Moose wondering if a Soundtrack Tsunami sound decoder from a pre-2014 Athearn articulated 4-6-6-4 Challenger could be used for a BLI non-articulated 4-8-2 Mountain. Moose no know much about the sounds of articulated vs non-articulated and how a Tsunami sound decoder meant for an articulated heavy steam locomotive might or might not be able to be adjusted to be more reflective of a non-articulated heavy steam locomotive. Please if you are familiar with the Tsunami sound decoders and articulated vs non-articulated heavy steam locomotive, then could you help a moose out?
Sooo, with a wee bit of advice and some more digging around to find the Tsunami information... The Challenger was simple expansion, so there should be no issues with sounds associated with Compound expansion articulates on the decoder. Removing any "wheel slip" from the Exhaust Configuration and adjusting the Exhaust Rate should set a chuff that provides a reasonable "Big Steam" sound for the 4-8-2. SoundTraxx Tsunami sound decoder technical and user guides: It appears that CV 112 controls the syncopation and CV 116 controls the chuff rate. Setting CV 112 to 00 or 01 should result in zero slip rate. Then it will be just a matter of setting CV 116 to something appropriate for a 4-8-2. There appears to be a formula for setting the correct chuff rate, CV Value = 115.9 X SPD รท DIA, where SPD = locomotives scale speed at full throttle and DIA is the locomotive driver diameter. Guides found on the Athearn website: https://www.athearn.com/DCC/
Probably shouldn't jump in here as I have no 'steam' knowledge but.....Do you already have the decoder and want to use it or are you going to have to buy a decoder? If you are buying have you looked at ESU? Not sure if they have the sound file you are looking for but found this one ... http://projects.esu.eu/projectoverviews/search?q=+4-8-2+Mountain. ... and they might have others. Sumner
@Sumner No worries, good sir! Yes, Moose already has the decoder from another locomotive. Just going to play a game of music chairs with decoders vs tenders vs locomotives. Nothing is simple in Moose's world...
