Piko V36: DCC decoder and sound module installation

My large scale locomotive fleet is growing at a steady pace. This year it was expanded by two new models, one of which is Piko V36 engine. And since I'm running all my trains under DCC protocol, the time has come to upgrade that little diesel, too.

So today I'm adding two pieces of electronics to the locomotive:

• Piko 36122 DCC decoder
• Piko 36224 sound module

These are separate products but they both come in identical looking boxes.

Piko 36122 decoder is medium-sized PCB with plenty of connectors. The package includes a manual, a wiring diagram and four screws.

Piko 36224 module is a really tiny circuit board with a pretty big loudspeaker attached. The latter will be secured with the two provided screws. We also receive assembly instructions sheet and a leaflet with detailed description of the module's audio functions.

But first we need to open the locomotive. Luckily the guide that came with the engine is very clear about how it should be done.

The same manual covers digital upgrade procedure, too. It's pretty much the same information as the one we got with the sound module. Looks good overall, but unfortunately it does not really show where to attach the smaller PCB inside the model. More on this later...

Let's open the locomotive already. Step one - remove the eight screws accessible from the bottom side.

Step two - pull out the buffers. Once that is done, the entire green cover can be lifted easily.

While separating the body parts, one has to pay attention to the lighting cables. There are two of those inside the engine - one for the back and cabin light, and one for the top front lamp. Unfortunately the latter would not disconnect for me easily. It was stuck so badly that instead of pulling out only the plug, I have accidentally removed the entire socket from the PCB. Luckily this is really not a serious damage.

The back of the model contains analogue control circuitry. That part needs to removed...

...and replaced with the decoder. It fits perfectly.

The loudspeaker goes in the front and the two screws hold it very well in its dedicated space.

Wiring is a slightly different topic. Provided diagrams do not really cover the V36 model. So in the end, the installation does require some understanding of the connections. It's not rocket science though and it takes a maximum of 15 minutes.

One thing to consider is that the "cabin light" feature is assigned to DCC function 6 by default. So to ensure that it all "just works", we should be attaching the respective cable to decoder's output A6. That's exactly what I chose to do.

Once wired, it's possible to perform the very first test. At this point I got very pleasantly surprised, since everything worked right away without any issues :)

There's a tiny challenge with placing the sound module inside the locomotive. There seems to be no dedicated space for it. I thought the area in the front would be a nice spot and I attached the board there. I also secured all the wires with extra insulation tape.

Turns out this location is not good at all, as I could not close the model anymore. The small PCB was getting in the way. So I moved it a little to the back and pushed it into the little opening. I again secured the wires with more tape. This time I was able to seal the body without any effort.

The conversion was successful, so it's time for a little demo. The sound the model produces is rather loud. It's actually so loud that I had to lower the volume a little in the recorded video. This way it should not blow your ears anymore. Enjoy!

Works great in my opinion! I'm very, very happy with the result. My large scale Taurus is next!