FYI BLI Santa Fe Sound Chip Available

[AggroJones]

To those who have recieved their replacent chip.....

How long did it take for your chips to get to you? I ordered my mine on Aug 5th and they still haven't got here. Do you think there is a problem? Is it supposed to take this long?

I emailed BLI about it, but its like they are ignoring me. This blows. [:(!]

[Anonymous]

Teffy

I live in Southern California and run on a club layout. Most of our layouts here are with clubs, but most of these can handle 50 to 100 car trains and are very interesting. It would be more fun to have my own, of course and but the enjoyment of running trains with twenty or so others operators is interesting.
Our homes do not have basements and building a layout in a garage in this heat is not satisfactory and can cause operating problems.

Have a great trip to New England this fall. We made the trip about five years ago the first week of October to see the fall colors.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bangert1

Teffy
I am glad you could use the information. For some reason, this has not been on their web site and most did not know about it. They also have the update for the PRR J1, if you have one of those. I model several railroad, including the Santa Fe, PRR , IC and Union Pacific.
BLI responded very well and fixed the problem quickly. The chip is easy to replace and will make the 4 8 4 sound great.

I owned my first loco for probably a week before I realized that the chuffs were wrong. I have several other locos with Soundtraxx decoders and no cam action, so the chuffs didn't bother me and none of my visitors noticed it. I thougfht it was just something I'd have to live with but the NYC hudson had the right number of chuffs. I am very glad that this can be changed.

THANKS AGAIN

Where do you live and do you do layout showing? The wife and I are going to New England this fall and we're going to make a lot of layouts visits.

Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY

Bob

[Anonymous]

Teffy
I am glad you could use the information. For some reason, this has not been on their web site and most did not know about it. They also have the update for the PRR J1, if you have one of those. I model several railroad, including the Santa Fe, PRR , IC and Union Pacific.
BLI responded very well and fixed the problem quickly. The chip is easy to replace and will make the 4 8 4 sound great.

[Anonymous]

Bangert1:

Thanks for posting this information. I've called BLI and they are going to ship me the two chips for my locos. All they ask is that you send the old ones back. The postage shouldn't be that much.

Have a blessed day and remember SANTA FE ALL THE WAY
Bob

[Anonymous]

Bangert, I would have loved to have seen those three cab forwards in action! Even the double headed northerns would have been fun!

As for BLI adding another builder, has there been any changes to the product that i would notice? Is that how they have been able to anounce new products and then have have samples out almost immediately? I have been pretty surprised how fast some sample photos have been showing up. The ATSF 2-10-2 & 4's specifically. Were they not happy with Ajin?

I can't wait to get my hands on the J, but I had to promise the wife I would wait a while!

Thanks!

[mdtell]

I received my replacement chip for the BLI ATSF 4-8-4 yesterday (without charge other than the cost of mailing the replaced chip back to them) and installed it in my loco. There is a definite improvement as the loco now chuffs the correct 4 times per driver revolution. BLI certainly stands behind their products. I have a number of their engines and am very pleased with all of them. It's nice to see a manufacturer work as hard as they do to keep their customers satisfied. I certainly will continue to purchase their products.

[AggroJones]

If I have to pay over $7 in the process to obtain this chip, I think I'll just skip it.

[Anonymous]

WES 454
I am very happy with my BLI engines. If you consider the prices and the fact most run very well directly out of the box. During a recent visit to the Bakersfield club, I took my PRR T1 and ran it on their layout right out of the box with no running time on it. It ran flawless on a layout that takes more than 1 hour per round trip and the engine really performed great. More recently, I ran the SF Northern at the same club double headed with an identical engine and they really were great to watch.
My Cab Forward is really interesting as we ran three on a large train over the layout and they performed much like the real engines. Two were double headed and the third was run as a helper thirty cars back in the train and these engines put on a great show that night.
I am looking forward to the N&W J class as they have a great Steam boat type whistle and I expect the running qualities should be great.
By the way, BLI is using at least two builders for their products, and many of the new items coming in now are from China and not Ajin which built most of the first engines.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Bangert1, I'll give them a call...

By the way, are you happy with them? Mine don't have a place to run yet, but they were awesome on the test track! [;)]

[Anonymous]

Wes454

I called BLI the first day I got my engines, a few weeks ago and complained about the way it puffed. They started an investigation and got back to me within a few days. I was notified when the sound people picked up one each of the engines so they could work on the problem. I also called BLI last week and found out they had the new chips and they sent them out. I have both models and it fixes each one to my satisfaction.
I believe you have to call them to get the parts shipped to you.

[Anonymous]

FYI: I just checked back on BLI's website and the link that I mentioned before is now gone...Just didn't want anyone thinking I'm crazy!! But maybe I am.... [;)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bangert1

I already have my chips in my engines as I talked to BLI last week and they sent them to me.

Interesting...they make no mention of that option. I sent them an email asking for the chips, before they posted it on the web, but have not heard anything from them. Did you call them? I would like to have them fixed, but I don't want to spend another $30 on them...

[Anonymous]

An update to the replacement chip for both the PRR J! and Santa Fe engines. I am sorry I did not mention this before, but they send you the chip and it takes all of two minutes for the replacement.

I did not know they had it on the WEB site, I already have my chips in my engines as I talked to BLI last week and they sent them to me.

[Anonymous]

It was right on the front page, it is just a link above the ad that says they got another MR readers choice award...it reads "ATTENTION AT&SF 4-8-4 and PRR J1 2-10-4 Owners:"

let me know if you have any problems...

[mdtell]

Wes454 where on the BLI website did you find the information about getting the replacement chips? I just looked and could not find it.

[Anonymous]

I just saw that BLI has updated thier site with the replacment chip info. So, I'm wondering how many of you guys out there are actually going to have them replaced? The site doesn't say anything about a timeframe for replacement. I have both units, so it's going to be another $30 to get them there and back again (based on BLI's request of $7.50 per unit return shipping)...I'm not extremely excited about that.

Just wanted to see what everyone else is thinking...

[Anonymous]

The replacement chip corrects the exhaust chuffs per revolution on both locomotives.

[KemacPrr]

Is this to correct the wrong number of exhaust chuffs per driver revolution ? Or something else ----------Ken McCorry

[Anonymous]

At no cost to me, BLI has shipped the replacement sound eproms for the Santa Fe 4 8 4 and the PRR J1 2 10 4 to my house, but they must be requested if you want them. They were available at no cost if you contact the Technical Suport department. at phone number 540 949 8300 and ask for Technical Support. This is free and solves the puffing problem by increasing the puffing to four puffs per rev of the drivers.

This chip takes about two minutes to replace because BLI uses a plugable chip type socket. The tender shell is removable by hand and is easy to remove. If you call them, they will ship the part at no cost. This is a two or three minutes change that is worth the call to BLI as they pay the shipping also.