The current 'Rev A' sound decoders are the Atlas/Athearn 'light board' form factor. The 'Univeral' form factor appears be a JST(9 pin) on the decoder with a medium wire pigtail to a NMRA 8 pin connector. The 'Universal' has been delayed. I have heard/seen the Atlas lightboard version and it sounds/looks good. Like a lot of the 'down-loadable' sound decoders, you need QSI's own programmer to download different sounds into them. A 'universal' USB attached programmer with a standard JST output sure would be nice!
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
As David said, hard is a relative term. I would say at first, a little confusing. But once you get the hang of it, it's not so bad. They have so many things you can do that in some cases, you use 3 CVs to make a change. With the programmer, you wouldn't have to worry about that.
I like QSI sounds. I have three factory installs and one Revolution A. The Revolution is in a Athearn MP15. Since most locos have a light board anyway, I try to figure why you'd consider the universal. Even in older installs, there's usually some way to mount (or invent a mount) for a light board.
I will (hopefully) be getting a Programmer for Christmas. You can not only change the sounds, you can manage ALL the CVs. It is also supposed to work with JMRI Decoder Pro allowing managing of CVs for any decoder.
Any other feed back? Problems with it? Would the "interface" be a 8 or 9 pin or would it work for both?
What are your experiences with them? I'm talking about the one's you buy seperate, not fatory instaled, seperate. Just so there's no confution http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=&scale=&manu=601&item=&keywords=Quantum+Revolution+Sound+&words=restrict&instock=Q&split=30&Submit=Search.
What experiences have you had with them? How hard are they to program or do they need any? Does it work well with the NCE Delux master cab? What's the diffrence between the Atlas version and Universail version?