of the solder pad at most. In no case should solder or exposed wire wire ever be outside the boundary of the the solder pad you are attaching a wire to.
Click here for important information on properly Stripping and Tinning wire

Lacing Cord

In order to keep the wires neat and prevent possible shorts, we recommend lacing the wires into a bundle using lacing cord. Lacing cord is a wax impregnated string used for wire bundling and making harnesses. There are many choices of lacing cord available from Digikey www.digikey.com. 
We use part number 802534B BK032-ND