Ok I purchased a Soundtraxx Tsunami TSU-1000 decoder last week at Timonium. I have installed it in an Atlas Alco C424. It sounds good. But its quiet. I have turned up all the CV's to 255 to try to make it louder. The horn is barely able to be heard. The only thing loud is the bell. And I did not turn it up.
What did I do wrong? I cut holes for the speakers. Built sound boxes. I tried all sorts of speakers. Still the sound SUCKS. I listen to the ones guys have one Youtube and they sound great. Did they turn up the recording volume to make it hearable in the video? I am really disappointed. I dont see many people on here that are disappointed. So I assume there is a fix.
I have one round speaker in the fuel tank and another rectangular one in the radiator area. This was the best combination.
Thanks for any available help.
David,
No I did not hit F8 by accident. It does work correctly when I do hit it.
I will post a picture later. Basicly it is mounted on top of the motor, Hard wired. I cut the weight under the fuel tank to fit the speaker. The weight in the rear of the engine was removed to add the speaker box for the other.
The speakers are two different types.....8omhs
I am using Digitrax. I programed the decoder in Page mode. Seemed to be the best one. When I read them back it says they are changed.
Kicking it? I would like to........But what do you mean?
The decoder is the purple version, wrapped.
Hope this helps you help me.Jason
There's a possibility of a short or a broken speaker. Have you tried another speaker?
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
I find Ops Mode by far the less problematic of all the programming options. I only use Paged Mode for the first step of changing the address on a new engine, and then I revert to Ops to set CV 29 and to make all other changes I deem necessary. This seems to be especially so for the Tsunami.
-Crandell
I have a Spectrum 2-10-0 with factory-installed Tsunami. I had no trouble programming it using Page mode on my Digitrax Zephyr.
You could maybe try one speaker with a commerical enclosure and see if that helps. Could be the enclosures you made (I assume you made one for each speaker) had a "leak" somewhere that was letting sound out the back, cancelling the sound from the front. (I suppose having two speakers might do that too, depending on how they're set up??)
BTW cutting holes for the speaker normally isn't necessary, in fact I find it can negatively affect the sound - part of the volume and bass of the speaker comes from the engine shell becomming part of the speaker enclosure / baffle system...at least for a speaker inside the body - the sound can usually get out thru the openings around the trucks etc.
If you have the two speakers connected with the polarity wrong on one of them, they are cancelling each other out. Correct polarity on dual speakers is critical. With wrong polarity, the cone of one is moving in while the other is moving out, so you get very weak volume.
If they're not marked with + and - polarity indicators, simply reverse the wiring to one of them and see if that doesn't improve the volume.
Ok thanks for the help guys.Here is what I did. I got to looking at my B23-7 and wanted to see how Atlas did it. So curiously I cut the wires to the speakers and set the loco on the ground. I then ran a jumper off the B23 and ran it to the Alco with the Tsunami. The Alco was set on the track. I covered the B23 with its shell and turned on power to the Alco. BAMB! What great sound! I played around with it and it sounded good. So although this may not be the way some of you have done things.....I pulled the Atlas Sound Decoder from the B23 and put in the Tsunami. Sounds great runs great.I am going to buy the speakers and mount from Atlas and retro-fit the b23s decoder back into the Alco down the road here. I know someone is going to at that those engines where never in those locomotives.........REALLY! I have found there is a prototype everywhere so you never really know. Good news it it works. And unlike the Digitrax one I smoked a year ago because I Messed around too much with the speakers. I have a nice sounding engine. I think the one problem I had was the speakers. From this point out I am going to purchase Atlas' speakers. I was even able to get the axillary lights in. Thanks again.
Glad to hear you got the Tsunami problem solved. I don't know about Atlas speakers, but different brands from the likes of Tony's Train Exchange, Litchfield Station, or Ulrich Models, with appropriate enclosures, might be a cheaper alternative and offer more choices of size and shape to fit the various models.
Have you tried running the engine with the Tsunami enough yet to know if they have solved the runaway problem when there is a momentary loss of power?
I purchased one of the early Tsunami diesel decoders and had the runaway problem with it so I put that decoder into a dummy engine and am using it for sound only with a power resistor substituting for the motor load so it will notch correctly.
cacoleHave you tried running the engine with the Tsunami enough yet to know if they have solved the runaway problem when there is a momentary loss of power?
Have you tried a larger keep alive capacitor yet? You can go up to 1000uF with lil issue. Above that, and I would use a resistor and diode in parrallel. Then hook that up to the cap + leg