TTS Loco issue or clueless operator?

[Minimitch23]

Evening all. I'm having some issues with my TTS Mallard (R3395TTS) which I had yesterday. Sometimes when I bring it to a stop I am unable to get it started again for a while, and any sounds which are currently running stay on and won't switch off, and any new sounds I try and play won't start. Is this an issue with my loco and I should send it back to the shop I had it from, or am I doing something wrong? I'm using a Hornby Select with firmware 1.5 if that helps. I don't think it's an issue with the controller because it the Somerset Belle it came with is running with no issues at all.

Thanks for any advice, I'm pretty new to the hobby as a whole and only got the digital stuff yesterday 

[Chrissaf]

....any sounds which are currently running stay on and won't switch off, and any new sounds I try and play won't start.

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In general with sound equipped locos, there are instances where there are delays in responding to control commands.

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TTS in particular only has 2 sound channels (tracks), thus one of the tracks has to clear before it can play another sound. Some sounds may run for a significant number of seconds before the sound sequence ends naturally. With more expensive sound decoders such as ESU ones. There are far more than 2 tracks, thus sounds can be multi-layered and play concurrently, whereas the 2 track limitation on TTS means the the sounds have to be queued up to play sequentially.

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One of the two tracks will always be reserved / used by the engine running sound. Thus only one track is left to play the spot (play once or loop) sounds. When you turn off a 'loop sound' the time before it actually stops playing will depend where in the sound loop you gave it the 'switch off' command. The sound may have to complete a full loop before it stops and releases the track for another sound to be played.

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Now I am not saying that your TTS decoder is definitely operating 100% as it should, I am just saying that it might be and that you are perhaps being a little impatient and not operating the TTS within its operating limitation parameters. It is because it only has two tracks to play with that makes the price so low compared to the more expensive multi-track sound decoders.

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Sometimes when I bring it to a stop I am unable to get it started again for a while....

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Sound decoders by their very nature usually have delays before a loco moves off. I have some sound locos (ESU Loksound) where the sounds run through a set routine for perhaps 20 seconds or so before the loco starts to move.

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There is an easy way to check this. Send an F1 command to turn the running engine sound off. You should then find that the loco will respond to movement commands with very little delay.

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Use F1 to turn the sound back on again and the start delay returns. If this is what you observe, then that is normal.

[96RAF]

You would usually try a decoder reset - write value 5 to CV 8 for a sounds only reset or value 8 for a full decoder reset, which will put it back to address 3...

 

...unfortunately Select v1.5 cannot write to CVs, but you could try a controller reset per the v1.5 manual, which may/may not help.

 

One thing you should check is that loco zero is not active. Set loco address 0 and turn the speed knob up and back down again. The reason being DCC sends a special signal for operation of an analogue loco (loco zero) which can affect the signal to DCC locos.

 

As Chris said the way a TTS decoder plays sounds coupled with the Select not having a simple way of showing which sound functions are turned on means you can be trying to play a sound when another play once sound has played out but is hogging the channel. One way to fool the Select is give that loco a new address temporarily. If that fixes the problem then latent sounds playing may be a goodly part of the problem and you can work through all 29 sounds looking to see if any have been left on.

[96RAF]

Just to be clear about TTS how sounds work. There is background (engine) noise, and play once (spot) sounds as well as looped (on/off) sounds, but only two channels to play them on.

 

As Chris said channel 1 is reserved for the basic background engine noise (steam or diesel). Channel 2 can only play one other sound at a time, either play once (spot) or looped (play until turned off) sounds. If a looped sound is playing and a spot sound is selected the looped sound will be interrupted until the other sound has played out whereupon the looped sound will continue. If you select a looped sound whilst a looped sound is playing the second one will interrupt the first until turned off. What you cannot do is stack say half a dozen spot sounds and expect them to play in order as by the time one had played out through the speaker the others in the stack would have played out to themselves. Channel 2 would then be choked.

 

The exception to this is the Vent Van (VV) which is effectively triple channel TTS hence you can play any three sounds together, be they looped, random looped or play once sounds. As it is easy to get in a muddle, especially with a controller like the Select which has no immediate screen indication of which channels are currently on, the VV rings a bell when you command the third sound as a reminder that you are at the limit. VV has some very long spot sounds that can take up to 30 seconds to play out and this is where Chris’s caution about waiting for play out time becomes much more important.

 

You can also get in a muddle if RM skips an On/Off TTS command and you get a sound coming on when it should be going off and vice-versa.

 

Hust to add to the confusion -  take note that if using a Select controller  you have to manually command a sound off again, even a spot sound, but if using RM it sends the off command automatically to reset that sound function control. The Elite can be used manually as a spot or on/off command depending upon how you press the button - short press for toggle on/off or long press to make it momentary i.e. like a press to make switch. Select controller does hot have this facility.

[Chrissaf]

Just to make something that Rob wrote crystal clear:

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Rob wrote:

Just to add to the confusion -  take note that if using a Select controller, you have to manually command a sound off again, even a spot sound.

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So let's say for example F2 plays a 'Horn' spot sound. With the Select, you send an F2 to play the 'Horn' once. Once the 'Horn' sound has finished, you have to send the F2 command again to release the channel for the next sound. So to play the 'Horn' sound twice consecutively you would actually send the F2 command four times.

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First F2 'Horn' sounds, second F2 to clear the channel, third F2 'Horn' sounds again, fourth F2 to clear the channel.