Zimo vs ESU?

[philg]

Pretty sure this will elicit some emotional responses, but I’ll ask anyway

 

Ignoring the sound aspects, how similar are the driving characteristics of ESU decoders compared with Zimo?

 

After many years of trial and error I finally tried a Zimo decider recently, and it’s like night & day!  I didn’t believe it was possible to get such amazing slow speed running with no fuddling about. Nor any need to tweak back emf or “dither” settings

 

In fact, I’ll only be buying Zimo from this point on...... but some sound projects are only available on ESU decoders

 

Hence my question

 

Cheers

 

Phil G 

[brossard]

Most of my 0 gauge locos have Zimo sound - MX644C IIRC.  Absolutely brilliant!  I do have one loco with ESU Loksound (because the Zimo seller stopped shipping to Canada for a while).  This too is excellent but I did have to run the "autotune" routine to get it to work properly. 

 

So, my vote is for Zimo.

 

John

[philg]

1 hour ago, brossard said:

Most of my 0 gauge locos have Zimo sound - MX644C IIRC.  Absolutely brilliant!  I do have one loco with ESU Loksound (because the Zimo seller stopped shipping to Canada for a while).  This too is excellent but I did have to run the "autotune" routine to get it to work properly. 

 

So, my vote is for Zimo.

 

John

Zimo 1-0 ESU

 

Thanks John

 

Pretty sure the SOUNDS will be comparable across the two decoder families, but like you I'm blown away by Zimos. Both the simplicity AND the functionality

[WIMorrison]

Changed to Zimo from Lenz a few years ago because Zimo were and ate so good - a bonus is that my Z21 can update the firmware on the Zimo decoders.

[jpendle]

Hi,

 

All my loco's have Zimo decoders except for the ones with sound projects which are all ESU.

 

The ESU ones seem to perform as well as the Zimo ones.

 

BUT like Iain, I have a Z21, and updating the Zimo firmware has come to my rescue a couple of times, double heading and Railcom issues.

 

It's also worth saying that for sound projects there sometimes isn't a choice, but I'd be happy with either Zimo or ESU.

 

Regards,

 

John P

[F-UnitMad]

I have three elderly Atlas/Roco O Scale Plymouth switchers which I recently fitted Zimo non-sound decoders to, replacing Digitrax decoders. The motor control & running quality of all of them has been a complete transformation, I am very impressed.

I have some of my O scale diesels fitted with Loksound L Select decoders; they are good but the autotune facility is more of a liability than anything, I've found. There are also several sets of CVs to mess with for decent control, and the manual isn't very clear in it's translation from German, sometimes.

If there's a 3 Amp Zimo decoder with US diesel sounds I might investigate further, if I need another decoder.

[brossard]

7 minutes ago, F-UnitMad said:

I have three elderly Atlas/Roco O Scale Plymouth switchers which I recently fitted Zimo non-sound decoders to, replacing Digitrax decoders. The motor control & running quality of all of them has been a complete transformation, I am very impressed.

I have some of my O scale diesels fitted with Loksound L Select decoders; they are good but the autotune facility is more of a liability than anything, I've found. There are also several sets of CVs to mess with for decent control, and the manual isn't very clear in it's translation from German, sometimes.

If there's a 3 Amp Zimo decoder with US diesel sounds I might investigate further, if I need another decoder.

 

Surely autotune only needs doing once.  Zimo doesn't really need anything doing to it apart from setting the ID.  They work perfectly first time although that may be down to a well designed sound file.  I did have to futz about with chuff on my ESU fitted J39.  However, TBF, the sound file in the decoder is designed for a 4mm model.

 

John

[F-UnitMad]

3 hours ago, brossard said:

Surely autotune only needs doing once. 

All I can say is that my experience of autotune has made my locos run worse, not better, leading to much faffing afterwards with other CVs, not just the usual 2, 5 & 6 either.

Doing a CV8 reset did not undo the mess autotune made of my locos, either.

[brossard]

Ah, I see.  My J39 ran terribly at first.  I did my usual which is to ask here about what to do and was told about autotune.  A well kept secret from my point of view.  After I used autotune, loco performance was transformed.

 

John

[Andymsa]

Instead of jumping in changing cvs on the ESU chips, either make a note of them or download the defaults to a software program like decoder pro or the ESU programmer before messing around with auto tune. Auto tune should not be relied on as a final result, but gives a good near end result that should be aimed for. Occasionally you hit lucky and no further adjustments are needed. Doing a cv 8 reset does not reset fully sometimes and you also run the risk of deleting  sound files from the chip

[dpgibbons]

Zimo decoders are generally cheaper, smaller and have a much wider range of UK sound-sets compared to ESU.  

[pheaton]

The motor control is a little more refined on a ZIMO decoder, however ive no doubt that with the correct setup on an ESU decoder the same could be achieved.

 

Zimos are slightly cheaper than an ESU, but tbh there isn't much in it..

 

Not sure about the much wider range of UK sound sets though dpgibbons, almost every uk diesel loco is available on an ESU (no idea about steam).

 

for me it comes down to the project im interested in....if the project Is better quality on zimo I will choose zimo....if its better quality I will chose ESU....

 

if you are into creating projects then there are a number of differences between the two, and there is a tradeoff in advantages and disadvantages in there project creation methods...

 

other than a larger memory capacity however its difficult to see the out of the box technical advantage an ESU v5 has over a zimo mx645 though.

 

I know Paul Chetter is working hard in the background to achieve different features in his zimo projects however.

 

Edited July 12, 2021 by pheaton

[jamespetts]

I don't use sound, and have never tried ESU - but I use only Zimo and find them very satisfactory.

[sparaxis]

I use both. I like the Railcom plus feature of ESU, and I have a lokprogrammer so I tend to stick with them. The Zimo locos I have were factory installs, using Zimo for retrofits, I would need to get their programmer.

 

Motor control with ESU is fine, auto tune usually can adjust even for really oddball motors. If it doesn't work correctly, it is useful to check if there are any other electronic components in the motor circuit, such as chokes, capacitors and what have you. It is important that the loco is in good working order as well. 

[Neils WRX]

I use both, I do have a preference for ESU as I have a Lok Programmer and it useful for changing light and functions etc. Running wise I don't notice any real difference.

 

I have used the Roco Z21 to change Zimo projects but I have found this hit and miss and only working with Roco sound projects not "freeware" or ones that require a "load code".

 

Stay safe,

 

Neil