I have hardwired a Tsunami heavy steam decoder into an IHC 2-10-2. All went well and all runs well, except it is not so smooth at v. slow speeds. I have been playing around with the CVs (with Zephyr controller).
For those of you with experience with Sountraxx decoders:–
What is the best CV to modify to smooth this out?..CV25 speed table, CV2start voltage, CV3start speed??? Right now CV29 is set for 28/128 but any speed curve that is not almost flat does not work. The loco chuffs away and doesn’t even move on the moderate to deepest exponential speed curves, which are the curve settngs I want for best slow operation. I have used these curves successfully on other diesel locos though.
The manual says I must set bit 4 of CV29 to 1. Is this already accomplished if I have set CV29 to 18 from the quick reference table?
I have these questions in to the Soundtraxx tech help, but these forums are always faster in response.
I have put a Tsunami in several locomotives: Bachmann On30 Consolidation and Mogul, HO MDC Consolidation, IHC Oldtime 4-4-0 with protopower small motor. They all ran better with the Tsunami on the factory settings. All will move verrry slowly if the controler is left at 1.
Did the locomotive run well before the installation.
You need to go to the SoundTraxx web site and download the complete Tsunami Technical Reference Manual and begin experimenting. I had no problems getting a Tsunami Heavy Steam decoder to work properly in an IHC 2-10-2 other than changing some of the CVs to get the bell and whistle that sounded best.
Why did you hardwire the Tsunami? All I had to do was remove a small amount of shrink wrap, unplug the solder-in harness from the JST header on the decoder, and substitute a harness with a NMRA 8-pin plug on the other end.
I thought that was all I was going to have to do too!..I had just bought the IHC last Christmas. It was one of the “President’s Choice” sets sold through a Canadian supermarket each year. Well, to my surprise (not really, I suppose) the loco was not at all DCC ready. The supermarket must have bought up the older stock from IHC for these kits. However, I have a “Presidents Choice” 4-6-4 Hudson new in the box from several Christmases ago and this is going to be identical installation. Should be even faster.
What kind of speaker did you use on your install? I had a 16x35 mm around so I put that in. Sounds very good, but I know there is space for a 1"x2" rectangular as well under the coal pile. I think I will put that in wired in series as shown in the Tsunami guide to give 16 ohm and move more air. What do you think? The Tsunami with the small speaker does not have the sound quality/volume I get from a P2K 0-8-0 with QSI and two 1" speakers in the floor.
The 2-10-2 has always run well. I just notice that the very slow speeds are a little jerky, or that may be an optical illusion brought on by the chuff sound.
That President’s Choice engine must be totally different than the one IHC sells direct if it didn’t have an NMRA decoder socket in the tender. My tender also had holes drilled above the rear truck as the location for the speaker. I used an oval speaker and enclosure that I purchased with the decoder, but I don’t remember the exact size.
I’m surprised to hear that the tender was different because the locomotive itself looks exactly like the one that they sell from their web site.
As someone else mentiioned, these engines do seem to have a slightly jerky movement at very low speeds. I have a couple of Bachmann Spectrum engines that also have a jerky motion when ran very slow, which seems to be caused by the drive belt that Bachmann uses.