One of the ideas I thought of, in the long time since I last did actual work on the sw1500, was to get some custom PC boards made. The purpose would be to replace the Loksound motherboard with an expanded board that included extended traces (not sure that's the right name, I'm just learning about the boards) for connecting front and rear lights, speaker, and even motor leads.
The premise with the sw1500 guts was to make a platform for the Tang Band speaker and Loksound decoder to sit on, spanning from the very front of the hood to the front of the cab. I was going to do this with styrene sheet and some styrene tube for "beams" to support the sheet. It was going to be a tight fit inside the hood, with very little room for wiring runs and connections. Does anyone remember this:
What I would like to achieve, if feasible, is to figure out the traces on the motherboard, and replicate them on a long piece of pc board, which would then replace the styrene platform seen in the pictures. If I understand correctly, the motherboard doesn't feature any functionality, it's just a base for plugs and traces to the soldering pads? Of course I could be completely off base, if so this exercise probably ends very quickly.
If it was feasible, then I would hope to include strategically placed connections for all lights, speaker, and motor leads, and probably also a connection for a keep alive in the fuel tank or under the cab. I would also like to position soldering pads so that they weren't on the sides of the board.
Another idea I would like to consider is to have a "plug" or pin to sprung contact for the shell mounted lighting connections. I love the idea of eliminating wiring between the chassis and the shell. I'm not yet sure if the hardware exists to achieve this, or if it would even be a durable solution. But I'd like to explore the possibility.
It would be nice to replace wiring runs with board traces if possible, both because space is constrained, but also because a clean solution would suit my compulsive nature and keep my eye from twitching.
Jim
