In my NCE PowerCab I´ve just replaced the old chip for the new with 28 functions. I made the change in 15 minutes. It´s great, and now I can hear and “feel” all the funny sounds and effects of my HO MTH K´4. Good for NCE.
Doc,
I got the upgrade functions when I bought my Smart Booster six months ago. Does your MTH K-4 actually utilize all 29 functions (F0-F28)? In other words, if you press F21, do you actually get a separate and distinguishable sound that you can hear?
Tom
Yeah the MTH K4 has lots of extra things, one of them is a train wreck (!) and there are station noises and an all aboard call. All abou as useful as the radio chatter in the Loksound decoder in my T-1. Seeing as how radio wasn’t used in the 50’s…
–Randy
I agree. Good for NCE. Some others don’t seem too thrilled with 28 functions. I too used to think that about all one really needed and ever used was just 3 or 4 functions. But I’m changing my mind.
Initially, I would try to run 3 or 4 trains all at once, trying to operate sound functions on at least one of them and at the same time trying to throw turouts as needed. It got to be like playing a fast and furious video game. It was challenging but not really that much fun.
Now I try to really concentrate on running just one loco as realistically as possible. With that in mind, and understanding how difficult it is to run a real loco, with all that one needs to be aware of and concentrate on, I’m thinking that it would be more realistic to really concentrate on all of the sound and light functions that are becoming available on just one loco, and to use them realistically effectively.
Mastering the use of 20 or more functions could be a challenging and maybe even more of a prototypical way of operating. True, some of these functions now available seem rather silly but if manufacturers start developing more realistic and usefull functions it would certainly be of interest to me. I just hope Lenz follows the lead of others and adds more functions.