hello all ,well after ranting on how impressed I am with the 40.00 SDH164D (and I still am) I tried a new sound download per digitrax site using a stand alone PR3 & its 14volt wallwart and the digitrax software "soundloader"and of coarse the trusty dell.
all appeared to go well except now I have no sound at all,I reloaded the project several times & tried to reload the stk SD38-2 with no success ,well at least that I can hear
SO my question is has anyone done this with success that mite give me advise ???
I really think the project got loaded its just not playing ,AND I m sure the pr3 is working good as it reads the decoder and also reads on decoderpro. I will allso call digitrax for help ...thanks Jerry
I think Soundloader lets you test the sounds after you've put them in. Have you tried that?
I'm going to take a guess. If this decoder is like the SoundBug or other Digitrax sound-only decoders, it comes with two sound schemes, one diesel, one steam. If you set the CV to the second scheme and then downloaded a new set of sounds, it's probably the first scheme and the second one is gone. I would try doing a reset of the decoder, which will not change the new sounds you've downloaded.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Yes Ive tried the sound tester ,and nothing . so I try to reload as perscibed in the software .
if I understand correctly the stk sounds are cv60= 0 for steam and 1 for die sd38-2 and 5 for download ,in this case gp10..
OK ,Ive checked my hardware /software useing a sd7 that Ive also installed the same decder (stk sound here no download ) and it links right up and the soundtest works great . but the gp7 with the dowd load links up but no sound
oke doke Mr Beasly; your right I set cv60 to 0 and there it was (0 was the stk steam sound ) so know I just need to figure out what sound is in here its not the stk diesel (SD38-2)so its got to be the gp10 that I originally tried to install, its good but the horn is not as crisp.
this is a real nice feature of the "downloader" software and the" PR3" that I can sit here at the computer an type while the engine plays its sounds on my desk ,I can use all functions ,even lights just no moter or movement and can change (write cvs) live while it plays ....very nice...THanks a bunch Jerry
Check the specs on the PR3 and put a meter on the wall-wart. I run my PR2 on an old MRC DC power pack, and I have to crank it up all the way. Others here have commented on issues getting PR2/PR3 units to work with less-than-optimum power supplies.
Really? That was it? Wow, I just had one of those Obi-wan Kenobi moments.
Never hurts to read the CVs in decoder pro and make sure something else didn't get changed, like a volume setting changed to zero or something.
I will test the wall wart to ,cause the downloader program does show the incoming voltage @ the decoder ,dont know how accurate but today its saying 17 volts and yesterday I'm sure it said 14 volts
ah heck Ill run out and get the ohm meter as we speek.......soft ware says 17 volt s ..ohm @track says 12.05 AC @ rails ...ohm @ wallwart plug to PR3 reads 15.08 DC...Jerry
Now, the important question:
How is the volume on the SDH164D, compared to other sound decoders?
The SoundBug has lots of volume, but the SFX0416 is barely loud enough to be heard over a moving HO-scale train.
When side bye side I set my p2k QSI 2@ 50% and the sdh164d to 90% and they sound about equal . I was very surprised with both the quality and volume of the sdh164d for a prise of 40..$
way better than I was expecting I will be ordering 3 more
ADD ;mite not work for the rivet counter on sound ,but again 1/2 the price