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Stewart VO-1000 Tsunami Question

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Stewart VO-1000 Tsunami Question
Posted by WPAllen on Monday, November 8, 2010 7:31 PM

Just received my Bowser/Stewart Western Pacific VO-1000 switcher. This is the latest release with the Tsunami sound system. Anyways one thing I noticed is the power plant does not increase in revolutions sound wise with an increase in speed. Sounds the same all the time. I have a number of units with Tsunami sound and have never ran across this. Any thoughts?

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Posted by locoi1sa on Monday, November 8, 2010 7:39 PM

  Do a reset and then try it on address 3. If it works then re address and you should be all set.

         Pete

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 I started with nothing and still have most of it left!

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Posted by richg1998 on Monday, November 8, 2010 7:54 PM

I would look at the documentation that came with the loco.

You can also email Bowser or phone call. They do respond. They have for me. Check the Bowser site for possible Tsunami documentation.

The reason I say that is Bachmann has Tsunami sound and Athearn has Tsunami sound and there are documents specific to their Tsunami decoders that are different in some respects with the Tsunami you by and install yourself.

I have a Stewart VO-1000 with a shrink wrapped 1000 that I installed myself. Great response.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

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Posted by maxman on Monday, November 8, 2010 9:05 PM

See instruction for CV 116 on page 68 of Tsunami manual http://www.soundtraxx.com/manuals/Tsunami%20Diesel%20Technical%20Reference_1.13.pdf

Default for this CV is 39.

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Posted by DigitalGriffin on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 11:17 AM

I have the Stewart VO-1000 with the original Loksound unit.  It also it one speed.

I believe the problem here is being such an early diesel it only had one operating speed.  Remember this is a yard switcher with only 1000 HP.

 

Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions

Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!

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Posted by richg1998 on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 12:37 PM

Forgot to answer the exact question. Duh.

My VO-1000 with the Baldwin sound, decoder part number, 827111 that I put in has a nice idle and the prime mover rpm increases at at speed step one. It increases more about speed step 6 or so. It was like that at start up. I did nothing other than fine tune the start up speed and max speed a little.

Rich

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Posted by WPAllen on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 1:37 PM

Thanks guys. I will do the reset and look into CV-116 and the other suggestions. CV 116 comes from the factory set at 39 for the VO-1000. I have quite a few other Tsunami units and I will check  CV-116 and see what they are set at for comparison.

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Posted by rrinker on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 3:29 PM

 Baldwin locos has a pneumatic MU system and a notchless throttle, so there shouldn;t be 8 distinct engine levels as there are with EMD locos. There's some information on this page about how the they worked:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2046659

                          --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by WPAllen on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 7:39 PM

Randy I have come to the conclusion that you are right. They do not notch up like other locomotives. I tried a bunch of different ideas to no avail. By the way CV-116 on my other Tsunamis are also 39. So it is what it is. At least I learned something about CV-116.

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Posted by rrinker on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 9:09 PM

 It shoudl speed up a little, just not have the distinct notches, according to that article I linked. It sounds to me liek it should quickly rev up a bit as you start moving and stay there, nto getting any faster, until you stop again. Someone brought a new one to the club modular layout in Timium the other week and put it on the track to test run it, and that's what it did. There was the slow lumpy idle, and as soon as you start moving it went to a faster smoother sound and stayed the same no matter how fast you went. Matches the videos I've seen of Baldwins that still have the original primie movers in them.

                              --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by WPAllen on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 9:22 PM

I think it does what you said. It just does not notch up like my F7 Tsunamis for instance. I was expecting something more along those lines. Interesting thing is when you start up the motor the locomotive rocks back and forth a little bit I guess like the real thing then smooths out.

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Posted by richg1998 on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 9:54 PM

WPAllen

Randy I have come to the conclusion that you are right. They do not notch up like other locomotives. I tried a bunch of different ideas to no avail. By the way CV-116 on my other Tsunamis are also 39. So it is what it is. At least I learned something about CV-116.

Back in December 2008 I heard about the Baldwin TSU1000 that was going to be released in the beginning of 2009. I corresponded with SoundTraxx and Bowser. They told me SoundTraxx was doing sounds at railroad museum in NJ and the VO-1000 they were using for the sound recordings did not have notches. I might have mentioned something about this about that time but cannot find the discussion here.

I picked up the new Baldwin decoders at a show the end of Jan 2009.

By the way. Lee English at Bowser just told me that they buy the same Baldwin TSU1000 decoder we buy. They did not do what Bachmann and Athearn do for factory sound which is a PC board type decoder with some sounds not included. The manuals for those decoders are a little different than the ones we get. Just some sounds not included. I think the CV's are the same but have never made a complete comparison.

Rich

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Posted by maxman on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 11:04 PM

WPAllen

I think it does what you said. It just does not notch up like my F7 Tsunamis for instance. I was expecting something more along those lines.

Soundtrax does have a sound sample on their website that you can access from the list at the following link: http://www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/tsunami/tsunamisound.php

However, I was unable to find any sort of different technical reference information pertaining to the particular TSU decoder in the VO other than the general TSU diesel technical reference manual I previously posted.  It would be nice if there were information, easily found, that specified that this or that decoder acted differently ( for example, the lack of the notching).  Or maybe I just didn't look in the right place.

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Posted by rrinker on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 7:51 AM

 I guess they make the assumption that if you are smrt enough to pick the correct engine soudns you already know that stuff, but other than a few rare runnign examples, Baldwin diesels have been long gone and it's not something you can just go trackside and experience. Plus it's sort of been drilled into us that diesel locos in the US have 8 notches and don;t continuously vary the diesel engine speed like pressing on a car accelerator. But that sort of ignores the early days of diesel locos when not everyone built them exactly the same. FWIW, if you search Youtube for videos of running Baldwions (probably the same one Soundtraxx recorded from), and compare the sounds as the loco moves, the Tsunami ones are dead on. I may have to break down and buy one of the sound chassis for my existing ones. It's such a unique sound compared to the same old EMD and GE locos, plus I always did like the oddballs.

                            --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 8:06 AM

As Randy said, there were no notches back when these locos were used. We model railroaders are always creating our versions of railroad reality.

We are just boys playing with toys.

Some Baldwin VO-1000 links I found some time ago.

http://espee.railfan.net/baldwin_overview.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_VO-1000

Rich

 

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Posted by DigitalGriffin on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 9:32 AM

richg1998

They did not do what Bachmann and Athearn do for factory sound which is a PC board type decoder with some sounds not included. The manuals for those decoders are a little different than the ones we get. Just some sounds not included.

I figured out what's missing on the Bachmann tsunami equipped models: fireman fred sounds.

After July 2010 mfg date, all the sounds are included.  (Per bachmann literature included in the box)

The CV's are also slightly different with regards default values.  However Bachmann is now including a list of what values you need to change to match the regular tsunami's for default values.

Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions

Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!

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Posted by WPAllen on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:23 PM

I might add that the information that comes with the locomotive is on the skimpy side with some CV information and addressing info but refers you to the Soundtraxx site.

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Posted by richg1998 on Wednesday, November 10, 2010 12:29 PM

DigitalGriffin

 

 richg1998:

 

 

They did not do what Bachmann and Athearn do for factory sound which is a PC board type decoder with some sounds not included. The manuals for those decoders are a little different than the ones we get. Just some sounds not included.

 

 

 

I figured out what's missing on the Bachmann tsunami equipped models: fireman fred sounds.

After July 2010 mfg date, all the sounds are included.  (Per bachmann literature included in the box)

The CV's are also slightly different with regards default values.  However Bachmann is now including a list of what values you need to change to match the regular tsunami's for default values.

Thanks, that is good to know. I have not seen anything about that in the Bachmann forum or I missed it.

Bachmann is known for not supplying much info.

I do remember some complaints about Bachmann and Athearn not including certain horn sounds also.

Rich

If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.

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