I installed Tsunami's in some of my Spectrum Russian Decapods and P2K USRA 0-6-0. They are hard-wired in and it wasn't difficult by just following the existing wires. Anyway, they work great..................most of the time!
Sometimes they will be in sync with the normal 4 chugs per revolution of the drivers and then sometimes they will chug once per revolution (shades of American Flyer!) or 2 or 3 or 5 chugs.
I use the internal timing and have not installed cams which I believe would cure the problem. I also understand that by using the internal timing the chugs will not be exactly every 90*. and it kind of averages out the chugs.
Anyone else experienced this situation? Is there anything you can do to normalize the chugs?
Thanks,
Roger Huber
1. No, don't know how.
2.See #1
3.Very correct about the loss thing. Wheels & track are clean.
4.I removed the entire light board/wiring that came with the engine. I traced the wires from the stock connectors to their sources and hard-wired the Tsunami to the tender connectors to match. Pretty easy really. I've done 3 Decs, an USRA 2-6-6-2, P2K USRA 0-6-0 and a PFM A&LM 4-6-0 so far. The PFM was the hardest of all.
5.I have one Cantara cam left from my old PFM sound days. It looks like too much trouble to install in anything besides a brass engine. The PFM hasn't shown the in-out sync problem but if it does I will probably install the cam on her.
With my 2-10-0 with Tsunami it took a long time of tinkering with the various CV's to get it to be fairly good as far as timing. One thing is to be sure the BEMF is operating so the wheels turn at the same rate whether going uphill or downhill.
But it appears you can't get it perfect. As I have it now, the chuff rate can be a little more or a little less than four-per-revolution depending on whether the engine is moving light or pulling a train, but it's close enough that it's not really noticeable.
You can't and mine aren't either. Factory installed or owner installed. And something else Crandell brought up the other day that I never thought of is if you set it cold once the loco warms up you might get a change as well.
San Dimas Southern slideshow
Ya I've noticed with my 2-10-0 that when it first starts it uses a little more power than usual, so the chuffs are way too close together. After it runs around a little it seems to synch up much better.
My Spectrum 2-6-6-2 has a TCS decoder with a MRC "Sounder" piggybacked on it. That doesn't seem to have the same problem...but I wish the first "chuff" could be delayed until after the wheel has moved, instead of just before it moves!! But since that engine always runs at slow speed, it was easier to synch that up, plus the TCS BEMF works great and keeps the wheels turning at the same rate.