You know, it's really irritating when someone posts something like this without the courtesy of an actual link to the thing they're talking about. I don't appreciate having to Google through all kinds of stuff that doesn't turn out to have any relevance, and I'm by no means a novice in how to search for information on the Web.
Go back and post a link or a reference to the specific reference.
Rapido is also working with TCS for a newly designed decoder for their future runs.
I really liked the sound quality of the WOWsound decoders but after several frustrating issues, mostly in regards to that audio assist thing I gave up on them.
Hopefully they will iron out some of the less-desirable options and build on the great quality sounds. I won't shed any tears over the elimination of the audio assist "feature".
Regards, Ed
Ed,
Why not just skip the audio assist and use the TCS decoder manual instead?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Overmod You know, it's really irritating when someone posts something like this without the courtesy of an actual link to the thing they're talking about. I don't appreciate having to Google through all kinds of stuff that doesn't turn out to have any relevance, and I'm by no means a novice in how to search for information on the Web. Go back and post a link or a reference to the specific reference.
All you had to do is Google Bachmann forums. It would have been the first one. I have done it.
I posted a Bachmann link once here and a Troll must have complained because the link was removed by the powers that be with a note.
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.
richg1998All you had to do is Google Bachmann forums. It would have been the first one. I have done it.
I appreciate the point about the link, but again had he said it was to forums Kalmbach TOS sez not to link to, I'd get the picture, just like with the corporate BLM statement mysteriously alluded to a few days ago. Of course Safari on an iPhone won't access any of the Bachman Forum pages directly - says they have a security issue. Firefox has one too but I can get a crude version to load. This says nothing about FTs but indicates there is a 'pared' version of the decoder that will lack Audio Assist and 'some other features'. Supposedly there are 15 posts but it will not show them to me.
Of course a simple synopsis of the situation as reported would have given 100% of the context and 0% troll factor. But that would be no fun, I guess.
The Rapido/TCS decoder is NOT a WOWSound or variation. Rapido has a video where they visited TCS and talked about it. It's going to mimic Loksound features, basically to give them a second source that can operate with previous Rapido locos.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
tstage Ed, Why not just skip the audio assist and use the TCS decoder manual instead? Tom
I use Decoder Pro for the initial programming all right. What happens on the layout is that I'll inadvertantly press the wrong function button and then I'm hearing church bells or an alarm clock instead of an EMD steel bell.
One set of ABBA F units I have WOWsound installed in will sometimes change sound settings only on one engine if there's a power interruption or if I press a function button (especially F9) then I have to try to get all four "back in synch" sound wise. Scrolling through all the available bells and whistles to find the one I originally had gets tiresome.
Then there's the switching between "light mode active" or "sound mode active" and I press a function key while in the wrong mode just overly complicates things.
I guess I could do a bunch of remapping but, for now, that's more trouble than its worth.
rrinkerThe Rapido/TCS decoder is NOT a WOWSound or variation.
gmpullmanRapido is also working with TCS for a newly designed decoder for their future runs.
I agree.
Good Luck, Ed
I don't bother programming much with Decoder Pro; choosing rather to enter the CVs manually with my Power Cab throttle and using Decoder Pro mainly for recording the CV settings after I've finished programming. I will agree with you on the annoyance of having to flip between "light mode" & "sound mode" in order to activate CV functions. However, I've never experienced the sound settings changing on either of my TCS Wow decoders.
An intriguing thing in that hokey Rapido TCS visit video was, almost as a throwaway scene, the mention that TCS was perfecting a board that I took to be their equivalent of a LokProgrammer, with the specific comment that it would be JMRI connectable. This would seem to be big news as it would offload all the 'programming assist' to the connected environment -- where you could easily implement the various voice prompts and 'key assignments' involved in something like Audio Assist without needing the memory space for the language-specific voice prompt files and sequencing to the sound output buffer on each and every decoder.
It would be a relatively short step to get true, almost natural-language programming ... and debugging ... to run on this kind of setup. That's nothing new in the computer world, but I suspect that voice interaction with the "locomotive being programmed" would be a far more attractive and powerful feature than the old menu-option voice prompting that some VCRs and other equipment used in the '90s. And modelers would only need the one module, one time, with downloadable resources for the other support, no matter how many decoders of different types they might have or acquire
Does anyone have a reference to the actual patent application that TCS made for the Audio Assist feature? The very first use I ever heard for synthesized voice prompting, in the 1970s, was through a speaker on a multimeter for use in cramped environments to confirm settings and read out data -- I'd think there is insufficient novelty in taking advantage of attached higher-resolution speakers in a sound-equipped device to render such information, or to read back function choices related to CVs instead of other device settings or register contents. (Not to take anything away from TCS for having developed this and marketed it as a feature, which I thought and still think is a great step forward from idiot bell and thunk style configuration used in earlier "programming interfaces", or the equivalent of two-button watches with a large set of consumer features that need an inch-thick manual to cover all the modes and weird button and timing permutations to make the magic happen.)
Whilke it's a neat idea, I don't think it's realistic. The cound decoders that do allow sound loading, all use a proprietary methoid. There is no standard, and little inclination for any of them to share it with the world via an app like JMRI. And others, like Soundtraxx, appear to not even be the least bit interested in making their decoders field programmable. Not sounds, not even the firmware. ESU remains one of the few that allows field updates to the firsmware AND the sounds in their decoders - even their non-sound decoders allow firmware updates.
If the industry could agree on a standard protocol - but that might not even be possible due to a wide variety of processor architectures in use. One thing's for sure, the standard NMRA service mode protocol is absolutely a non-starter for firmware and sound file loading.
Perhaps younger people would embrace such a thing. I don't even use things like Siri in my phone or Cortana on Windows because even when there is no one around to overhear me, I feel silly talking to my phone. I did play around with speech recognition software back in the early 90's and could control my computer (Windows 3.1 !) by spoken command. In those days, you had to train the software to understand your voice, and too much background noise would destroy the accuracy. Now it's built in to the OS and you can literally dictate documents on the computer.
Making their programmer work with JMRI is probably a smart move - if you watched that video, then it's pretty obvious TCS is just not big enough to do the development and subsequent support of a full programming application like Lokprogrammer. Share their device's control protocol and assist with writing a driver into JMRI? Absolutely.
RR Baron Bachmann Trains next release of their HO USRA steam 0-6-0 locomotive and HO FT diesel locomotive will be factory equipped with a WOWSound Sound Value decoder that is without the Audio Assist programming feature. Details in Bachmann Trains website. RR Baron
I have belonged to the Bachmann forums for some time but never found that, Bachmann does have quite a way of hiding info.
The list just showed up In the Bachmann HO forum but I will not post the link. It will probably be removed. It has been once.
JUST SUMMARIZE THE INFORMATION ABOUT IT and be done! I'm sick to death of coy little hints and pages that won't load and veiled references to Kalmbach TOS.
Surely they did this for reasons of 'price point' on lower-end products, perhaps in response to some in the community that did not like or want the TCS voice feedback in every purchase. It has only been around 2 years since Bachman first introduced AudioAssist as a key feature across its product line, so this might be logical evolution. I'm sure there will have been some reasoned discussion of this -- and I hope at some point we start to have one here.