DCC Sound Mightily Impressed

[GarH]

Have had a massive leap in the learning curve having rekindled my childhood interest in model railways back in November 2011 by installing a DC layout in my loft. then converting to DCC via Select a year later to see how I could cope and upgrading to eLink

 

and RM in the autumn 2013 and now purchasing my first DCC Sound Loco for my 6 year old grandson (and me of course) and must say I am mightily impressed with the result. Still a bit dubious of programming via eLink I used my Select to programme my 0-6-0 Class

 

08 Diesel loco and then switched to eLink and RM and WOW such a pity my 6 year old grandson wasn't with me to experience the effect first hand. Most of my locos are Diesel as the layout isn't too user friendly to anything other than the Class 08 and a BR 2

 

BIL Electric Unit and I thought I had snapped up a bargain with the Hornby Sale and the BR Diesel Electric Class 08 BR Green with DCC Sound at a snip with a £25.00 discount bonus only to be told that the Hornby Website had allowed several of us to order when

 

there wasn't sufficient stock - very upset but the competitor in Liverpool came up with the goods and the Railfreight version of the same loco at almost the same giveaway price - most impressed.

 

Anyway now got the bug and looking to increasing the locos

 

with DCC sound and assume I can convert my other DCC locos to sound as well without too much problem? Subject of course to some financial input by the rest of the family.

[Fishmanoz]

Glad it is working for you Gar. But take the plunge, try writing an ID with RM. All you have to do is have a separate piece of track connected to the programming output, then follow the instructions in the manual. Make sure you end by hitting the actual

 

Write command. And if it doesn't work, it will still be on the Select set address anyway. Give it a try.

 

Adding sound to your diesels shouldn't be a hassle. All you have to do in addition is mount a speaker somewhere. Probably a little harder in steam

 

as usually there will only be space in the tender so wiring has to be run between loco and tender.

[GarH]

Thanks Fishmanoz - I'll probably start by taking the DCC Sound Loco apart and look at what is involved before I think about converting any of my others - always a good starting point methinks but I'll wait to see what my grandson thinks, a good indicator

 

of what my next step should be - he's already operating the locos via RM without too much hassle and "What do I do next Gar?" Gar is his nickname for me as he could never say Granddad when he was learning to speak my real name is David just for the record.

 

I use his needs as a way to persuade grumpy granny to pursue my new rekindled hobby when the occasion arises if you know what I mean. Very theraputic - is that how it's spelt? Anyway still learning a lot of new things and glad it keeps the mind active.

[Graskie]

Don't handle the sound chip if you open your loco up, Gar, because you can damage it without static protection, or with grease etc from your fingers. Welcome to a great new world of model railway enhancement with sound.

[PJ_model_trains]

It is great to see people get excited about trains, with the introduction of sound and lights to locos and to our layouts they have 'come alive'

 

Wait till we get loco detection now that will be awesome.

[Bulleidboy]

I see from the interview with Simon Kohler in February Hornby magazine, that the new TwinTrack Sound Decoder, being an eight-pin decoder will in essence fit into any Hornby DCC Ready Model. If the demand is there the decoder will be available separately

 

- it has sixteen sounds. The only problem is likely to be that the decoders as produced, will offer (hopefully) the correct sounds for the loco they are fitted in. If they become available separately they may only have the sounds originally produced, so although

 

the decoder can be fitted to almost any loco, you may end up with a Jinty giving the sounds of an A4! I'm sure that could be sorted out. At £25ish (just the decoder), this should fly off the shelves.

[Graskie]

If you want sound, BB, take up my invite.

[GarH]

[reply]Graskie said:

 

Don't handle the sound chip if you open your loco up, Gar, because you can damage it without static protection, or with grease etc from your fingers. Welcome to a great new world of model railway enhancement with sound.

 

Thanks

 

for the reminder Graskie, don't worry me no touchy only looky at what is there not handle it without a static wrist strap or similar. Have previously managed to build a tower PC from scratch without damaging any circuit boards so well aware of damage that

 

could arise.

 

Presumably each sound chip has to be custom made to each loco? Or is it a lot simpler than that. An area I am definitely not well up on technically. May be able to put a sound file together on a PC but not sure how you go about adding sounds

 

- writing CV's I guess for generic sounds?

[GarH]

Have actually found what might be a very useful site for setting up and installing sound - very intriguing - http://www.dccconcepts.com/index_files/DCCsoundinstalltips.htm Now need to set aside a few hours of reading I guess?

[Graskie]

There are different sound decoders for different locos only in that you need micro ones for small locos and something like a Loksound or possibly one of the new Hornby ones (if suitable - we don't know yet) for the larger ones. You can buy these and attempt

 

to put sound files on them from scratch, apparently with the right kit, but I prefer to buy already sound-fitted locos or, in a few cases, to have sound fitted by one of the specialists in that area. You can search on-line for them to see what they have to

 

offer. Decoders can in fact be re-blown very cheaply by these people if you want better sound, and an existing sound file can be overwritten for another type of loco. Some sound files are based on samples from the real thing but others are generic, i.e. suitable

 

sounds for a specific loco are selected. Hope this helps.

[Fishmanoz]

Graskie has given a pretty good explanation. All chips are the same when manufactured containing memory to which the sound is added. It is inconceivable they be manufactured any other way (with sound on the as manufactured chip and unalterable) as the

 

cost would be horrendous. Almost all the manufacturing cost is in the design and setup, the items themselves are cheap as chips - haha.

 

And yes, doing the re blowing yourself is very simple if you have the hardware interface to talk to the decoder,

 

a very similar process to updating firmware in your Elite and we all know how to do that including the elinkers who've found it happens st the same time as RM updates are installed.

 

But that was then, what we don't know yet is how the TTS chips will

 

work in detail. It makes sense that they will use the same sound file formats, with the 16 sound limitation. We don't know if your existing interface will work or another is needed. Chances are we will in a few months.

[GarH]

Thanks guys, Graskie the wise old owl and Fishie pontificating on chips what a coupling - excuse the railway pun.

 

It's certainly very interesting times to rekindle or even take up the interest in model railways. Who would have thought all those

 

years ago when I had my first lantern battery powered Triang train set that I'd now be worrying about how to program a chip to add sound to a layout. Hopefully the strain on the old grey cells with all this new information will keep any of the old age symptoms

 

at bay at least for long enough to enjoy the hobby into my dotage.

 

The link I put on Fishie was for a company down your way in Oz land. Not sure of the exchange rate of Sterling with Aussie Dollars - chips might be cheap but we seem to need really deep

 

pockets to buy some of the sound stuff they advertise. Now I understand why there is such a difference between buying a DCC fitted and a DCC Fitted with Sound loco. But like most electronic gear it usually comes down in price eventually. I remember when it

 

cost an arm and a leg to upgrade RAM on a PC and now look at how much it costs and how much more you get for your money. So yes, let's wait and see what this TTS comes up with.

[Graskie]

Yes, many thanks, Fishy, for your rough translation of my posting into Australian.

[Fishmanoz]

Gar, I'm familiar with DCC Concepts and Richard who runs it is very knowledgable. The exchange rate is running around $1.60 or a little more to the £. Richard sells his stuff through a few UK suppliers to incl Liverpool. And I started with the lantern

 

battery arrangement too. Getting them to actually make contact was the biggest problem. It took half of Christmas Day before we got my first set working. I suspect the Uk I battery box and the Austrlain batteries were a little different.

 

And the accents

 

can be tricky can't they Graskie?