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Another LokSound V5 trick, coupling

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  • Member since
    January 2012
  • From: Edgewood, WA
  • 54 posts
Another LokSound V5 trick, coupling
Posted by 2ManyHobbeez on Tuesday, April 28, 2020 12:42 PM

Here is another trick for LokSound V5 decoders that may be of some interest.

I always run my trains with momentum, both for the realism and for the sheer sport of it. When coupling, however, momentum is a bit of a problem as the loco wants to continue pushing for awhile after the collision. I program my V5 decoders to make this a more realistic event.

I guess all of these decoders' sound files come with a "coupler sound" mapped to a function. It just plays a sound. I add 2 things to the "Logical functions" column of the coupler sound function. I add "Acceleration" and "Brake n" where n is 1, 2 or 3.

The acceleration logical function immediately kills all accel/decel effects. The effect of this is that the loco stops immediately but only if the throttle has been set to zero.

The brake 1, 2 or 3 logical applies the selected (preprogrammed) brake value. Adding the brake logical is not necessary if the operator kills the throttle just before the couple but I find that clumsy. If the brake logical is added and the selected brake has been configured to set a maximum speed of zero when that brake is applied, then when the coupler function button is pushed the throttle sound will go to idle, the coupler sound will play and the loco will stop almost immediately, like the prototype. For even more realism, if the Coast function is activated some distance before the couple point, then the throttle sound will go to idle and the loco will drift realistically. Then when the coupler button is pushed the couple sound plays and the loco stops. If the brake logical is added, then coupling is just a matter of pushing one (or two for more realism) function buttons rather than fiddling with the throttle. It's mighty realistic. 

Three CVs control brake aggressiveness: 179, 180 and 181 for brake 1, 2 and 3 respectively. Three CVs control the maximum speed that can be run when the brake is applied: 182, 183 and 184 for brake 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The max speed CVs are set to their max values as delivered so there is no slowing effect by default unless the throttle is reduced to a lower value. The values in 182, 183 and 184 override the actual throttle setting. There is a good description of the brake CVs and their effect in section 10.6 of the LokSound V5 manual.

Note that brake 1, 2 and 3 are used for preprogrammed functions like emergency brake, train brake and independent brake. I think that dynamic brake does not depend on any of these but I could be wrong. So changing the max speed on one of these will affect whatever other function that particular brake is associated with, but not in a bad way. It will just set your throttle to idle automatically. It will ramp up again when the brake is released.

Have fun,

George

Tags: LOKSOUND

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