Loksound

[Geared Steam]

Thank you Capt Obvious....or Oblivious.....take yer pick.

[Bayfield Transfer Railway]

A retailer loading the wrong software into a decoder has squat to do with "decoder problems" and everything to do with "retailer problems."

That's like blaming Ford when somebody mounts the wrong tires on your car.

 

[Geared Steam]

Hi Randy

To their credit, they sold out of the ESU's and were waiting for another shipment, it took the a little over a month, so when they did get them, I;m sure the backorders were piled up, to the point where they were programing madly and got them mixed. I work in manufacturing so I can understand the rush to get product out once you finally get the components.

I don't believe they were prepared for the onslought of sales, I have to hand it to Matt Herman, as he has hit all the social networking sights and forums with demo videos, meanwhile, not alot out of Durango as far as promotion.

These are going into a United Brass shay with a can motor, the other into a Bachmann shay with the factory motor, the Bachmann didn't run differently that the other two Bachmanns I have, one with factory sound from Bachmann/soundtraxx, the other with a Digitrax DZ-126.

I will patiently wait for them ESU's to show up and try again, I'm using sugar cubes speakers, I'm excited to hear the Loksounds before I really make up my mind. The compact size is important to me. 

 

[rrinker]

 Seems like you need to find a new LHS that can actually get your order straight

The advantage of having the Lokprogrammer (they just had them on sale, too) is that I don;t need to rely on someone to put the correct sounds in my decoders, I cna just get them from wherever and load in whatever sound I am using that particular decoder for. It's not worth it for just one, but Loksound is all I use. Even Modeltrainstuff will install a sound file, but if they stuck a diesel in one meant for a Shay, I'd just reprogram it and continue with my install, no waiting. Or if I had one on hand with EMD sounds and happened across an Alco at a train show, I could just swap the sounds and get the decoder installed, no waiting.

 I have a feeling your first one was never programmed - they come with some sample sounds preinstalled, but not a full set where it would be oeprational as any sort of loco, at least the one I picked up on eBay was like that until I installed one the actual sound sets.

 Maybe it's different in steam, but the motor drive is significantly better in diesels vs Tsunami - you may also have to use the auto configuration depending on the type of motor, out of the box they work quite well for the typical slab sided can motors in diesels but for various other types often found in steam locos, especially brass, the parameters may need adjustment to suit the motor type - which can be done automatically rather than fiddling with BEMF CVs.

 The other nice thing - Loksound just added dynamic exhaust, much like the new Tsunami 2. However, I can just run all my locos through the program track and update them with this feature, I don't have to swap decoders for a newer one.

                       --Randy

 

[Geared Steam]

I like the way you think. 

 

[richhotrain]

Geared Steam

I did get a chuckle watching my shay run around with a diesel prime mover though.

Dean. rather than sending the Shay back to your LHS for reprogramming, offer it for sale on eBay at some exhorbitant price, claiming that it is a rare item like the upside down airplane on the "Inverted Jenny" postage stamp.   

Rich

[Geared Steam]

The LHS replied to please send it back, they will reprogram it for the sounds I need. It's another day, and I'm willing to give it another try in the future. For now my eyes are tired. 

I like the small size of the Loksound Select Micro, smaller than any I have seen. 

[Geared Steam]

Continue to face challengers with Loksound, the first one I ordered had to be returned as the sound never worked, the LHS insisted they tested before shipping. 

The second one was ordered June 5th, I finally received it last week, and although I asked for the Shay sound files, it has diesel instead.

Yes, this is the LHS's fault, but I'm going to rip it out and put in a TSU 2. The motor control with the ESU didn't really impress me that much to justify a change of brand, and do I want to program my own decoders for additional expense of the Loksound Programmer? Not really.

At least when I pick up a TSU 2 Steam decoder, I know it really is steam.  

I tried ESU lovers, I really did.  the advantages I read about still seem to point to the diesel version as the advantage over Soundtraxx.

I did get a chuckle watching my shay run around with a diesel prime mover though.

I'll try again once I get it returned from the LHS with hopefully, the shay files loaded. 

Rant over, time to go have a drink and sit in the pool