If you use momentem, so that when you open the “throttle” all the way the engine gradually begins to pick up speed- when you set it to full speed, does the prime mover speed up to full throttle? If not, how do you ever hear the roar of an EMD 567 w/o running at REALLY high speeds?
Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but I just GOTTA know.
I don’t know the answer for sure, but I believe if you are using the momentem imbeded in the decoder then it would make sense for the decoder to ‘throttle’ the sound based on it’s current speed not it’s destination speed.
If you are using the momentem built into a command station then it would also make sense that the decoder would use the current speed not destination speed to ‘throttle’ the sound.
I’m not 100% sure though as I am a N scaler.
I have a Proto 2000 E8/9 with quantum sound. With the momentum on, the loco sounds like it would if it were real. The sound rumbles louder at the start and as it picks up speed it gets faster, then starts to mellow out when you reach cruising speed. If you then throttle up more after reaching cruising speed, it again gains sound and speed until it reaches the new cruising speed then mellows out again.
Bill
In short, yes. Granted, just like the big ones, you wont here full throttle, unless you are doing full thottle speeds. But, if you are moveing along or just starting out, you hit the throttle, you will here the engine rev up and then come back down to the match the speed.
I have a NCE Power Cab, and both of my deisels do that. They are QSI equipped and they have a some momentum on them. It is pretty cool. My steamers wil do the same thing as well. The chuffs get much louder when you dump the throttle unitl everythign catches up.
The ‘spool up’ of the engine as it loads up on a F unit would not be immediate ‘roar’ as it accelerates. Two things play into this:
o - The F units(and some early GP’s) have ‘rachet’ throttles. As you move the throttle up a notch, it will lock at that position until you release it - then you can advance to the next higher position. It is not possible to ‘wipe’ the throttle from IDLE to RUN 8. This prevents old engineers with prior steam experience from pulling a train apart(diesels have lots of power at the low end).
o - The actual ‘roar’ or ‘567 chant’ is due to how much fuel the injectors deliver to the cylinders. Since each thottle position relates to a govenor contolled engine speed value, it will take more fuel with each injector ‘squirt’ when pulling hard - Thus more sound.
I have a P2K GP9 with QSI sound, and I have the momentum set to about a ‘medium’ position. When I use the engine as a yard switcher, The run up of the engine is quite nice. I really have not tried running the engine with a heavy load behind it. I am not sure if the QSI sound system senses motor current and increases the ‘roar’ to match…
Jim
I watched 2 GP38-2s switching an ethanol plant a few weeks ago and once when they hooked onto a long cut of cars Ed (the engineer) put them in about Run 4-5, train didn’t move, long story short they ended up in N8 for about 10 seconds to get the cars rolling (the EMD 645s were just screaming) and then the throttle was closed down to N3-4.
That’s what I’d like to hear on a sound-eqipped model- prime mover at full throttle to get the train rolling then you can slow it down a bit. One of the specific sound models I’m interested in is the BLI NW2. (I know I can’t have the full throttle at low speed on DC, but I may eventually get DCC)
If you use digitrax, I know that with some sound systems you can set it up to where you can set up a sound step kind of thing by using your function buttons on your DH 100, if you have one. I think that would work realy well especially if your moving up a 2.7% grade you can have your train moving at 10miles and hour in run 8. Just one of the cool things about DCC.
When I crack open the throttles on all of my steamers, all QSI except two Tsunamis, every one of the locos sounds like it has the full cut-off bark, and is straining to accelerate the load. Then, if I close the throttle at main speed and drift, all of them go quiet, except that the Tsunamis emit the rod clank.
I think that they have done a fair job of mimicking the real thing.
Ok, on my QSI decodered H24-66, I put in about 30 in CV03 to program starting momentum. For coasting, I program about 100 into CV04. What happens is that when stopped and I open the throttle, the loco diesel sounds speed up and get louder up to the point of the throttle setting. For example, if I speed up to 50% throttle, the motor sounds will notch up to about notch 4 (more or less). If I only throttle up to Notch 1, that’s as far as the sound goes.
Meanwhile, the loco is just sitting there while the diesel spools up. As the sound gets louder, eventually, the loco starts to move ever so slowly. At this point, I can throttle back to idle or Notch 1 (about 10% or so), and the loco will now coast along until it either evenutally stops, or I stop it.
Another neat thing about the QSI boards is F7. F7 is a train brake for your momentum when momentum is turned on. For example, say you are running along at 75% throttle and you want to stop. Reduce throttle to 0%, and as the diesel sounds spool down to idle, press and release F7. You should hear an air release and a brake squeel, and the loco should now start decelerating. If you do nothing else, the loco will slow down at a faster and faster rate until it stops. If you just want to maintain a certain deceleration rate, hit and release F7 again. The air sound will stop, but the train will continue to slow down at that rate until stopped…or unless you accelerate again.
Neat stuff.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
It also depends on the decoder. Most (perhaps all) Soundtraxx diesels allow you to set CV’s for “manual notching”. You set one function key to notch up (next highest), another to notch down. Then the sound is controlled entirely by the function keys, separate from engine speed / speed steps. If you want “automatic notching”, you can also control the number of speed steps per notch – so when you go from speed step 1 to 9, for example, you’re in notch 1 and the sound level doesn’t change. When you go to any step from 10 to 19, you’re in notch 2 and the sound level increases, etc. Dunno about QSI – I’ve got a pair of F7s, but am waiting for the upgrade chip that was due out 6/2 . . .
QSI does not yet have manual notching like Soundtraxx, so the best you can do is fake it with momentum. It works pretty nice in the Atlas Trainmaster, crank the throttle and it really chugs getting that train underway, and then back off and the sound cuts back as it reaches cruising speed. I haven’t heard any QSI EMD sounds so I don’t know if they transistion or not. I have a Soundtraxx ‘generic’ DSD-100LC that sounds mostly like an EMD and it indeed does transition as speed increases. This would really only be applicable to first-generation units, later models like the SD40-2 do not do this. The question is, is the sound in the P2K GP9’s the same as the SD40-2 (ie, WRONG) or do they actually have a 567 sound?
–Randy
That’s exactly what I want. Will that work on the MRC Prodigy express? with a BLI NW2?
JrBernier,
Thanks for the info on the prototype 567. [8D][tup] Always enjoyable to learn something new here.
High Greens!
dingoix,
Um, it should work the same, AFAIK. The BLI NW2 has the QSI board, right? I just don’t know if it’s recent enough to have some of these features that the Atlas TM has.
The DCC system shouldn’t matter…as long as you have F7 control.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven