Anyone have a Tsunami set up yet w/ a Digitrax? The Tsunami manual instructs that the playable whistle function is set at "0" for disable. Okay... sofar, so good. But on the DT400, WHAT? is the CV value to "ENABLE" the playable whistle function? The Tsunami manual defers to the Digitrax manual. My Super Empire Manual appears to be silent on the issue. Therefore, for CV 47 is set to ... ???????? what in order to enable the "Playable Whistle" function?????????????
Add X80 to the value in the DT400 option switch #3. That's hex 80. This activates the playable whistle. Martin Myers
There is a second step involved in making the playable whistle function correctly. you must set CV 47 to 127 for the decoder to react to the playable whistle setting on the throttle. I did this last night just to see what it sounded like and I must say the results are way less than satisfactory to my ears. The playable feature is neat, and it works ok, except if you press down or let off on the button to quickly, you get a very digital escalation (ramp up or down) of the whistle pitch, (much like using an older pitch wheel on an electronic keyboard) Using the function button slowly does have an interesting effect, however the overall volume is much lower. You cannot duplicate or even come close to the "pre-recorded" whistles, AND as a result of turning on the playable whistle, you will loose the option of using F3 for the "short toot" whistle. I have not at this time messed with the reverb settings, which the manual suggests for appropriate sounds with the playable whistle. Maybe adding the reverb covers up the ramp up of the whistle when the button is used to quickly. IMHO, these are great decoders for the money, however they still need to do a lot of tuning in the "playable whistle" department. hope this helps. -Chris
TurtleRidge: Thanks for the suggestion. I have set my switch option correctly and couldnt' get it to work. I read the manual and it states the Tsunami is factory set w/ CV47 to 0 which "disables" the playable whistle. However, it doesn't give a value for enabling the feature. While I understand that each manufacturer w/ that feature will probably have a different value, I can't see why Soundtraxx wouldn't include a table of the major manufacturers matrixed to an appropriate value. From one Northern Virginian to another.. thanks for the post! I will try this when I get home this evening.
For my DT-400, I set option#3 to x81, as the value already had 1 in it (factory default). The playable whistle function worked fine for me, however it does take quite a bit of pressure for it to work. And yes, I had to go digging for the value to set on CV 47. I agree they should have included a table with the instructions, however they also should have numbered the whistles as well, so you weren't guessing at which one was which...
I purchased the medium steam flavor. Oddly enough, the whistles were listed in order, by number, and by type on the back of the warranty card that I got w/ the Tsunami. I assume this is true for all Tsunami models. I brought it into the office and photo-copied it before I mailed it in. You'd think something like that would be front and center early in the manual. Its probably in the 100page plus full tech' reference that I have yet to download. I have all the other documentation printed but the full tech' reference.
Well... .I got home this evening and set CV 47 to 127. GOOD NEWS: It works! Bad news: The quality stinks. The whistle sounds much, much, better w/o the playable whistle on. PLUS... function 3 (short whistle) wouldn't work while CV 47 is set to 127. The quality of the whistles w/ CV 47 set disabled is excellent. When set to enable the playable whistle it is pathetic. For my money, this is a feature that needs some perfection from the industry. The Tsunami is head and shoulders above other sound decoders.. the playable whistle thing.. is.. well... not so good.
any of you with Tsunami fit one in N scale steam tender? Measuring it from the specs online it would fit my ConCor hudson tender. but some have told they won't work for N scale. not sure why?
The Tsunami works in N scale. I have three Tsunami Steam decoders. You just have to use the proper resistor with the Tsunami decoder. Stay cool and run steam...
