Lady_Ava_Hay

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.

Disconnected ones because parts are difficult to get?

Not too bad! Main baseboard made, most of the track laid including six points. Currently cutting out a bit of sea on a dockside plus a drainage trench. Measuring 64 times and cutting once; I am determined not to make any unsalvageable mistakes which will destroy my reason to carry on and waste all that has been done. Only one lesson so far learned to pass on. Don't use Gorilla glue; it seems to foam and cause unsightly glue mess which is then difficult to remove/disguise. I must admit that progress can sometimes be glacial. This is mainly due to my health than loss of mojo.

On your phone, somewhere in the Settings app, there is a file that shows you which apps are on the phone. You might find Facebook there. Try uninstalling it and that will stop it communicating with Facebook unless you access Facebook on another device like a laptop in which case the phone app will reload. Remember though that Facebook does NOT require an app on your phone, only that it is connected to the Internet. You might be surprised at how powerful some of these apps are. I once made the mistake of allowing McAfee to 'protect' my phone. This app then promptly started firing up my phone in the middle of the night, firing up the internet connection which then promptly started downloading Facebook notifications with much humming and dinging; so much so it used to wake me up! That McAfee app lasted five minutes and when I couldn't shut it down I had to reset the phone. That worked! But then all the updates started again. I also had a word processor programme constantly trying to download itself and that was near not taking no for an answer although it did get the message eventually. when I found the bare bones app and deleted it. You really would do better to deactivate your FB account first and you would be better to do that on a laptop or similar. You can also 'unfriend' all your 'friends' before you deactivate so that in the event of you inadvertently resurrecting the account which could happen if your wife set the password and gaily accesses your profile and re-invites all your 'friends'. Another reason to reset the password for one that only you know.

Notifications of what? I ask because notifications come from having 'friends' posting on topics. Alternatively other notifications come from 'sponsored' posts ie paid ads. These last will reflect your surfing of other sites and the fact that your phone will know where you have surfed. If you have no friends and other notifications are of no value to you, you should, as suggested above, deactivate the account. If that does not work then you have been hacked and should change your password to something entirely cryptic and not too memorable. That way the hacker will lose your profile listing when you deactivate it and you will have broken the ties between the phone and your internet connection. I suspect this will be temporary. BTW you don't need a Facebook app if you are sharing a Wifi connection or you have activated your 4G connection. Smashing things these mobile phones but a bit creepy as to how they infiltrate your online life. It is nonetheless pretty harmless as it is automated and historic. You buy something online and your phone will promptly send you ads about that purchase. How daft is that.

I seem to remember a large and mainly vitriolic thread about DCC sound at exhibitions. The conclusions reached ( if any ) were largely the same as on this one. We are modelling a transport method which involves a lot of noise much of it intrusive. Ask any preserved railway the major complaints source(s) and they will be noise and soot. In some ways this is from houses that were built long after the railway. I think all complaints about 'noisy' railways even model ones, might fall under the same heading for rebuttal Whoever heard of a totally silent steam engine or indeed diesel although great strides have been made with modern traction. Some of the more modern sound decoders are capable of a more realistic 'performance' than older ones were. The biggest argument with exhibitions is the space above the layout being so large, the temptation to wick up the volume is there. I would challenge you to stand next to an idling heritage diesel with a clapped silencer for more than a few seconds without wanting to absent yourself from the source. The same applies to sound decoders. One wonders whether the complainants on this thread and any others like it, also abhor 'real' railways as much. I believe one post is about lighting interfering with DCC signals and that was an old chestnut with the early Bachmann Dynamis which had an IR link between throttle and command station. Apparently it was reported that neon lighting was capable of interfering with that link. Long time ago. It is impossible to run only two wires to a DCC layout that involves points with the potential of dead rails between two insulated rail joiners but it is a fact that all track wiring is capable of being joined together and led into the command station by only two wires that are not joined together anywhere on the layout. As to the layout being out for days at an exhibition, I follow the viewpoint that the operators were equally disappointed but were unable to fix the problem with resources to hand. Poor planning rather than a generic fault methinks. The biggest problem that DCC seems to breed is that large layouts ( particularly with multiple sound locos ) requires a lot of power and that can only be brought to the layout by an expensive command station or use of multiple slave command stations wired to separate power districts. There are advantages to DCC like being able to run two locos on the same track and more realistic driving to a more responsive throttle but it is accepted that there are fewer disadvantages and I for one was attracted to DCC sound right from the get go. I still have most of my layout motive power with sound and the one that isn't has a good quality standard chip in it.

Just to add my congratulations to the stack. A well deserved pat on the back for Andy. I have been on here for around..............well stap me vitals I cannot recall when I actually started with RMWeb! I have never been one for looking back, that was then this is now and I live for the now these days and RMWeb is and always will be a part of that.

Can I complain that the links for page 2 don't work?

I have noticed an increase in 'cheating'. People who actively seek a loophole and exploit it to obtain goods on credit or Ebay with not the slightest intention of paying for it and backed up by increasingly ineffective legal process which has historically survived by adjudicating on cases where buyer and seller had actually met. These people seem to move in packs a bit like the Nigerian Princesses. They rely on browbeating to make you cave in. When we post on here about it, we are confirming that we will not yield to these people. It is the ones who don't post about it that tend to be the ones who do cave in. Remember that the Nigerian Government ( I know, I know ) did remark that if we westerners were so easy to fleece with the cock and bull stories weaved by the Princesses, then why shouldn't the Nigerian population profit from that?

Some suppliers of sound chips will happily send you a project by email that your Lokprogrammer will happily load onto a V4 chip. There is of course the option to go and record your target loco and use the programmer to load your own efforts. I would investigate option 1.

A layout of that size will require quite a lot of power. The reason that McKinley Railroad ( mentioned above ) picked Digitrax is that David wanted that power. He chose Digitrax as their leading command station packs 5 amps. That means that if you buy a Digitrax Zephyr with a 1 amp power rating that will struggle if you try five locos at one go, it will be compatible with future purchases to gain more power. This is not a recommendation as such although I am still using early Digitrax equipment. There have been discussions on here about the number of locos that can usefully be controlled by a DCC throttle. Most of us struggle beyond about three and although a large layout does allow for trains running for longish periods without direct control, any variation like a station stop will require quite a lot of button pushing.

Basically, we sound buffs chase every avenue in the search for better, more realistic sounds. Thus the ready availability of a small speaker with the correct ohm age will generate a fair amount of immediate enthusiasm ( froth ). That immediacy tend to repeat itself at fairly regular intervals.

To weigh ( a verb ) is used in relation to the anchor and the cable marks referred to when weighing anchor are usually done with stitched leather for durability. Slightly off topic but the leadline was also marked with leather ties and had a weight on the working end that enabled a forward cast so the ship and the leadline were in sync, the leadsman would then call 'by the mark (N) fathoms and sometimes tallow was applied to hollowed out base of the lead ( pronounced led ) to add the type of seabed being sailed over where that aided navigation. The other 'way' ( a noun ) refers to a ship in motion. The use of steerage way rarely applies to modern motor vessels as they steer by prop wash over rudder(s) plus possibly a bow thruster. Yachts of any size under sail can lose steerage way where a light breeze over a strong tide ( 'over' means with as opposed to 'against' ) can result in pirouetting all over the place.

I have been cogitating about this. As a rank amateur when it comes to electrics, is it possible that a capacitor is somewhere in your lighting circuit and that is 'leaching' power through the dimmed bulb when the loco sees track power? If that dimmed state is not exclusive to one LED then that capacitor is in the blue circuit. Otherwise for only one LED to do this would suggest that the capacitor is in that circuit. I am convinced that the fault is somewhere on the decoder PCB. They are all wired differently and only the PIC coding is common. If I am right then some research as to which decoder to use is necessary.

Just a memory. I personally have never used it. Lights were a rarity back then!

I might be wrong to suggest this but I do recall that the blue wire on the decoder is positive so yellow and white will be the return negative wire. I think you can also use the red ( rh side when loco going forward ) pick up wire as a substitute for the blue and that gives half the voltage. I do believe this difficulty with wiring actually persuaded the RTR industry to use the 21 pin connection and a small circuit board to mount all the resistors and return wires.

I imagine that combo was to be able to handle what must have been a substantial load from Southampton for the 28 miles uphill. I have no doubt that the 73 would be on the juice. The 33 was never considered more powerful than many steam engines and the SR never seemed to have many 47s. Bear in mind that the rebuilt MNs were used solo for the very heavy boat trains up the same gradient. Very few fails but quite a few lineside fires, knackered firemen and near waterless tenders.

Mrs Returnfire

The two units are completely at different ends of the spectrum. The Class 33 was a purpose built mainline diesel with a power rating of 1500hp and was usefully converted to push pull operations for EMU services that reached the end of the third rail but not their final destination. The ED or Class 73 was originally built for emergency towage of relatively short EMU's but turned out to be underpowered and troublesome as to conversion switchgear. The power of the diesel engine was around 700hp so even heavy EMU's were beyond it. Nevertheless, such a useful loco was used extensively throughout the SR and still is. I believe the latest rebuilds are very powerful and with modern switchgear, much more reliable. Quite a sight to see, almost silent on the juice but of limited use now that most of the South East has been electrified and modern units are in place to run on it.

Try here http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/27373-steam-heat-technology-questions/

I thought this 3 rail system was designed to pick up from live overhead catenary?

Ssshhhhhh keep it a secret!! http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/124617-modelling-mojo-and-state-of-mind/page-8&do=findComment&comment=3052826

I just spotted this thread today. Quietly and without too much fuss I have started to build what will likely be my last layout. Baseboard built and full size Scarm layout plan pinned on that, I have secured suitable track and am now contemplating laying my first point after a long think as to how I would approach that. The layout is easy to lift and hump around and resistance from the distaff side has evaporated as the size has been seen. I have eschewed some silly mods to the layout that will take too much modelling time to justify their existence. I am cautiously optimistic and my health is holding up well. Not too sure these last are connected but hey ho!. This layout is 53" by 24" approx. and will be fed by cassettes. Completely fictional but based on a real place the design was done years ago. I am hoping that one or two exhibitions will take me and my layout on but if not then it might sell OK at my local dealer.

A quick search has revealed that this unit operates on 16 Volts AC which is a popular European voltage In other words this is probably an analogue loco with a load controlling chip that is likely not actually programmable and certainly not at the small current used by the programming track.

Hi there. Firstly I would double check that there is no short between the railA and railB terminals on your command station with said wires disconnected. Second I would check anything that is connected to the track circuit. I assume the points are DCC operated? If so check the motors and the latching. Lastly I would check the point blades to ensure that they all move far enough to disengage the little metal shelves on each side. It is not impossible for the point blades not to move far enough particularly if the over centre springs are still installed.