03-29-2016, 12:47 PM
Hi Koos, I have some Tsunami sound decoders in the drawer and got a nasty problem lately. My beloved Zimo decoders do not operate well with the newest Athearn bulbs. They lite up and become dimmed to total darkness within 2 minutes. Looks like somehow draws the new generation of Athearn PCB more current than the older ones. Zimo reacts with a current reduction to prevent an overheat situation.
What to do? Take the Tsunami sound decoders out of the drawer (they have no problem handling the Athearn bulb festival) and try to teach them good and smooth motor handling. That worked fine and a NS GP38-2 and a NS GP40-2 got sound.
I did also take the other way to fix the problem at some engines. Replace the ugly bulbs with LEDs.
The MP15DC would be a nice engine running together with the NS engines but got the QSI sound decoder removed due to assumed rough motor handling. That is when I tried to teach the QSI sound decoder good motor handling too and it worked!
But you guess right, the primemover sound is dramatically reduced. Anyhow operating bell and horn (at a low volume too) is a lot of fun to me.
Conclusion: A sound decoder is welcome if it has good motor control and the sound is at a low level or switched off.
What to do? Take the Tsunami sound decoders out of the drawer (they have no problem handling the Athearn bulb festival) and try to teach them good and smooth motor handling. That worked fine and a NS GP38-2 and a NS GP40-2 got sound.
I did also take the other way to fix the problem at some engines. Replace the ugly bulbs with LEDs.
The MP15DC would be a nice engine running together with the NS engines but got the QSI sound decoder removed due to assumed rough motor handling. That is when I tried to teach the QSI sound decoder good motor handling too and it worked!
But you guess right, the primemover sound is dramatically reduced. Anyhow operating bell and horn (at a low volume too) is a lot of fun to me.
Conclusion: A sound decoder is welcome if it has good motor control and the sound is at a low level or switched off.
Reinhard