I just installed a Tsunami decoder in my Bachmann 2-8-0. I used the conversion plug to plug decoder into receptacle in the circuit board in the tender. I put the engine on my programing track and set the address. I then moved engine to the main and thats where my troubles began. First the exhaust sound (at least I think thats what it is) was very loud I figured I’d mess with the master volume after I got all the other sounds right, i.e. selecting proper whistle etc… Well the bell and the whistle are so low that unless my ear is within 1" from the speaker you can’t hear them. The tender shell is not on. I’ve tried adjusting all the volumes nothing helps. If I turn down the master volume the exhaust sound will decrease. If I try to adjust the exhaust volume itself nothing happens. Also when I tried running the engine, there doesn’t appear to be any exhaust chuff noise at all.
It sounds like your programming inputs are not being received by the decoder. I have no problems programming my two Tsunami’s on the main in Ops mode, but I use a clunky old SEB.
I have put two Tsunami’s in Bachmann 4-6-0’s (one low boiler and one high boiler). I gutted both tenders and hardwired everything in. I have found that the chuff is the loudest sound and the whistle is the weakest. I have 1" speaker in one and a 3/4 x 1.5" speaker in the other unit. I use the tender shells as enclosures for the speakers. During initial testing; I tried several speakers (with proper baffles/enclosures) to make sure that my choices for actual use would be acceptable. A few of the things that I found out in the process: (you may have different results)
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The speaker must be in a sealed enclosure (tender shell or other) to get volume at low (and to some extent at mid and high) frequencies.
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I needed a programming booster (Tsunami manual says that you will need one also) in order to program on the programming track. It would “sometimes” accept an address change (two digit) without the programming booster; otherwise forget trying to prog
In addition to the suggestions above, here’s two more:
First: do a factory reset: set CV 8 to 8. While it seems you’ve probably changed everything that might be messed-up, you never know. Sometimes the factory and/or dealer may demonstrate or test a new decoder and leave something weird in a CV. Or you might have set the wrong one in error and not realized it.
Second: depending on how you mounted the speaker, don’t try adjusting anything with the tender shell off. It will sound VERY different with the shell on.
I’ve got one of these, now with a medium Tsunami, but it’s 6 years old, so I don’t know if the tender design has changed. But it sounds GREAT. True, the whistle isn’t as loud as the previous SoundTraxx decoder, but loud enough when everything’s adjusted.
Did you mount it under the plastic “coal load” insert, after drilling a bunch of small holes? If so, be sure the space under there is completely sealed – there’s a small opening to the rest of the tender body, where you probably ran the wires – seal that up.