Train Mad1707822774 Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 After watching youtube videos I've been put off ordering this Loco what with the steam stopping and starting and a couple of complaints about it sounding tinny. I'd like to know what other owners think about the sound. However I've ordered it today with the 20% off costing £234.39 and around £23 in reward points. I think it's a bit of a bargain when you take the cost of the decoder being about £60 and whatever the steam generator would cost. I've heard or possibly read on here something about using deionised water, is that the best to use or does anyone have other ideas such as distilled or even tap water. Just wandering. I believe changing a CV setting from 65 to 60 will sort the intermittent steam I can't remember the CV number but I think it's 211 or maybe 212 I'll have to check that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 Definitely not tap water! Distilled, De-Ionised, or Reverse Osmosis (i.e. all types of purified & demineralised) water are ideal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColinB Posted July 29 Share Posted July 29 (edited) Mine worked perfectly straight out of the box. I even had to run it for twenty minutes to empty the reservoir before I put it away. No issues at all. My layout is 16 foot by 8 foot, so that is quite a run. I preordered mine at the cheaper price but it looks like you got it even cheaper. Edited July 29 by ColinB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 I'll get some De-Ionised water it's cheap enough before I try the Loco out. Fingers crossed hopefully mine will work correctly without me having to change any CV settings. I'll let you know how I get on, probably be a day or two before it arrives and then I might not try it straight away. Thanks for your recommendations for the water and thanks for the encouragement it's nice to know that not everyone has had problems with this Loco. Much appreciated thanks again. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 On 29/07/2024 at 22:55, ColinB said: Mine worked perfectly straight out of the box. I even had to run it for twenty minutes to empty the reservoir before I put it away. No issues at all. My layout is 16 foot by 8 foot, so that is quite a run. I preordered mine at the cheaper price but it looks like you got it even cheaper. My Loco will arrive today. I'm just wandering what you did on receiving yours. A lot of people have had problems with the smoke from what I can tell. If you can let me know I would be very grateful for that. I think you must have done something different or maybe you were just lucky. I've had a look and can't seem to find the instructions or service sheet on Hornbys website, I do realise there will be instructions in the box, so if I don't hear I'll just follow that. Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 As the wick is dry out of the box, you need to add the recommended water, leave it to soak for a while, then top up some more. It should work then. Same thing applies if the loco has stood out of use for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 1 Share Posted August 1 1 hour ago, 96RAF said: As the wick is dry out of the box, you need to add the recommended water, leave it to soak for a while, then top up some more. It should work then. Same thing applies if the loco has stood out of use for a while. I'll do what you have suggested. Many thanks it really is appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Fred Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 (edited) Oh Dear!!!, been running half an hour, and still no "smoke". Followed the instruction, 3 mil of water and added 1 mil after quarter hour, but still nothing. Everything else is working well, no problems on that "rise" and no problems on bends. Just a question, the temperature in the train room is 14 degrees, could that affect the production of steam. Edited August 3 by Aussie Fred Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 Room’s temperature will not affect as it isn’t actually steam but merely mist. You do need to ensure enough water & this does seem variable model to model. Also there are a couple of CVs that can be altered to increase/decrease the quantity of mist produced - check the instructions, they should be mentioned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesXRN Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Mine is being run in on an oval as I type. The steam does stop now and again but restarts after a couple of minutes. I might have to resort to altering the CV's Another thing is when I switch from my Digitrax to the phone Bluetooth, the sound cuts out. If I go back to the Digitrax, the sound comes back. Non of the functions show on the phone either, despite them showing when I had the loco on rollers the other day. Bizarre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesXRN Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 Well I unistalled the app and started again, although I did have to re-select the function names manually. All working now. My mate is bringing his new A4 round tomorrow which has been converted to steam by TLR. Be nice to see that going round the oval of track I've set up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 I really don't know if I'm expecting too much but to my ears it doesn't sound good at all, a bit like you get when using sandpaper. I have used the TXS 21 pin decoder in two Hornby Dublo A4s and they sound so much better, they are in a different league. I can only assume it's because the speaker is so small as was suggested by Little Wicket Railway on Youtube. I might try to fit a bigger speaker when I pluck up courage. I did have a problem with there being sound but no movement, this was rectified by separating the loco and tender then reconnecting as I think someone else on here mentioned. Regarding the steam it really was good to see but it didn't last long at all before the chimney got clogged up, this might be my fault I've possibly overfilled it. I'm going to try it out again in the morning see if the steam lasts longer, I might adjust the cv's as mentioned on here. I've no intention of returning it but so far I'm just a bit dissapointed, I definitely would be if I'd paid full price. I wandered if anyone as attempted to fit a bigger speaker or is it me perhaps I should lower my expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LTSR_NSE Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 Audio is obviously subjective but ‘sounding like sandpaper’ definitely appears to suggest a damaged or faulty speaker. Could you upload a video here? (so that others can either offer reassurance that loco audio is behaving correctly or confirm there is an issue with speaker.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LesXRN Posted August 3 Author Share Posted August 3 (edited) The sound is definitely not as good as I expected. It jumps from one acceleration sound to a different one as it accelerates. There's also a strange sound every few seconds that I can't work out. Edited August 3 by RDS Unacceptable language removed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 3 Share Posted August 3 I've done a little video. I don't think the speaker is faulty just doesn't sound very good to me. I do have quite a few sound equiped Loco's a mix of Loksound Zimo TTS and now TXS, in my view they all sound better than this. 20240803_235132.mp4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dBerriff Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 What global volume level have you set? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
96RAF Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 Have you got steam turned on. F1 invokes sound and steam initially but F24 toggles the steam on-off. Have you reloaded the sound profile, if so di you use the steam unit sound profile. Ref controller and app. These talk to the decoder quite separately so it is possible to have dcc control state quite different from app control state. I use this during testing to confirm the control switch has worked by having one with sound set and the other with lights set. You can even have different speeds and direction set twixt control modes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 I did have a problem installing the Loco with the app. It updated the bluetooth then something else and after that it asked if I wanted to import a sound profile and only gave me one option which it said was default, I selected it and I think that was a mistake. the Loco didn't respond and no sounds appeared in the app. I then turned everything off and had a break. After that the app offered the steam sound profile as an option so I selected that it took 45 minutes and then worked as it should but the steam didn't last long at all the chimney was clogged up, I then topped it up with 3ml of deionised water, I think that was another mistake because prior to that I had put 2ml in and I thought that had dried up as so much time had passed. Just before taking the video the steam was working but stopped before I could start recording. Regarding the global volume it is whatever the default is, I didn't think to change it do you think that could affect the quality. I will be trying the Loco again shortly. Thanks to both of you I'm very grateful for the help and suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bulleidboy Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 The loco came pre-loaded with sound. No need to load anything. Mine was up and running within a couple of minutes if being put on the track. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 18 minutes ago, Bulleidboy said: The loco came pre-loaded with sound. No need to load anything. Mine was up and running within a couple of minutes if being put on the track. I'll know next time. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 I've just tried the loco for half an hour or so. The steam is definitely working better than it was yesterday. I was thinking of topping it up because there was no steam when parked and I could see the chimney wasn't blocked but I thought I'd give it run first, it then started steaming again. The steam is lasting probably a couple of laps on my small layout yesterday it didn't manage one. I do think I must have overfilled it I can see small splashes on the smokebox near the chimney alco the chimney top looks wet. I was so surprised by the steam improvement on yesterday I forgot about the global volume. Will have to check that next. Going to have a brew now. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks again very grateful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom3624 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 By the sound of it, I would run 'light' (no carriages) on a moderate power loading - rolling road if you have one - and leave running for perhaps 15-20 minutes' time. It seems it it getting better with use. Or simply use as you would normally and wait for her to 'steam appropriately' in time. Al. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aussie Fred Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 " F1 invokes sound and steam initially but F24 toggles the steam on-off." According to the instructions which I always follow, (even though I am old and male) F24 is Aux 4 (HFO6) and is NOT a toggle? I did try it and nothing changed - I am using my Elite to control that particular line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Train Mad1707822774 Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 16 minutes ago, atom3624 said: By the sound of it, I would run 'light' (no carriages) on a moderate power loading - rolling road if you have one - and leave running for perhaps 15-20 minutes' time. It seems it it getting better with use. Or simply use as you would normally and wait for her to 'steam appropriately' in time. Al. I do intend to run it light as you've suggested until no steam appears for a good while maybe 20 minutes or so then I would think it's safe to assume the steam generator is empty and needs topping up, fingers crossed. Thank you for your suggestion it's appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Britannia Builder Posted August 4 Share Posted August 4 On 03/08/2024 at 10:17, Aussie Fred said: Oh Dear!!!, been running half an hour, and still no "smoke". Followed the instruction, 3 mil of water and added 1 mil after quarter hour, but still nothing. Try poking a twist of tissue down the chimney to clear any excess water. If that doesn't help, it's possible that you have the problem with the loco-tender connector that I and others have encountered. In my case it was the contacts for the chuff sensor, and for others it was the motor drive, but in your case it could be the contacts for the steam generator. Try disconnecting and reconnecting the tender and then gently pushing the loco and tender together and wiggling them around while stationary with the steam/sound on. If any of this produces a whiff of steam, the connector is probably faulty. Regards, John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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