I just received a WC F45 with DCC/Tsunami and I have no real issues with the sound. It's just that the top speed of this locomotive seems to be about 30 smph and after step 25/99 on my DT400R, there is no further increase in speed. Same with reverse. If the sound is muted, the engine runs absolutely silent with no mechanism noise. I don't want to start changing CVs until I hear others say how their units ran out of the box. Of course, I haven't let the thing run for more than 20 minutes so far, but I'm concerned about that very slow speed. It responds to address 03 so far and all sound functions are fine. What kind of top speed did you get on this engine out of the box? Did you change any motor control CVs to fine-tune it? Could I have a problem engine?
I am not sure I've ever changed the CV setting on my Athearn FP45 with regards to the motor control. I think I am still running stock CVs. One thing. These are power hogs, so if you have something less than about 12 V on your track it may be sluggish. I haven't had a problem on my home or club DCC system, but on the DC tracks at the club these things don't even come to life until you've hit something like 8V, and they don't work very well until you get a little higher than that, and then they're superb.
Well, that's interesting, as my throttle indicates only 9.4V on the track when powering up. It's been gradually decreasing over the last 2-3 years. Perhaps my old Loy's Toy's Model Train Fuel Tank power supply is on it's last legs. As I said, this thing is utterly silent when running, quite unlike the coffee grinder Athearn SD75i. Both smooth runners, one is just noisy about it. I might be able to increase track voltage on the DCS100 Command Station by flipping the toggle to HO or O from N. Oh well, thanks for the information!
Ram53, I don't think you risk ruining your rights under the warranty by messing with the CVs. You may want to try that. It could be a bad power supply, given that kind of voltage. Something that runs okay on DCC with a simple function decoder would not necessarily show a power problem like a sound equipped hog like this. Do you have any other sound equipped locos you can try? Adam
Actually, I just flipped the DCS100 toggle to HO and got a "nitro boost" out of the engine. It runs much faster. It may well be the 10 yr old power supply needs to be retired. I looked through the online manual for these engines, 67 pages and then another technical manual of similar length-a virtual textbook just to run an N scale engine! They do not mention the "usual" CVs I'm used to with Digitrax decoders, ie CV5 max and CV6 mid to quickly set up the engine. They do recommend setting a non zero acceleration and deceleration for CV3 and CV4 to let the engine sound throttle up before the loco gets up to speed.
If I recall correctly, the Tsunami supports only the speed table and not the max/mid. It also supports trim so you may want to set CV66 and CV95 to a number greater than 128. Try 188 and see how it goes.
The throttle is not reporting track voltage, but Loconet Railsync voltage(unless you are powering your throttle jacks from the track).
OK, after some considerable tinkering, I have discovered that my Digitrax Super Chief system will not allow CV readback with this engine under any circumstances (you either get fail, no-d, or the number 1 or 2 or 255 which is not what you've inputted), and that on the programming track I initially tried to reprogram the decoder address to the engine road no. and thereby "lost" the engine, as it would not respond to either 03 or the road no. It sat on the rails, with the idle sounds going, otherwise unresponsive. Got 03 back on the programming track with direct mode, whew! Then I flipped the command station voltage switch to HO, and was able to do all OPS mode programming, include the 4 digit address (didn't work on N), CV3, CV4, CV66 and CV95. The trim CVs didn't seem to do anything (I probably need to program in a speed table) but the accel/decel adjustments were quite effective. I don't recall similar difficulties with the MRC sound decoders which don't allow CV readback anyway, but I don't have any left that still work, which tells you something. Well, I'm just happy that I have some measure of control over this engine. I can live with the slowish speed. Without adjusting CV3, your engine can reach top speed before the throttle has notched up more than a couple of steps. The CV3 and CV4 adjustments have a much greater range than on Digitrax decoders. I haven't even begun to explore the sound adjustment CVs. It is a nice product, does seem to ride high though, showing a lot of frame between the shell and trucks. I would paint that black once I dare remove the shell. CSX Robert, thanks for the correction on the throttle voltage indication. It does say in the manual that you have to measure that.
One more thing... Unlike the Digitrax SDN144K1E, the decoder in the Athearn F45 does not stutter and constantly reset itself, which would be utterly maddening. It hasn't even done it once. Presumably, the correct capacitor is already installed in the Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder.
OK I’m just about to buy one of these and I’m a little confused as to what is the prognoses and solution exactly, am I going to have this problem when I get mine? If I have to do all this them I'm going to forget about it.
It runs fine out of the box with all the default settings. The slow speed may be my own system configuration, as others do not appear to complain about this. The sound quality is good as far as N scale diesels go. The decoder does not stutter and constantly reset itself, like the problematic new Digitrax sound decoder discussed on another thread right now. If you want to start changing CVs (which you don't have to), it will depend on your particular DCC system. I can only comment on mine (5A power supply, Digitrax Super Chief Radio System with DCS100 Command Station, DT400R throttle-none of this was done on wireless). Everything seems to program OK on OPS mode with the command station toggle set to HO instead of N, including initial address change from the default 03 to the engine road no. However, there doesn't seem to be any CV readback. The "Quick Start" guide that comes with the engine indicates a booster component you can buy from Soundtraxx which will help in programming Soundtraxx decoders in general, which appear to need quite a bit more power than other, non-sound decoders to program and to run. I don't think I will get it, as I can get successful OPS mode programming.
That’s a relief, I have a brand new NCE Power Cab that has never been used and I don’t know how to do all CV stuff yet.
Yes get one, I have several and they are great! What you need to do is install a Programming Track Booster by SoundTraxx PTB-100 This is needed to program the decoder because there is noit enough power normally available from the DCC controller on the programming track to charge the capacitor and fully charge up the decoder. Ops mode can work on the main, but it is a lot easier to use the programming track. And to do all of that CV stuff, just get a copy of JMRI's DecoderPro and connect your computer to your controller. You will never have to worry about CV's.
Thanks the link you have doesn’t go anywhere so I searched on Google to see what this was and read that I don’t need one with the NCE PowerCab according to Litchfield Stations “DCC-University”. I’m going to continue searching to learn more about it, because this is the first I’ve heard of this, but i think I am going to place my order today. I can’t figure out how to download a copy of DecoderPro for Windows. Everything I click on just takes me through a lot reading then back to the downloads page. There are a few places other then JMRI for MAC, but that doesn’t help me much.
Thanks the link you have doesn’t go anywhere so I searched on Google to see what this was and read that I don’t need one with the NCE PowerCab according to Litchfield Stations “DCC-University”. I’m going to continue searching to learn more about it, because this is the first I’ve heard of this, but i think I am going to place my order today I checked the same site and it says I definitely need one with the Digitrax DCS100 Command Station, so I've also ordered one, seeing as I will be acquiring more of Athearn's sound-equipped engines. I now wish other loco manuf. could work with sound decoder manuf. to come out with an integrated package, much like HO has done for several years.
Sorry about the infered link. i just grabbed the text of another site. I will caution against the DCC Specialties PowerPax. I treid one of those and it was a piece of junk. And repeated e-mails and phone calls were never returned either. Not the knid of company to do business with.
Your advice worked well, thank you! After programming in a speed table, the trim CVs raised the top speed of the loco from 30 smph to over 100 smph, with a lot of usable throttle range. After setting CV3-accel to 160, there is a nice, slow build-up of speed, well behind the throttle notching up, in fact the throttle will advance a few notches before the engine even starts moving. I have set CV4-decel to 96, anything much over 100 causes the train to run on for at least 2 minutes before coming to a stop. The brake squeal-F5, always stops just before the train comes to a complete halt-great! Much more to explore on this decoder, lotsa fun! Also, the headlight does not flicker and the unit has never halted or reset itself, must be the cap effect. Very impressive. So the DCC Specialties unit is a no-no, but I take it the PRM-100 from Soundtraxx is OK?
Just be careful throwing the switch to HO when you are using N scale locos. (I wouldn't do it) The excess voltage is not "better" especially dcc. Remember the voltage shown on the throttle start up is not the actual dcc voltage to the track. There are a lot of variables involved. 11.8 volts on the n scale setting with the 5 amp power supply is plenty. (Digitrax) I also use the Soundtrax PTB-100 and can program all sound decoders without issues. Have fun!
Most likely you will not need it with the PowerCab. It has a higher amp output in programming mode than the norm and is limited to provide a measure of protection. I can't recall reading of a sound decoder it hasn't been able to progrramme without a booster.
