Im running an Atlas Gp40 with dcc/sound and when the locomotive is in motion the horn is delayed about 5 seconds from when I push the F2 button, I tried a reset but it didnt fix the issue. Anyone know whats going on here?
WHat DCC system are you using? I had had several different sound locos with QSI, SOuntraxx, and ESU decoders, including an Atlas Trainmaster which had the same QSI decoder as the GP40 (just different sounds) and have not had an issue where there was an annoying delay between pressing a button and the sound activating. I have a Digitraz Zephyr plus a ST400 throttle.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Im using a prodigy advance, its strange as now the sound has returned to normal (no delay) without me doing anything different or pushing any buttons?
That has happened to my PA a couple of times. The last time there was a tool laying across the rails barely touching, but not tripping the circuit breaker.
My GP40's do it all the time with my NCE PH PRO
By the way if anyone knows how to remove the delay please chime in. It is a bit annoying sometimes.
Springfield PA
I know this is an old thread, but I recently ran into this problem with a QSI decoder. The horn would sometimes work fine and other times be delayed. I was using a DecoderPro throttle and a Sprog. Bottomline: I found that if I set the throttle to 28 speed steps the horn was delayed, but if I set the throttle to 128 speed steps the horn worked fine. Just leaving this note here to help other in the future who might run into this issue.
JPD I know this is an old thread, but I recently ran into this problem with a QSI decoder. The horn would sometimes work fine and other times be delayed. I was using a DecoderPro throttle and a Sprog. Bottomline: I found that if I set the throttle to 28 speed steps the horn was delayed, but if I set the throttle to 128 speed steps the horn worked fine. Just leaving this note here to help other in the future who might run into this issue.
I'm going to try this as soon as I get home! I have two QSI engines (GP-7 and Trainmaster) and it drives me NUTS that the horn is delayed when pushing the button - i can never get a short or long toot to work right. My dad has the same issue with this Atlas Gold Trainmaster - thanks for the tip!!
Maybe that's why I never had a problem with any of the QSI locos I ran - Digitrax defaults to 128 speed steps.
We use Digitrax at my club and I observed that I was getting the horn delay problem there. I tried checking the Digitrax documentation, but I could not confirm that the UT4R throttles we use were set to 128 or 28 speed steps. Or is this something set at the command station?
Unless you specifically change something, the Digitrax default is 128 speed steps. You can set the default in the command station, but regardless of the default, you can individually 'status edit' an address fromt he throttle and use whatever speed step mode you want - however the UT4's cannot do this, you need a DT40x to status edit a specific address and override the command station default.
How many locos are running at any time? The more locos running, the more likely there will be a delay. The other thing is to make sure people properly dispatch locos when they are done running them. Every slot in the command station that is in an active state will result in periodic packets being sent to the address of that slot. So if you have 100 slots filled, even if only 4 locos are actively running, the command station is generating DCC packets for all 100. At DCC frequencies, that's enough to introduce a noticeable delay between pressing the button and the horn sounding - pressing the button tells the command station to send a packet for F2 on, the command station puts that in its queue and when it is time to update that slot, sends the packet to the decoder, which then plays the horn sound. The frequency of DCC packets is why I think it's silly to want a new command station that can run say 500 locos - the response time with 500 locos running would be absolutely horrible, and not just for playing the horn, but for speed control and everything else.
I noticed the same problem with my QSI loco. Sometimes it's 2 or more seconds before the horn sounds.
I'll have to test my soundtraxx Tsunami's on the same layout to see if it has a similar behavior.
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
My QSI v1.0a had the delay. The Tsunami did not.