Moonglum Posted January 25, 2020 Share Posted January 25, 2020 I bought an Oxford Rail N7 from Rails of Sheffield that would lose the chuffing sound after about 30 seconds of running. They replaced the locomotive but the that one did exactly the same with the addition of a sound like a high pitched bee taking its place. I sent that back and spoke to the engineer whilst he was running it on their track. Apparently it was working perfectly normally and he had been running it for about 30 minutes. It was returned to me but....it did exactly the same only the high pitched buzzing noise was more intense.I am using railmaster with an e-link. It is up to date as I know it uploaded new software a couple of weeks ago. The locomotive uses a Loksound 4 decoder (ready installed). Is it possible that there is another reason for the problem, software incompatiblilty or something, other than a faulty decoder because it works perfectly on their layout. It would be useful to have some ideas before I contact them again on Monday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 RM can only be considerred up to date if you downloaded today and every day. This will catch unaanounced updates which may fix glitches or simply add more locos or decoders to the database. ESU v 4.0 decoders are supported. You can check this by reading CV7 and 8 in RM. if you right click CV7 it will also be in the drop down list. The sounds you are hearing may be the way the decoderis set up but I would have expected the Rails repairs tech to have spotted that. You could try a decoder reset per the decoder manual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglum Posted January 26, 2020 Author Share Posted January 26, 2020 The engineer would certainly have noticed this because the normal chuffing sounds go completely and a continuous, fairly high pitched, whine takes their place all the time the locomotive is running. The thing that I don't understand is that it works normally on their track but not on mine. I would have expected the same results on both tracks.I have made no changes to the decoder, just set it up on the database and ran it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Moonglum,In one of your previous posts you wrote (screen capture image below)./media/tinymce_upload/8ccd9122351338349fce2205b27d7203.jpg.If you still have the capacitor fitted in the 'power track' that you wrote about in the above post. Then be aware that the capacitor MUST be removed when being used on a DCC controlled layout. The capacitor interferes and distorts the data commands sent to the loco decoder in the DCC track signal. This may possibly account for why your loco runs fine on the shop layout but not yours..The R8206 and R602 power tracks & clips, plus the R8201 link wires ALL contain the capacitors and are designed for DC Analogue use. On DCC layouts you are supposed to use the R8241 and R8242 power track / clip products (or better still, directly attached soldered wires). The R8206, R602 & R8201 products can be made 'DCC friendly' by removing the factory fitted capacitors../media/tinymce_upload/d9b10f4ba5c095fcde6e7a4e267cf58b.jpg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglum Posted January 26, 2020 Author Share Posted January 26, 2020 I had taken your advice from your original post and soldered the wires to the rails so there are no capacitors involved. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jane1707819582 Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Could your rail master software be trying to play too many sounds at the same time therefore clipping the sounds . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 I suspect that you have not got the text "on/off" on the F1 button label in RailMaster..If the 'on/off' text is missing, the sound plays only once then turns off. The chuffing sound might be a 30 second loop, thus the play once sequence lasts 30 seconds..In RailMaster any sound that is supposed to play continually until 'you the operator' chooses to turn it off, MUST have the text "on/off" (without the "quote" marks) on the button label (see example image below). Else the sound only plays once and then stops../media/tinymce_upload/921783e0112d7e0541a26ffee1ae5ac3.jpg.If the "on/off" text is missing. Edit the button label in the 'Locomotive Settings' screen for this particular loco to add the "on/off" text..This is all explained in this 'How To' thread.https://www.hornby.com/uk-en/forum/post/view/topic_id/19619/?p=2.PS - Why the high pitched buzzing....I have no idea.....I have 7 x Loksound V4 decoders on my layout and never have a problem with them using RailMaster & Elite as my controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglum Posted January 26, 2020 Author Share Posted January 26, 2020 The sound on/off is set up for F1. I have just done a quick video to record the sound and uploaded it to Youtube. The link is The whining starts just as the chuffing begins to drop off. it is a bit noisy as I haven't started the underlay yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jane1707819582 Posted January 26, 2020 Share Posted January 26, 2020 Try altering cv249 by a value of 20 .Does it do anything ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglum Posted January 27, 2020 Author Share Posted January 27, 2020 Jane2 I changed cv249 but it made no difference. I have since spoken to the engineer at rails, and let him hear the loco running. I am returning the N7 as he cannot explain it either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissaf Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 In your video....can't be sure because of the lack of lighting and the video was near pitch black....but I had the distinct impression that when the loco was whining the loco was running around the track at speed..When tested in the shop, maybe they tested it at a more realistic sedate pace.....hence why they didn't get the same results you got.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted January 27, 2020 Share Posted January 27, 2020 Just watched the video, loco isn't going very fast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonglum Posted January 29, 2020 Author Share Posted January 29, 2020 I was only trying to catch the sound so not focusing the camera. It was going at about half speed I think. Certainly not full speed.I have returned it now which was the advice of the Rails engineer. Listening to it running, over the phone, he thought possibly the motor but couldn't really tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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