This weekend I fitted a QSI Titan into my Athearn U50. I´m disappointed because : the engine ran very fine in DC, before decoder. With the decoder, it has a jerky motion at low speed, erratic, as if has “oval flywheels”, becoming better after speed 40 in my PowerCab… I reseted it, without luck. Beside, the sound lacks bass, maybe because the thin speakers, because there is no place for enclosures, or stronger speakers. Any help, pease?
First off, turn off the BEMF (the reason for the jerkyness). A standard motor control setting will work just fine for that loco.
Secondly, your sound is limited by the speaker. I would really try and find the biggest possible cavity in the loco and find the biggest speaker/baffle to fit in there. No way around it.
David B
The below fellow thinks the loco in the below link is similar to the U50,
http://www.trainweb.org/gnw/GNW%20GTEL.htm
The below I copied from the Yahoo SoundTraxx Group posted by Bruce who use to own Litchfield Station.
I was talking to Jerry (who used to work for me at Litchfield Station)
last evening at an operating session.
He said that the one he did worked just fine without any speaker
enclosures after he put some clear plastic behind the open grilles.
Rich
David, thanks you, but: how do I turn off the BEMF?
What works for me is to download and read the manual. There is a learning curve with almost everything in DCC. Generally I do not have to be led by the hand. Even searching the Internet or the forums I belong to brings up an answer. Considerably reduces the time in solving an issue and I have the links to store in my PC.
Rich
Search Google for Athearn U50 sound install will net you some Youtube videos showing some otherw ays to instal the speakers besides just stickign them in the holes left for them. It also depends on the type of speaker you used, if a standard speaker and not a high bass type, you aren’t going to get the best lows. The decoder also has adjustments for this.
As for the BEMF, I always leave it on for best slow speed perforamnce. If the loco is jerky with BEMF turned on, then it simply is set too strong and is overreacting - or there are useless capacitors on the motor liek Bachmann uses, which interfere with the decoder’s sensing of BEMF. I’ve used with and without BEMF, in some cases even the exact same decoder, ie TCS T1 prior to BEMF and TCS T1 after they included BEMF - BEMF is always best, with a lot less tweaking. Good performance is doable without BEMF. Great performance, BEMF wins.
–Randy