Thought it would intrest those who intend on purchasing this new Sound Decoder. Look at what happens at the 40 second mark…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6_ib7_QxNA
Sounds like someone activated the Jet Engine!
David B
Well, remember back to the teething problems the early steam sound decoders had. Many of them sounded horrible. Don’t expect an ace product overnight. It took the 1:1 steam loco builders a bit over 100 years to come up with the Big Boy. The sound guys STILL haven’t perfected that one from what I see on other forums. This is Tsunamis’s first toss at a diesel decoder. Their next one will probably be better.
I like the video, “Lights forming Crop Cirlces” [:)]
Rich
Jeffery, I think you missed the point. Why did they rush it to market with a glitch like this in it. Didn’t they perform adequate testing? And what are they going to do about those of us who have already purchased ones with this problem?
Fortunately, I haven’t installed mine yet, and now I may not after reading about and seeing this problem.
I think SoundTraxx should issue a recall or offer a refund.
I’ve watched the video several times and I keep seeing the loco take off as if the throttle had been punched way up. It didn’t look like a steady acceleration with the engine sound sounding like a V2 lifting off. It looked like a sudden burst of speed. I’m not going to rest my judgement on one video.
It was rushed because of us modelers screaming for the diesel decoder. I still see people getting very good results with the diesel decoder in the Yahoo SoundTraxx group. Go join and see what is going on.
Rich
I’ve seen regular old decoders do this, too. If CV29 is set to eliminate analog operation, it usually stops it from happening. Was the loco’s (whatever it was…something European and homebuilt, obviously) CV29 programmed to either 02 or 34?
If analog mode was turned off and this still happened, then I’d agree there’s cause for concern.
My gripe with my Tsunami is that in one direction it starts smooth as anything, while in the other it jumps from stop to 5-10 smph at about 9% throttle (and this is in an Atlas Classic RS-11). I also wish they had put CV5 and CV6 in their decoder.
Still, I like my 251 and Hancock whistle.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
That prime mover sound isn’t much better than my generic MRC! (That cost 1/3 the price.)
I was gonna say, what prime mover is that supposed to be? It sounds like a jet engine even when it’s running normally. Granted, without a shell the speaker isn’t properly baffled so the lows are REALLY lost.
As for the jump, that’s precisely what the bug is. If you have momentum programmed in and turn up the throttle, the last command the decoder sees is whatever speed that is - say step 100. However, the momentum programmed in makes it slowly ramp up to that setting. Unless it looses power, in which case it then restarts at whatever speed the last throttle command was. I don’t think turning off automatic analog operation would fix that one. It’s not running away out of control, it is merely responding to the last known command.
–Randy
This issue has already been extensively discussed on the Yahoo Soundtraxx Group and a reply from Soundtraxx can be found there as to why this occurs and how to avoid this effect.
Dave
You discovered my video! Many people are happy with the behaviour of the diesel Tsunami which, after a power interruption, resume with the speed and sound effects corresponding to last commanded speed, i.e. the throttle setting at the time of the interruption. There is agreement that this is an improvement over some other decoders (steam Tsunamis and earlier SoundTraxx) which do a full restart from standstill after a power glitch. The new behaviour does indeed work well when the loco has completed its acceleration phase and it basically cruising at the commanded speed. When it does not work well is when the loco is travelling at low speed but accelerating towards a relatively high speed. It a power glitch occurs, the loco will instantly accelerate to the commanded speed with no momentum effect. This phenomenon can be largely avoided by 1. avoiding the use of 100% throttle (e.g. to get max sound effect (notch 8) when accelerating - no more than 50% is enough at default settings, 2. configuring the Tsunami to require even less throttle to get notch 8 sounds and 3. configuring the Tsunami (using the Fwd and Rev trim CVs) so the maximum speed of the loco is not excessive compared to the prototype. The sudden speed increase shown in the video is the “worst case” example as the throttle was at 100% and the max speed was about 30% higher than was prototypical for this loco. In case anyone is interested, the partly-built loco in the video is being built by my brother. It is a model of a Westrail/ARG S class diesel which is a 3000HP double cab hood unit operating here in Western Australia on 3ft 6ins tracks. The loco has a 12 cylinder 710 prime mover. The Tsunami sound compares reasonably well with the prototype but I haven’t heard a US 710 loco so I can comment in that regard. The S class has a very efficient silencer so there is not much “exhaust” sound, mainly the turbocharger and basic mechanical noise from the prime mover. There is some video footage of the prototype loco with reason
I also am disappointed with the quality. If you compare to the Athearn sound decoders you will see what I am talking about
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This is NOT the Soundtraxx Yahoo Group. Nor should it be non material here because it has been discussed over there…
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I am a member of the Sountraxx Yahoo Group, as well as many others pertaining to DCC and Sound.
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No solution has been found at the Yahoo Group. This bug still exsists. They have only given recommendations.
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Soundtraxx has NOT given information that will keep this bug from happening. They only discussed why they programmed the decoder to do what it does.
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QSI, ESU and Digitrax all have sound decoders. NONE of them have this bug…none. When any of them encounter a momentary short or momentary loss of power, they do not respond immedietly to the throttle position.
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If Soundtraxx would fix this glitch, they would have one fine decoder on their hands, however, they cannot because a) its not downloadable and b) it would put them back at square one in terms of programming. If I pay 160 Canadian for a decoder I do NOT want it to behave like this…no way, no how. Nor should I have to join a Group and Read it to make modifications to a decoder so I might not behave in the same manner…that is just stupid.
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I post these arguments so that people are informed BEFORE they pay for this decoder.
David B
Actually, it was rushed out the door because of the QSI Revolution Decoder. Look at the facts, the moment they became available, so did the Tsunamis. Unfortunately for Soundtraxx, they are missing a few features that puts QSI ahead; 1) |Programmability and 2) Resistorless light installs.
David B
i rushed out and bought a quantum revolution and all it’s software parafanalia, and was highly dissapointed with the sound and performance of it, [fake synthesized sounds- talk about sounding like a spacship!!!]. forget about the hassle of downloading new sounds into…highly frustrating!!!
now the new diesel tsunami, is an expensive piece, and sounds just as terrible, and runs awful.
i have quite a number of Athearn sound locos that i run on my NEC dcc system and are quite happy with their sound and performance…does anybody know who makes the Athearn sound decoder? They used to refer to it as Vibronta, but i can’t find Vibronta listed in a google search.
How did you do the install for the Revolution? For the Tsunami? Which speakers did you use? Where in the unit did you place them? How did you programme them? What issues did you see with the QSI drive? Which sound package did you use for the QSI? Which Baffels did you use?
In terms of Athearn sound, they use MRC sound chips.
David B
David,
these were far from my first decoder installations sound or non-sound. i have been installing decoders into locos since the early days when Brooklyn N-Trak first went to dcc, and Dynatrol was around. The speakers were purchased from a dcc dealer up in Vermont, [name withheld to protect the innocent]. i also know how to build enclosures because i work in the audio field building custom speaker enclosures for professional musicians. I also know what real locomotives sound like because i spend alot of days trackside in and around the tri-state area, photographing and recording them.
Thank you for the Athearn/MRC information. i also found this answer on another posting where there was alot of MRC bashing going on.
David B is correct with most of his points. However, LokSound decoders essentially do the same thing as the diesel Tsunami after a momentary loss of power. One difference is that the LokSound “store current speed setting” feature can be switched on or off using CV124 (whereas the similar Tsunami behaviour is always on AFAIK). The other difference is the LokSound speed increase is not quite as sudden as the diesel Tsunami, after a power glitch. However, the essential behaviour is the same, i.e. after a power glitch, the loco will resume at the last commanded speed value i.e. last know throttle position, even if this is quite different from the last actual speed. I have tested a couple of LokSounds under controlled conditions, by deliberately introducing a short power glitch, and the behaviour is quite obvious and repeatable. I hadn’t noticed the undesirable behaviour in the 2 LokSound-equipped locos on my layout (both on loan and not programmed by me) because one had the feature switched off and the other had very reliable power pickup and had never encountered a power glitch that I had noticed. Someone on the Soundtraxx e-mail list had mentioned in passing that LokSounds exhibited this behaviour and this prompted me to test them.
Athearn sound locos use the MRC decoders, which, if you read other posts here, you’re lucky if any of them are running more than about 30 minutes before going up in smoke. How did you manage to get so many good ones?
Grumpy…look at this video,ant tell me if your ATHAERN with MRC do that and sound that way…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbS6d_mY7Zo
Adrian