MTH HO Gas Turbine

[dave hikel]

 Hi African King,

Welcome to the forum!

Brian's suggestion is a good one.  Double check that someone didn't install the McHenry couplers that come in the box.  You might also check the setting of the F7 and F8 buttons on your DCC cab.  If the buttons are set to toggle you'll have to press them twice to fire the coupler.

The manual doesn't say anything about BEMF because the engine dosen't have BEMF.  No MTH engine has ever used BEMF.  MTH uses an optical tach sensor on the motor flywheel to measure actual drive line rotation.  BEMF infers drive line rotation by measuring the back voltage  generated by the motor in between power pulses.  Both systems try to achieve the same thing; detect changes in speed caused by changes in load and grade.  The problem with BEMF is that it is susceptible to changes in motor temperature and production variance.  As a result no BEMF system is accurate to much more than 10% of commanded speed.  MTH's optical system is able to compensate for any manufacturing variances because it measures actual speed.  This allows the MTH engines to maintain their commanded speed to within 0.1%.  MTH also uses a consistant speed map in all engines.  When set for 128 throttle steps each step equals 1 scale mole per hour.  This is true for all MTH engines regardless of type.  My SP GS-4 steamer can consist perfectly with my SP (UP heritage) SD70ACe. (Yes, this consist really happened when SP #4449 and UP #844 were in Seattle a couple years ago.)  There are no CV's to program because none are necessary to consist with other MTH engines.  The only speed adjustments are to the momentum settings.

A lot of people aren't satisfied with the MTH speed map (1 step = 1 smph) because they already have a benchmark engine that they use to program their speed curves.  MTH has said publicly that they will offer a free software update for the SD70's, Turbines, Little Joes, and other recently produced engines  that will add support for speed map CV's, advanced consisting, and a few other features that are common among most other DCC decoders.  They haven't announced a target date for this software upgarde but I do know it's still in the works.  I'm a volunteer beta tester for their software.

[bpickering]

african king

 

Can anyone tell me how to get the remote couplers to work F7 & F8 don't do it.

Also does the loco decoder have a back emf facility?

Thanks guys or girls.

I see you haven't received any answers.

I don't have one of these, but the manual isn't too difficult to find online.

Page 10 says that F7 and F8 should open the Front/Rear couplers, respectively, so, I can think of a couple of possibilities:

1. The "manual couplers" mentioned in the manual were installed when you bought the loco.
2. The tender's couplers are not functional (aside: what's the point of these, then... how many of us would NOT run the distinctive Veranda at the point of any consist. I also wouldn't expect to do much switching with a Veranda- these babies were made for the mainline!)
3. They're broken?

Regarding Back-EMF, the manual doesn't use any of the various synonyms for Back-EMF. Furthermore, the very limited list of CVs in the back of the manual don't have anything to do with Back-EMF.

Sorry. I won't say anything more, since it might be construed in an even-more-negative fashion.

[african king]

 

Can anyone tell me how to get the remote couplers to work F7 & F8 don't do it.

Also does the loco decoder have a back emf facility?

Thanks guys or girls.