irishthump

These are now sold.

Thanks for all your interest, lads.

Nice!

I believe I was watching these on Ebay myself....

I have a couple of Athearn RTR's and although they were a bit growly at first they quietened down after a while. My ones have the newer can motors so any noise is only coming from the gears in the trucks.

Nice! Gotta love a bit of Warbonnet

 

The RTR/Bluebox motors can be a bit hit and miss with many yanks installing Kato or Canon motors in their place (they'd probably die if they ever saw a Lima pancake!) Some tips on better running here

I tried that trick with the Pearl Drops on some older Blue Box Athearns, did'nt really help. I found filing between the teeth of the gears worked much better as you can get a lot of flash and rough spots on the plastic.

I posted a link here showing how to change the individual sound settings on Zimo decoders, don't know if it's any use to you.

http://irishrailwaymodelling.net/showthread.php/3357-Adjusting-volume-levels-on-Zimo-sound-decoders

Like you say, Noel, it's comes to which personal preference.

As I said, Mr Soundguy's sound recordings are probably the best available, but I'm swaying towards the Loksounds. The main reason(s) for this is that I prefer the way the Loksound "drives". The hard acceleration is very good, you turn the throttle rapidly up to notch 5 and the engine sound goes straight to high revs (around notch 6-7) then settles back down to notch 5 once it reaches that speed. The ability to notch up or down with the function keys independent of speed is also great. There is also a brake and acceleration function which I have yet to get to grips with.

Also, now that I have a Lokprogrammer I can download my own files from the ESU website and customise each loco; different engine, horn, brake sounds etc. can be programmed to each loco. All functions can also be remapped as I choose.

That's the reason I'm selling the MSB decoders, to fund more Loksounds! Having said that I still have one of each the 141, 071 and 201 chips from MSB that I will hang on to, the 071 and 201 in particular are very good.

Hi IT. Thanks yes somebody on here told me about the CV54 procedure a few weeks back and it worked a treat.

 

I was just wondering what type of motors are used in MM? Are the cordless or not, etc?

 

Cheers

Noel

If you mean coreless then no, they're definately not coreless motors. As far as I know they are DC, 3 pole or 5 pole can motors. Pretty much standard across all of Bachmann's UK stuff.

Hi Folks

 

Does anybody know from a DCC point of view what motor types are used in MM locos (141/181 and 071s)? Most decoders have CVs to allow the motor type to be specified.

 

Thanks

Noel

Are you using Loksound decoders? As far as I know the suitable CV motor setting is simply the default value.

The V4's also have an auto-tuning feature which is very simple. Here's a link to how it works...

http://www.sbs4dcc.com/tutorialstipstricks/esuloksoundmotorautotune.html

The two questions are why do decoders run locos 20% slower on DCC than the same loco on 12v DC? And why do some decoders output higher DC when DCC track voltage is slightly increased, and others do not (eg Lenz)?

 

Good night

There's a couple of reasons DCC runs slower than DC.

Firstly, the DCC signal is modulated AC so it can never deliver the same voltage as a similarly rated DC controller, it loses a bit more as it's run through the rectifiers in the decoder. Also, the decoder itself needs a certain amount of power just to keep it "ticking over". Typically when you run a DCC equipped loco on a DC layout you have to up the start voltage to get it moving. (I tried it with a Zimo sound decoder on DC and the loco drew 7 volts before the sound came on.)

Can't answer your second question, maybe it's just a manufacturer thing....

If you want realistic running freight trains would be limited to 50mph not 79mph

I think the OP is just trying to get the locos to run at a prototypical top speed, pulling a train is another issue.

Same problem here too.

Oh, that IS nice!

Lads,

Have 2 of these decoders for sale. Bought from the Model Shop Belfast, in perfect working order.

Here's a video of the same decoder in action....

Looking for €160 for the pair plus postage, or can be collected in the Dublin area.

Very useful info, Noel. Thanks for posting your results!

Funny, I always thought the 141's/071's ran way too fast with TV set to 255. I usually set my locos top speed around 120!

Great work... Absolutely gorgeous paint job!

Yes but I missed this thread. Sure none of this Irish guff would be of interest to me

 

They had some nice footage of Westerns and Warships on one episode and a tour of Toton depot. That was good enough for me!

Yeah a watched a few episodes and they visited a few interesting places, but too much bleedin' steam for my liking!

I think it was made around 10 years ago as far as I can recall.

That would be about right, they had shots of the "new" Luas, so 2004 would be about right.

So you've seen it before? Jaysus you could have warned me!

Well it was a load of cack so you did'nt miss much!

Basically a little PR slot for IE. Don't know when it was filmed but you saw MK3 push pull stock sitting in Heuston and Arrow trains all over the place. And Barry Kenny talking about huge investment in the network!

The simplest option to date would seem to be where you simply buy the loco(s) you want, in advance.

 

Once enough have been sold, the production can commence...

Am I missing something here or is there a difference between actually paying in advance or "pledging"? I imagine in the case of a pledge you still pay out....

Fair play, boss!

121 class (option for dummy non driving 121 for pairs)

It was discussed before, but a dummy loco costs very nearly as much a one with a motor.

Sorry guys, but I can't see myself shelling out in advance for the production of any model, especially with the timelines mentioned.

As for top 3...

1 - 121

2 - A Class

3 - C Class

Tell me this is not on the BBC again:facepalm:

Is is streamed anywhere that you know of.....

No, it's on Discovery Shed. Part of my Sky package, don't know if it's streamed anywhere. They've had a load of railway related shows this past couple of weeks both real and model.

No harm in that except that the existing threads on DCC should probably be placed there:dig:

Absolutely!

Suggestion for the "Powers that Be";

With all the discussion about DCC sound and DCC control in general, maybe it should have it's own seperate section?

Just a thought....

This series has been running for a few weeks on Discovery Shed. They've been showing back to back episodes all day, but the 10pm episode is about Irish railways.

Might be worth a look....

Very impressive!

Although I've ordered myself a Lokprogrammer, I might be tempted to get one or two of these. Does Mr Soundguy offer a reprogramming service for decoders?