Recent issues of MR, there is a group of DCC manufacturers/distributers who have a full-page spread. This month, they are highlighting a QSI upgrade chip, which I’ve also found on the following site (Remember that, supposedly, SoundsLikeTrains is going to marked an add-in QSI DCC/sound system). In particular, the advertisement mentioned an introductory rate, IIRC $29.95.
Well, I’m excited about the potential of being able to program sounds (and I’ve heard others complain about certain QSI sounds, so maybe I’m not the only one. Thus, I started looking around for who might be offering this.
Problem is, I’ve visited about 4-5 of the websites so far, and don’t see much of any mention made of this, and certainly no more details such as price/procedure. According to the few places I’ve seen this mentioned as being available in February 2006 (i.e., approximately when said issue of MR would appear in people’s mailboxes).
Anyone heard of anything more specific, such as when or who to contact? Or, do we have the next Tsunami on our horizons? [}:)]
I took it as serious, primarily driven by the end of MTH litigation and ability to re-activate the BEMF functionality they had to turn off because of it.
Soundslike trains was handing out flyers on the upgrade program at the NMRA last year, so this has been in the works for some time. As with all things DCC it seems that the information is published long before anyone is geared up to meet the demand.
This may be a stupid question but what is BEMF? I only came into this hobby about 2 years ago and I dont remember hearing that term before but I have heard it alot the last few days.
Rumors have been flying around the DCC community since January that a settlement or stalemate was at hand… I meant that this announcement, which clearly suggests BEMF will be turned back “on” as part of the upgrade, might suggest there’s an end in site (or an end that’s come and simply not made public yet: many settlements never are, the litigation just fades away)
The deal with SoundsLikeTrains fell through. The QSI upgrades will now be handled by Tony’s subsidiary company which acts as a distributor. Both Ton’y regular ad and a huge full-page piece in the April MR detai this. How soon we will see actual parts is anyone’s guess.
This upgrade has nothing to do with the QSI after-market sound system for user installation that was going to be offered – it’s to correct problems with the original QSI systems by replacing the EPROM.
sounds like (pun intended) a fantastic upgrade , QSI owners should be very happy about this . if it’s an april fool’s joke then it’s a very elaborate one that will end up with many unhappy customers , so i doubt it .
any idea if this is a user installable upgrade ? i’ve relaced that style of chip and it’s pretty easy , there’s a special tool for removing the old chip but a very small screwdriver works just as well
Based on Tony’s ad, it should be available as a DIY replacement. Not every loco will get as many features - newer QSI decoders already have some of the features mentioned, like QARC and the verbal feedback.
Yes - never! For whatever reason their deal fell through, and SLT will NOT be the QSI distributor. Tony’s subsidiary company, American Models or something like that will be the distributor for QSI upgrades.
Yes, I agree, I was more thinking of a catchy title than seriously considering that. [:)]
I don’t recall if it was in the link I originally gave, or one of the few other links I found via Google. However, there was apparently concern on the part of QSI that there are fragile components really close to the IC, and so they were initially going to only do it via dealerships. However, further discussion appeared to have it user-installable. I know that the price listed in the advertisement, $29.95, probably won’t support dealer installations- I could see even an experienced technician taking about 30 minutes or so to unpackage and open the loco, remove and install the IC, close and re-package it. If they’re paying the technician anything much above minimum wage, and adding overhead like a storefront, insurance, etc. on top, I don’t see it paying. $29.95 sounds to me like a price for the component itself, and then dealers will likely specify what their bench rate will be for doing the installation if you want them to.
All of this is just guesswork and supposition, though, until I see an actual link I can click on to order.