I currently have a SPROG 2 connected to a laptop with JMRI for programming. I now have 4 LokSound E units, and the programming choices are dizzying. Is there any reason to buy the loksound programmer? It seems the only advantage would be the ability to download sounds to those 4 engines. Sent from my SM-T837A using Tapatalk
The other benefits are the ability to "set the defaults" for the decoder (i.e., when you write the CVs to the decoder, you tell it to make these new values the default values - a CV8=8 write reverts to these new numbers), and the speed of writing. Even if you do not get the LokProgrammer Hardware, if you have a Windows system, download the software. When you get a new LokSound install, you can download the sound project into the software, then export the CV list and import it into the JMRI roster entry. Saves a heck of a lot of time populating all the CVs on the LokSound pages.
If you are going to do anything more than speed/momentum adjustment on a LokSound decoder, get the LokProgrammer. As Rick notes, it's light-years faster than trying to use JMRI, because to use JMRI, you have to read all the current values of the decoder into the JMRI programming interface to make sure you start with the correct values. This can take well over an hour, and even then, you'll often have some read errors that will need to be addressed. But I also find that the LokProgrammer is just more intuitive to use than the JMRI interface. Rick's suggestion of using just the software to create a CV list for JMRI works great if you have an engine with a stock sound file; but once you make any changes to that file (or if it has been customized by someone else), you can't use the shortcut method. I use both JMRI and the LokProgrammer, but I would never give up the LokProgrammer for just JMRI if I had more than one or two ESU sound decoders that I wanted to do anything more to than speed adjustment. John C.
Thanks for the input. I ordered one today. All I want to do is clone "known good" settings. Tried it with JMRI, but it took well over an hour to do the read, and there were read errors. Don't want to think about how long it'll take to do the writes. Sent from my SM-N950U1 using Tapatalk
