Coasting with Hornby Loksound v4 steam

[Pete the Elaner]

I have recently fitted Zimo sound decoders to a couple of my steam locos & particularly like the coasting feature.

 

I have got out one of my older Hornby Duchesses which has factory-fitted sound. This is not TTS but one of the older ones with a Loksound v4.

I know the coasting feature is there because I can hear it when I shut the power off completely & let the loco decelerate. A friend of mine also noticed this on their old Select but when using a PowerPro, it seems that the loco chuffs its way to a halt.

I have been adjusting acceleration & deceleration values in an attempt to get it to coast, but without success.

 

Does anyone know if I can make this coasting feature work by adjusting CVs? I have JMRI connected to the layout if that helps.

[BoD]

Are you sure it is v4?

Some of te earlier ones were v3.5. Might be worth checking.

[Pete the Elaner]

According to JMRI it is, but that surprised me, so maybe it mis-read... especially as I bought it 7-8 years ago (which I am sure about) & have bought a cl31 more recently, which had a v3.5 in it.

I have a Lokprogrammer too. It is not connected at the moment but I would trust it more than JMRI, so I will double check with that.

[Lady_Ava_Hay]

I have recently fitted Zimo sound decoders to a couple of my steam locos & particularly like the coasting feature.

 

I have got out one of my older Hornby Duchesses which has factory-fitted sound. This is not TTS but one of the older ones with a Loksound v4.

I know the coasting feature is there because I can hear it when I shut the power off completely & let the loco decelerate. A friend of mine also noticed this on their old Select but when using a PowerPro, it seems that the loco chuffs its way to a halt.

I have been adjusting acceleration & deceleration values in an attempt to get it to coast, but without success.

 

Does anyone know if I can make this coasting feature work by adjusting CVs? I have JMRI connected to the layout if that helps.

 

To get coasting on any sound decoder requires access to the sound project file. I imagine it COULD be done by changing CV values but delving that deep into a decoder without a sound project file to look at on screen giving a comprehensive GUI...........I wouldn't risk it. 

 

If it is a V3.5 then any sound projects out there are now more or less unused at compiler level and very few had coasting in them anyway. I did manage to load a 3.5 Micro with a self written sound project which had a lot of coasting built into it. It needed developing. It was a diesel hydraulic template and it was in a Bachmann Class 3 diesel shunter so of little value to a steam loco but the principle is the same by adjusting threshholds between each sound file.

 

The modern V4s are very much better at these sound flows and there are many different sound projects out there now. To be honest I would hesitate to plunge into a sound decoder these days and the 3.5 Micro failed some time ago and has been replaced with a silent decoder.

[pauliebanger]

I have recently fitted Zimo sound decoders to a couple of my steam locos & particularly like the coasting feature.

 

I have got out one of my older Hornby Duchesses which has factory-fitted sound. This is not TTS but one of the older ones with a Loksound v4.

I know the coasting feature is there because I can hear it when I shut the power off completely & let the loco decelerate. A friend of mine also noticed this on their old Select but when using a PowerPro, it seems that the loco chuffs its way to a halt.

I have been adjusting acceleration & deceleration values in an attempt to get it to coast, but without success.

 

Does anyone know if I can make this coasting feature work by adjusting CVs? I have JMRI connected to the layout if that helps.

 

Pete,

 

I think from other posts you have some ZIMO projects of mine from Digitrains. These were designed from scratch to coast with a reduction of 1 speed step (of 128). You can extend the costing duration with each single 'step down' by increasing the value in CV285  (max is 255). This operates separately from the inertia settings, so is completely different from the Loksound you have.

 

The older Loksound V3.5 decoders often had 'coasting' included as part of the sound projects, but very often users were unaware of itor unable to trigger the effect.Triggering was achieved by measuring the difference between actual road speed and the requested lower speed (SS dialed). If this difference was above the project's built in threshold, then the coasting sound would be triggered, often until acceleration was requested (or the loco stopped).

 

The secret to triggering this on these older ESUs is to ramp up the value in CV4, and, from speed rapidly reduce the dialed speed steps. The model will gradually slow down or 'coast' (according to CV4 value), so the model's road speed will be high, but the dialled speed steps will be very low, so the difference between the two will be large, giving the greatest chance of triggering the coasting sound.

 

Of course, you must realise that high CV4 values will mean that the model will take a long time to come to a halt, making it difficult to make accurate station stops. 

 

What's needed is a working brake key to overcome the high momentum, something that you will also find (F2) included in your ZIMO sound projects.

 

Best regards,

 

Paul

[BoD]

I have had a bit play with 'City of Coventry' today. I bought it a good while ago in anticipation of building my layout so renumbering and playing with the sound was on a back burner.

 

I think Paul is right and it is a case of increasing CV4 for deceleration.

 

I found that it would not activate the coast sound if you decelerated gradually using the throttle. It required a very quick deceleration of a fair size. I was using a lenz system and a deceleration of 16 steps did not trigger the coast but 32 steps did. Thus means that if you slow from speed step 32 or lower you can never trigger the coasting.

 

The biggest bugbear for me was that, as soon as the decoder reached the new set speed it restarted the chuffing sound which meant it wouldn't coast to a stop but the chuffing would restart. It just didn't sound right. I found that if I set the deceleration to 40 I could trigger the coast sound then by gradually decreasing the speed I could stay 'one step ahead' of the chuff restarting. With a bit of practice I could coast to a stop fairly accurately. This doesn't help if you want a long coast without actually stopping.

[Pete the Elaner]

Pete,

 

I think from other posts you have some ZIMO projects of mine from Digitrains. These were designed from scratch to coast with a reduction of 1 speed step (of 128). You can extend the costing duration with each single 'step down' by increasing the value in CV285  (max is 255). This operates separately from the inertia settings, so is completely different from the Loksound you have.

 

The older Loksound V3.5 decoders often had 'coasting' included as part of the sound projects, but very often users were unaware of itor unable to trigger the effect.Triggering was achieved by measuring the difference between actual road speed and the requested lower speed (SS dialed). If this difference was above the project's built in threshold, then the coasting sound would be triggered, often until acceleration was requested (or the loco stopped).

 

The secret to triggering this on these older ESUs is to ramp up the value in CV4, and, from speed rapidly reduce the dialed speed steps. The model will gradually slow down or 'coast' (according to CV4 value), so the model's road speed will be high, but the dialled speed steps will be very low, so the difference between the two will be large, giving the greatest chance of triggering the coasting sound.

 

Of course, you must realise that high CV4 values will mean that the model will take a long time to come to a halt, making it difficult to make accurate station stops. 

 

What's needed is a working brake key to overcome the high momentum, something that you will also find (F2) included in your ZIMO sound projects.

 

Best regards,

 

Paul

I do indeed have some of your Zimo projects & after hearing them, I will be buying more.