Hi folks,
I recently received my MTH HO FA-1, and I´m very pleased with this model: runs perfectly, pulls very good and sounds very nice. BUT: What makes me mad is, that the headlight, cab light, bell and horn ONLY work when F3 is activated! I prefer running all my diesel engines with the diesel motor sound off (since the noise gets annyoing with the time) but love activating the bell and horn before and after stops. But I can´t do that with this model, because when F3 (the diesel motor sound) is turned off, I also can´t activate the bell (F1) and the horn (F2). I´m really mad about this! The other issue are the lights: I always run all my engines with headlights off during daytime. During nighttime I run them with the headlights turned on of course. But when the diesel motor sound (F3) is turned off, I can´t even activate the headlight (F0)! So I´m forced to run this engine with sound turned on all the time during nighttime so that I´m able to run it with the headlight turned on. The cab light is also a drama: when F3 is activated, it´s automatically turned on when the engine is standing, but when it starts running it´s automatically turned off. I don´t want that! I want to run this engine without the diesel motor sound being turned on and being able to turn on and off the bell, horn and headlight and cab light whenever I want. Do you MTH FA-1 owners out there have the same experience with your models? Do you know any solution to this or is there no solution? (I don´t wanna get myself another FA-1 because all the other things are really great on this model!)
If at all possible, it would require a DCS system. But since F3 is like a sound on/off switch, I doubt you cna do this. One possible option is to adjust the prime mover volume - also requires a DCS system, they don;t expose the individual volume adjustments for DCC users.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Hmmm, so I guess I´ll have to live with that. Good point when you wrote "If at all possible", because maybe it´s not possible even in DCS. What a bummer!
Hi De Luxe,
MTH uses F3 as a global ON/OFF for all sound, lighting, and smoke functions. However, other functions will allow you to do most of what you want with your engine. Unfortunately, MTH has been getting very sloppy about properly listing the default function keys in their user manuals. You may have to try a couple different functions to turn on and off the correct feature.
Once the engine has "started up" using F3 you can turn just the prime mover sounds ON/OFF with F6 (may be F25). The horn, bell and lights will still be available, but the engines sound will be off. (page 20 in your manual)
You can then use F0 to turn the headlight ON/OFF as desired. Again, since the global ON/OFF of F3 is still on, you will have independent control of the headlight.
The cab light can be turned ON/OFF independtly as well. On most MTH engines, and according to their website for recent FA-1's, the cab light should be controlled by F12. The manual for the engine doesn't show the cab light programmed as one of the default functions. If that's the case, you can add it by remapping the functions using CV's. (pages 28 and 29 in your manual)
Hope that helps.