So I broke down and bought one of those Bowser F unit power chassis with a Tsunami in it. Since it cost a whoel $10 more than a Tsunami by itself, and for that price I got the Tsunami, speaker, AND a POWERED chassis, I couldn;t resist.
Expecting all sorts of headaches from the umpteen posts about how the PowerCab and Digitrx DB150 (Super EMpire Builder) are about the only things that can program one of thse decoders unless you add a PTD-100 program track booster, I nevertheless set it on my program/test track with a PR3 connected. Using a standard Digitrax PS14, not some special higher voltage/higher current power supply. It read back all CVs and I was able to program it with no problems.
Tonight, I got out the matching A unit and tossed in a decoder so I could run them together. Of course I connected the drawbar BEFORE programming the TCS decoder int he A unit, oops. OH well, I want them to be the same address, and wonder of wonders, they BOTH run backwards, so they both need the same change to CV29. I stuck them on my program track connected to my Zephyr - BOTH units, tied together with a drawbar. I did NOT use ‘blast mode’ or any such thing. I do NOT have a program track booster of any sort - just a piece of flex track connected with terminal joiners to the Zephyr program outputs, about 5 or 6 feet of #18 speaker wire. I set the address from the default of 3 to a long address, that took as well as automatic CV29 programming done by the DIgitrax throttle. I then set CV29 manually to 33 for 128SS, reversed running, no DC. Put the pair on my main track, dialed up the address, and off they went. No problems programming.
So now I’ve tested the supposedly “it can’t possibly work” PM42 with multiple sound decoders on the same section, with no programming other than factory defaults. No problems recoverign when I removed the short. And now I find all the moaning and complaining about programming Tsunamis is pretty much some other problem as well. I still don;t like th
I think the main complaint is not being able to read CVs in program track mode. With the clubs Lenz system we often get the error 2 message meaning no decoder installed. Even though we get the error message it still programs the decoder. I had wanted to try to put a 2 pole plug on the large caps so they can be un plugged while programing in program track mode but never got around to trying it.
The Stewart sound chassis are a great deal any way you look at it.
I recently bought an N scale Bachmann 2-8-0 with a Tsunami TSU-750. The sound is wonderful and the loco runs very nicely. However, my Zephyr progamming track won’t read back any CV’s. I’ve never had any trouble reading back anything else with my Zephyr. So, I guess I need to buy a Soundtraxx PTB-100 programming track booster.
I have not heard any moaning and complaining about not being able to program Tsunamis with a PR3 directly connected to a program track, but I have heard of many complaints about programming Tsunamis using the program track outputs of many different command stations. The PR3 apparently has a greater output than the current limited program track output of many command stations. Not being able to prgram Tsunamis with command stations that limit program track current to within NMRA specs is a very real problem and the ability to program them with the PR3 does nothing to prove otherwise.