legomanbiffo

There are indeed two versions of the Dapol 7mm 08. The original one had a 21-pin interface which did not comply with the 21-pin MTC standard, so the vast majority of 21-pin chips would not work the lights properly. A work-around was possible which involved all four marker lights being permanently lit, which fortuitously is the same as most 08's were operated (driver's left them on all the time otherwise they'd be changing them all day long when shunting backwards and forwards). The later versions had much improved lighting functionality, and their release coincided with ESU's release of the v5 MKL chip which features 10 auxiliary outputs, all at full voltage. As such it was possible to enable multiple lighting modes on the model (normal, tail lights disabled, parking mode (reds at both ends) and shunt mode (one red / one white at each end). And a working cab light. No modification of the later models are necessary when using the Loksound v5 MKL chip, it's just plug and play. Stu, if you'd like to get in touch with Charlie at DC Kits or myself we'll help you get the lights doing what you want, by changing CV's or exchanging your chip if necessary. Bif

All versions of my Janus shunter sound project have got the ESU manual brake function on F5 which physically 'brakes' the train as well as making the brake application sound. I have 'factory set' it to a value I thought was about right for most users but it is entirely configurable if that doesn't suit. You can alter the severity of the brake via CV179, with a minimum value of 0 (no brake function) and a maximum of 255 (instant stop). Hope this helps, Bif

To answer your question Rockmonkey; My existing Class 91 & Mk4 DVT sound chips already have the facility for the user to pick one of three different operating periods, which set the type of despatch whistle (traditional single or modern 'two-tip'), the presence or not of door opening beepers (the coaches didn't originally have them), the type of door closing beepers (they changed upon refurbishment) and the type of door closing mechanism (including the modern 'seagull' ones). The two projects are being updated to full v5 standards in readiness for the Hornby model. You will be pleased to hear that the new versions will include all of the automated announcements featured in that Electra video plus many more recorded from the same unit (in fact the full set of those available, to the best of my knowledge). These were recorded in ideal conditions at one of the Mk4 depots. The announcements will also feature in an all-new project I'm doing for the Mk4 coach. This is designed to go somewhere in the middle of your Mk4 rake and work in harmony with the 91 & DVT chips. It will feature, amongst other things; the static converter 'electrical groaning' sound, air conditioning, door beepers, brake sounds, flange squeal plus of course the aforementioned announcements. I've made a working prototype and it does lift things to another level having sound from the middle of the train, given how long these rakes are. We don't just throw these things together :-)

Jack, As always, I'm happy to work with a customer to achieve what they want so no concerns on that score. To deal with your points in turn; 1. Most of the changes such as interior lights, independent directional light control and cab lights are simple CV changes as you suggest. It's just a case of mapping the function keys to the appropriate auxiliary outputs and choosing the lighting mode (eg flickering in the case of your interior lights). I'm happy to advise on that if you get stuck. 2. My 153 sound project already has the door opening lights mapped to Aux1, and they stay on whilst the door closing sound is playing (unlike simple mapping would permit). However, what you want is slightly different so I need to look at how I could program for that. It is something I need to do to reflect prototypical operation though by the sound of it. It's certainly do-able. 3. In view of how many controllable outputs are needed I would suggest using a Loksound MKL chip which has plenty of outputs, and all are at full voltage so you wouldn't need amplifying transistors for the LED's, just the LED's themselves and series resistors. The MKL (as used in the Hattons 66) is the same price as a normal 21-pin. You would need to use a 21-pin adapter plate but these are not expensive and would aid your modifications anyway I think. 4. There's plenty of room in the sound project to add some announcements voiced by yourself. I can give you guidance on recording them. They aren't something you can add yourself though, I would need them here when I create the sound project. Can I suggest that you make contact with us and we can start to discuss the fine details. Bif

Looking to get rid of around 100 Rail Express magazines from the past 5 years or so (approx 3ft of shelf space). Collect from Atherstone North Warwickshire asap. Going to the charity shop if no takers.

I can confirm that my latest ETH 47 project ( which we refer to as the Mid Norfolk 47) does indeed have both roof fans. Set CV155 to 0 for a normal fan or 1 for the louder one that the Generator 47's had. Bif

Roy, I will check properly tomorrow but I’m fairly sure my MNR 47 project does still feature the choice of a normal roof fan or the very loud ones that the ‘Generator’ 47’s had. Changeable via CV from memory. I will report back on that asap. And just to correct a point that Charlie made above; it’s not necessary to change CV’s for a 47/7, the extra sounds are enabled by default. I’ll send him a company memo on both counts!

Just in case the info hasn't made it to the website yet, the configurable sounds are as follows. This also applies to my new Bachmann 117 chip; SV1 / CV155 to 0 for high horn type A SV1 / CV155 to 1 for high horn type B SV1 / CV155 to 2 for high horn type C SV1 / CV155 to 3 for high horn type D SV2 / CV156 to 0 for high horn type A SV2 / CV156 to 1 for high horn type B SV2 / CV156 to 2 for high horn type C SV2 / CV156 to 3 for high horn type D Set SV3 / CV157 to 0 for firebell type A Set SV3 / CV157 to 1 for fire buzzer Set SV3 / CV157 to 2 for firebell type B Set SV4 / CV158 to 0 for handbrake type A Set SV4 / CV158 to 1 for handbrake type B Set SV5 / CV159 to 0 for AWS type A Set SV5 / CV159 to 1 for AWS type B Set SV5 / CV159 to 2 for AWS type C Set SV6 / CV160 to 0 for handbrake warning buzzer type A Set SV6 / CV160 to 1 for handbrake warning buzzer type B Hope this helps, Bif

Philip, As you say, definitely a strange one this, but in my opinion it must be related to the Powercab as the chips didn't do it when tested on Charlie's system, or when you pulled the mains plug. I suspect there may be some mains-borne interference on your supply. Daft as it sounds, and just for investigation purposes, try plugging the Powercab into a mains socket on a different output from your consumer unit (eg the garage or upstairs if it's normally downstairs or visa-versa) or even next door or at a pal's house. You could also try an interference filter. You can get these style ones that clip onto the cable, just buy one big enough to fit (they have no direct connection to the supply). You can also buy mains extension leads with filters. https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/ferrite-sleeves/7740632?cm_mmc=UK-PLA-DS3A-_-google-_-PLA_UK_EN_Passive_Components_Whoop-_-Ferrite+Sleeves_Whoop-_-7740632&matchtype=&pla-475331977096&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqfz6BRD8ARIsAIXQCf0D9s7VYvYSS3ZasZVN2mDzsKiGDA_f-aDS155IWwRL00zcLKrmXDoaAhLZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds If you do fix this, please let us know. Bif

https://youtu.be/P-9-1h9GEus

I need some ‘slinger’ cranes to finish off a Cambrian Salmon wagon I’m kit-bashing. Does anyone do decent 3D printed ones yet, can you still get the Genesis ones, and / or does anyone have a set to sell or swap? Thanks, Bif

Good news! I have a high quality recording of the fan of 47401 and this was a feature of my v4 version of the 47/4. On that, you could choose between a normal fan or the much louder electric fan from 47401 just by setting CV48 (0 normal, 1 for electric). I must admit it’s a feature I had forgotten all about until I read this post. I’m just in the process of adding the feature to my more recent ETH 47 sound project (referred to as the Mid Norfolk to differentiate it from my earlier one). Again this will be user-selectable via CV (CV155 this time as it’s a v5 chip). Bif

A handful points from me; Blu-tac is not a good long-term solution for making speakers airtight, I always recommend PVA glue instead. A simple but very effective solution for speaker hiss is to drape a layer of felt or similar material over the speaker. It kills the very top-end frequencies but keeps the important bass and mid-ranges intact. Hiss is always more prominent when the speaker is in the top and / or facing upwards than in the tanks and / or facing down. Bif

In that case I feel you need to stretch your imagination a bit further :-) If it was so easy then why are there not dozens of sound programmers producing competing high quality sound chips at knock-down prices? Let us explore the path involved in bringing high qualty loco sounds to market; You need to invest in a high quality, multi-channel solid state recording device. Two actually, in case one fails on the day you paid £1000 to record a loco. Ditto with microphones, cables, boom poles etc. You need a few years experience to work out where to put those mics to obtain the best, representative sound. Experience = cost, time, effort, mistakes etc You need to arrange access to the loco. If you worked in the industry you might be able to arrange free access to a handful of classes but to nurture the relationships that enable access to an extensive range of prototypes takes considerable time, effort and expense. You often need to pay considerable sums to facilitate said access, four-figure sums are not uncommon in the case of preserved railways. You need to travel to the venue, which might be at the other end of the country, and stay overnight to allow an early start. So then you’re paying for an evening meal and breakfast. And possibly a second night if you don’t want to travel home after an early start and a full day’s recording at the other end of the country. And what if you do all that and the loco fails or is otherwise unusable on the day? That’s happened to me more than once. Imagine driving 200 miles, staying overnight, turning up at 0900 only to find that a simple breakdown in communication between two people at the railway had left the loco in bits for maintenance on the day you were supposed to be recording it? Spend all day capturing the various sounds. Sometimes two days if you have to capture the static sounds separately for whatever reason. When you get home, back up the several Gb of data you’ve obtained onto multiple drives including offsite ones, to mitigate against losing your hard-earned raw material and livelihood if there was a failure. Listen to hours of recordings to identify the usable bits. Chop up the raw recordings into the small clips necessary to load onto the chip. Around 250 of them in the case of a sophisticated project like the Hattons 66. Edit each and every one of them so that it merges seamlessly with its neighbours. Design a flowchart for the individual sound that mimics the operation of the prototype (so that your Class 56 compressor changes over once a minute for example, or your Javelin can change from overhead 25kV to third rail and back again with the correct sounds at each stage). Add any sounds or functionality that’s changed over the years in the prototype (eg mk4 coaches; at least three combinations of door opening and closing mechanisms and beepers, HST’s; 3 different engine types and several different cooler groups, 08’s; replacement metal doors that sound completely different to the wooden originals, and so on). Buy the target model if you don’t already have one. Think about that one for a moment. Every single new model that comes out you have to buy or borrow to allow you to set up the chip to suit the mechanism, lights, inertia etc. Load the sounds into the model and test everything. Set up the inertia so the model accelerates as fast as the prototype and has the correct top speed. Set the lights to be as dim or bright as the prototype. Configure the various lighting modes. Set the individual sound volumes to be in proportion to one another. Make everything loud enough. Repeat all of the above for the N gauge and O gauge model... Then when your chip is on sale there’s the workload involved in supporting customers who rightly expect knowledgeable answers to a vast array of questions they might have. What’s the best speaker? How do I set the CV’s to do this or that? Will it work with this or that controller? I could go on but hopefully this gives you some idea of the effort involved?

I am happy to announce that my sounds for Bachmann's London Underground S stock are finally ready. The sounds were all recorded 'on shed' and on the Metropolitan main Line with the assistance of Transport For London. They will be available as both a two-chip matched pair and a single chip plus Lokpilot (non-sound) matched pair as a more economical option. They are only available on v5 at this time (ie v4 reblows will not be available). The units sound great with a standard 20x40mm speaker but I've also heard them through a Zimo double-dumbo and one of our 'slab' speakers and they sound equally good as they don't need a lot of bass. Some of the features include; Configurable destination announcement for any destination on the Metropolitan LIne (authentic recordings of the prototype's automated message, not a generic creation). 'This is an all-stations Metropolitan Line train to <destination of your choice>' Configurable general announcement (choose any one of 20 different automated messages including 'please move down the car', 'the next station is closed', 'this train is ready to depart' etc Other sounds include manual brake featuring authentic brake sounds, compressor, DSD alarm, cab alarm, driver's front door, driver's air conditioning, passenger doors opening & closing, 'mind the gap' announcement, train whistle, third rail arc sounds (and accompanying flashes if you fit your units with LED's on the shoes), windscreen wipers, coupling and uncoupling and detonators. Traction motor sounds are completely authentic, having been recorded via a bogie-mounted microphone on a line run. A demo video will be done at some point. A demo unit fitted with door opening lights and third-rail arc flashes will be on the stand at the Warley show in November.

Oh, and I’m not sure what caused the lag when departing, but it doesn’t do that normally, no.

The video is of a work-in-progress version of my S-Stock sound project which is not quite finished yet. We’re demonstrating it to give people a taste of what it will be like. We’ll do the usual video of our own once it’s ready. There are only three cars to make it quicker and easier to demonstrate on the stand. The inter-car wire is indeed for the door lights, which were installed for us by Richard Croft. The final demo model will have the wire hidden, passing through the corridor connector. Everything was recorded officially, from a real S-Stock train on the main line and at a depot. Hope this helps, Bif

Well spotted Carl, the dreaded cut and paste error. The last line in the 'enable' list should say CV363 = 27 as per the corrected bulletin below. Regarding the noisy pan servo, someone at Railex told me that those on the Roco locos are near silent in operation. 90 reblow v7a for bachmann loco-Bulletin.pdf

As Charlie correctly states above, I have finished updating the 90 sound project to suit the Bachmann model. It's now at version 7 and available to order from DC Kits as normal. The speaker Bachmann have used sounds better than previous examples. It's ok but not outstanding. The lighting configuration is far better than previous Bachmann models and has allowed me to set the loco up for light engine and DVT / train modes, with directional cab lights, and day and night time running in any mode. The only thing I've not been able to do is parking mode with reds at both ends, due to the unusual way they've configured things. The chips is set up to work as a matched pair with my existing DVT project by using F19 or F20 instead of F0, depending upon which end the DVT is rostered. The same DVT can be used in the same way with my 86 & 87. The loco can still be used light engine using F0 (F0, F19 & F20 configure both the sounds and lights to suit the mode of operation). The synchronisation of the pan up and pan down sounds to the model is very good. but is spoiled by the noisy mechanical mechanism that has been used. We tried two different models and they were both noisy. I have included instructions in the ESU bulletin how to disable the pan (by changing 3 CV's). Pan height in both the raised and lowered positions can easily be adjusted by CV. The pan is fully sprung in all positions so I don't foresee any problems running it touching the catenary. Chip fitting is very straightforward. Four screws to remove the roof panel, remove the blanking plate and replace with the sound chip. The loco is pre-fitted with a speaker so just remove the speaker supplied with the chip and away you go. 90 reblow v7a for bachmann loco-Bulletin.pdf

The speaker sounds better than I expected but there’s little or no bass to it. Fortunately for them you can get away with that to an extent with an electric. It sounds not too bad at all overall. Full credit to Bachmann for the speaker pre-fit, independent lights and pantograph innovation though. It makes the Hornby 87 look positely prehistoric from a sound and light point of view. We’ll be exploring the pissibilities for speaker improvement over the next few days. Bif

Well, not quite as soon as they hit the shops, but not long afterwards. We now have one on the stand with a v5 chip and functioning pantograph. I need to spend a few days tweaking the settings to suit the lights, motor, speaker configuration, pantograph, etc. I’ve already updated the sounds themselves to take advantage of the v5’s capabilities (higher quality sounds, spirax valves tinging with no hiss in-between tings, choice of two different sets of playable horns and so on). I’ve also set them up to work as a matched pair with my DVT sound project (my 86 and 87 are similarly paired with the DVT). Having had a quick browse of the Bachmann pamphlet it should also be possible to enable parking mode (red lights at both ends). We should have the finalised version for sale in the next 10 days or so all being well. Bif

There will be little or no difference in the F key layout between v22 and v23a. I think 22-23 was the addition of the manual brake (still on F5). 23a was CV tweaks necessitated by the v5 chip, which didn't affect the F key layout. The severity of the brake is a user-selectable function controlled by CV179. If you increase the value it will make the loco stop more quickly. Maximum value is 255. Hope this helps, Bif

The Class 40 is probably my least favourite of my own sounds!

Neil, Sorry for the slow response. If you change the following CV’s, in order, it will take off the auto fade-out on F19 and the cab light switch sound associated with it (which isn’t on F20, so it just makes them the same); cv31 to 16 cv32 to 3 cv385 to 0 cv400 to 0 Hope this helps, Bif

Yes it will, and v3.5’s as well.