I bought a heavy steam Tsunami to put into my Rivarossi H-8
I thought it should be an easy swap just pull the lok sound decoder and plug in the Tsunami
Wire the speaker and done !
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !
Lok Sound didn’t use an standard 8 pin plug
The decoder plugs into an inline plug
so it looks like i may have to hard wire the whole thing
Unless some one makes a conversion plug
At least it’s clearly marked
Terry,
And you do know that you can’t use the Loksound speaker with the Tsunami decoder? The Loksound speaker’s impedance is 100ohm.
Tom
Well I know now !!
Actually i’d rather use a pair of High Bass speakers
Thanks Tom !
I sent Lothar an e-mail cause i know he has one that he had done
I’ll be bugging him alot this week [:P]
Just curious, why the switch?? My understanding was that LokSound was considered “top of the line” in steam sound, better than most decoders out there and at least comparable with the Tsunami.
Wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll It may be top of the line but it doesn’t sound like an American Steam loco
The chuff is far to hissy and the whistle is a fixed whistle , Meaning it blows 3 times each time you push the button. Totally useless when you come to a grade crossing which is a big frustration .
It also doesn’t come close to sounding like an American Steam Whistle
If Rivarossi wanted to put sound in the H-8 They should have talked to these guys
http://www.steam-whistles.com/archive/hawksnest2006.html
Wanna hear a great Whistle ?
Go to the above site and click on the link in the sentence
“A new whistle sound was acquired” or click here D&M 6 Chime
The Tsunami has a much better sounding Chuff and the whistle is playable
and you get your choice of 6 different whistles Also I like the water fill feature
The Lok sound Decoder is far more complicated than any US made Decoder
It has lots of Sounds
I couldn’t even find the brake squeal
but to take advantage of this you must buy a Programmer For another $100
To download different sounds and customize your loco
I heard about the whistle issue before, but I thought they had worked something out to allow you to set up a long and a short whistle…though maybe that’s just on newer versions or something?? O well, I have a couple of Tsunami equipped engines and am quite happy with them. [:)]
They musta goofed something up, my PCM Reading T1 with a Loksound decoder had a completely controllable whistle, it only sounded as long as I held down the whistle function key. No ‘patterns’ were built in, quick push = short toot, hold it for 10 seconds = 10 second blast. Plus it was somewhat ‘playable’ if you had a Digitrax system with DT400 throttle or an NCE PowerCab. All it really changed was the volume though, the harder you push the button (on the DT400) the louder it was.
–Randy
Well you can change the whistle if you buy thier $100 programmer
Randy, it is almost as if Hornby/Rivarossi made a deal with LokSound to buy up some of their old decoders. Tom and I both have the Trix Mike with the older software decoder. That whistle plays a whoooooo, whoop, whoop. regardless of the “playing” of the F2 button. The Allegheny does the same thing, but it is a three or four chime whistle, and not the mid-hi-range hooter that the H-8’s had. Completely off the mark.
As I stated in my review of the H-8 available to subscribers as extra resources here, the chuff was a hissy chiff. Imagine the worst installation of a 100LC that you have heard, that reedy, airy, awful sound of a speaker that hasn’t been sealed properly…that was the chuff sound for this mighty engine!
Terry will soon come to appreciate, if he hasn’t already, how vastly improved the Tsunami heavy makes this engine.
Note that this doesn’t in any way disparage the LokSound decoder…I have one in my PCM Y6b and have come to like it very much. I’d have more…if whomever requests the contract gets the sound files right!
-Crandell
At least you can change it - Tsunami is stuck with whatever ones Soundtraxx programs in to each variation. In fact that sort of keeps me from using a Tsunami in a T1, the proper freight whistle is in the Tsunami ‘light steam’ but I hardly consider a large Northern a ‘light’ steamer. I need the chuffs from one Tsunami with the whistle from another…hmm. And PCM was nice, they put two whistles in the T1 decoder (Loksound has a sound slot for an auxiliary whistle), a passenger one similar to that used on Rail Rambles and an in-service freight whistle. I just modified a couple of CVs to swap them around so F2 sounded the freight whistle. I never did invest in the programmer because it was my only Loksound loco, even though another modeler did come up with a real T1 sound set he recored himself from the American Freedom Train. If you need ot be dead on - a programmable decoder and actual sounds are the ONLY way to go. If ‘close enough’ is good for you, or your model is one of the exact ones the fixed sound samples come from, then you will be more than happy with the fixed choices in the Tsunami. For the utmost in flexibility in gettign the soudns right, you need one of the programmable sound decoders and the associated programmign ahrdware. For one-offs it’s not practical, but if you standardize on one decoder then the investment in programmign ahrdware is spread out over all your locos.
–Randy
Here’s a video so you can hear for your self
The whistle at the first is how it sounds each time you push the button
Selector seems to have hit on it. It does sound more like an older Loksound decoder, which DID have those limitations, than the latest 3.5 version which is what PCM used in the T1. The Trix Big Boy definitely had an older Loksound, but that model came out several years ago. I know someone else a while ago posted about getting a Hornby (I think) model with Loksound, where the seller assured him it was a Loksound 3.5, but the behavior was more like a Loksound 2.0. Shame they cheaped out like that.
–Randy
If it is a LokSound 3.0 it’s upgradeable. ESU has released several firmware upgrades. Yes, you have to buy the programmer. Trust me, its worth it! You can download your own whistle and swap out the sounds. The programmer allows complete sound project swaps, gives you fine motor control through various parameters, extensive control of your decoder’s options, and great lighting options to boot. I even loaded a Caterpillar engine into an EMD GP9!
The programmer is very complicated. I’m having a blast figuring it out!
Not really what i wanted to hear !
Since i only have one Loksound decoder i can buy the Tsunami cheaper than the programmer
I am tring to talk the local club into purchasing a programmer and then let all the members use it
as for the 21 pin vs. the 8 pin: you can buy from Bachmann a 21 to 8 pin converter http://www.bachmann.co.uk/ez-command.php => scroll to 36-559 “E-Z Command 8 Pin To 21 Pin Adaptor”
Newest Bachmann (UK and Germany nee Liliput-Bachmann) locos/DMU/EMU come also with 21 pin connectors.
cheers/jw
(jens)
PS:
as for standard: http://www.nmra.org/standards/DCC/WGpublic/discussion_topics.html#Topic0504023 but I think it has been dropped in favor of PluX http://www.nmra.org/standards/DCC/WGpublic/discussion_topics.html#Topic0603242
to compare 21 pin vs. PluX, see here http://atw.huebsch.at/DCC/NEM_Stecker22.htm (German&English), including the pin-by-pin description. (21 pin is standardized by common usage from way too many companies. I think PluX is still under development)
You can buy 21 pin decoders from Bachmann (OEM?), Lenz, Uhlenbrock, D&H, Zimo, ESU to name a few.
That’s a very interesting article on the 21 pin and PLuX prpopsals. I like how the revised PLuX is backward compatible with current 8 pin.
I have the Loksound Programmer, and although it can be very “granular”, it is also reasnably logical, once you get the hang of it. I wouldn’t call it dificult, just “involved”. Some things are quite easy, as well.
IMHO, the Digitrax system is “complex”, in the respect that you actually have to write code, to get things timed, where as the Loksound is “object orented”, with drop down browse fields to find files, and “properties” windows.
I don’t have one yet, but it will be interesting to see what the QSI version is like.
it appears each manufacturer offers drasticlly different levels of configurability, with drasicly different methods of accomplishing it.
If you decide to change it out, I’ll be happy to make you an offer on the Loksound you take out, if you want to recoup some of your investment.
IMO the ESU products are a good fit what I am looking for, but I sure wish they weren’t so darned expensive.
Check Fred Miller’s program for the Digitrax ones. He vastly simplified what you have to do in Soundloader to build sound files - no ‘programming’ needed anymore.
Digitrax seems to be a bit liek Microsoft. All teh goodies are in there, but the provided tools can be excessively complex or at least simplistic enough to make them more complex than they need be. But they are VERY open and supportive of third party developers making better add-on bits. They even list links to third party products that directly compete with their own - how many manufacturers do that?
–Randy
Sorry but Cuda Ken already ask for it a couple of days ago for his Big Boy
but i still think he’ll be disappointed
Here’s a comparison video for the two sounds
sorry about the blurred images
I removed The PC board The Decoder that sits on top and the floor weight that houses the speaker
which faces down thru holes in the tender floor
The weight is hollowed out to form a custom made baffel
Then I cut one wire at a time off the PC board which is very well marked and soldered it to
the Tsunami Harness
The only confusion is the motor wires are labeled Motor 1 and Motor 2
Motor 2 is the positive lead
I added 2 680 OHMS 1/2 watt Resisters one for the front light and one for the tender light
Both resistors are wired to the Blue “comon wire”
which is the positive I also added some stick on lead weights to the sides of the tender
to replace the floor weight I removed and covered them with painters masking tape to insulate them
This allowed me to use a circular High Bass speaker in its own enclosure facing down thru the holes in the floor
