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Tsunami De-acceleration & Braking Locos and rolling stock
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Moderator 5,783 posts Neil Erickson NeilEr Moderator 5,783 posts
Neil Erickson NeilEr

This may be old hat here but I am happy to have finally gotten my Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders where I really like them. I’m posting partly to share and partly to put this in one place so I can find it again!

The incessant chuff chuff of a steam engine never seemed to sound realistic to me so I found that having a high deceleration or momentum would allow me to throttle up to speed and pull back the throttle to allow the engine to alternately coast with no chuffing to chuffing when the throttle is botched up to accelerate. The CV for this “coasting” effect is #4 or CV4 set very high - say 200 - 240. 

This does (did) have the drawback of a train running away with so much simulated momentum. Braking on the tsunami (ts-1) is F-11 and can be set to a hard brake (220-240) or light (100–140). This is determined by CV61. I found that settling CV61 to 160 feels just right. 

Since my throttle (CVP T500 Wireless) has F-11 as a two step process, I wanted to remap the brake to F-9 (water tank sound that I only use by mistake really). This was a simple matter of using the table in the Soundtraxx manual to allow F-9 to also trigger the brake by setting it’s CV43 to 128. A quick test revealed this to be a great change. 

Function buttons are a press on to trigger and press off to release. This isn’t my idea of applying brakes so if anyone has tricks to make this more realistic then please share!

I did a short video to illustrate this: 

​

Neil

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i 

My Blogs
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On30guy Prolific poster 2,625 posts
On30guy

Tsunami Sound

The brake function is essential if you have high acceleration and deceleration, as I do. I don't mind having to push the button twice as it's kinda' prototypical, notch the brake lever over to apply air to the engine brakes and return to neutral position. I just wish it was an additive process, push the button again and apply more braking. TSC Wow Sound does this, which is nice, but it requires another button to release the brakes though. Neither system is perfect IMHO but better than no brakes at all. Overall I'd go with the Wow Sound as I feel it is a better decoder with more features and better sound quality and motor control.

On a separate note, watching your video, or perhaps more to the point, listening to it, seems that something is off with your dynamo sound. It continually goes on and off as you control your loco, almost looks like it is being triggered by the throttle buttons. It alternates on and off as the loco picks up speed each time. A wee bit weird to be sure!

Rick Reimer,

President, Ruphe and Tumbelle Railway Co.

Read my blogs
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Neil Erickson NeilEr Moderator 5,783 posts
Neil Erickson NeilEr

Dynamo

Rick - you are absolutely right about the dynamo. It shouldn’t even go on unless the headlight is on so something is amiss. I need to adjust the sound levels as well. The brake squeal is way too loud and the brake release sound would be nice to have as well. 

Thanks for the tip on the Wow sound decoder. I was debating whether to install it in a Climax. 

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i 

My Blogs
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Neil Erickson NeilEr Moderator 5,783 posts
Neil Erickson NeilEr

Dōmo arigatō!

Hai Sensai Rick! 

The dynamo was an easy fix but not sure how to test the headlight for a good bulb. Are these 1-1/2v?

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i 

My Blogs
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On30guy Prolific poster 2,625 posts
On30guy

Mr Roboto

If that is a Bachmann Shay it'll be an LED  not a bulb, 3 volts DC.

Rick Reimer,

President, Ruphe and Tumbelle Railway Co.

Read my blogs
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