[pepe007]

hi all,

i got the bachmann GBRF class 66 fitted with sound today. not much info came with the loco. what ever speed the loco is running at the sound does not change, it just ticks over. iam using a gaugemaster prodigy advance. all i have done is change the loco address and and lower the volume. i have tryed changing the speed steps, but with no luck.

any help would be great

thanks guys
francesco

 

[stmartins]

Have you tried press shift....then 1 ...wait a few seconds then 1 & it should all burst into life

 

[pepe007]

hi,
thanks for that, iam still at work so i will try that when i get home. do you know how many speed step sounds there should be. the sound of it ticking over sounds great but looks odd when its running round @ 60mph.

 

[stmartins]

I can't comment on diesel sounds as I only have steam but all my locos are set to 128 and as far as I am aware it does not have any bearing on the sound , but I could be wrong!!

 

[pepe007]

hi,

i called the shop and he gave me some more info. there is something wrong with the locos when they have been done. he told me to press f5 four times but iam still not happy with the sound. it sounds nothing like a class 66 there is not change in speed sound untill the train is at speed step 128 which is to fast for a class 66. i will be asking him for my £148 this monday, i will not be going down the road of dcc sound. very very poor.

 

[Brian Considine]

QUOTE (pepe007 @ 15 Feb 2009, 07:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>hi,

i called the shop and he gave me some more info. there is something wrong with the locos when they have been done. he told me to press f5 four times but iam still not happy with the sound. it sounds nothing like a class 66 there is not change in speed sound untill the train is at speed step 128 which is to fast for a class 66. i will be asking him for my £148 this monday, i will not be going down the road of dcc sound. very very poor.

Best course of action IMHO to send/take it back if there is a real problem with it - but don't let this experience put you off DCC sound.

 

[upnick]

QUOTE (Brian Considine @ 15 Feb 2009, 10:15) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Best course of action IMHO to send/take it back if there is a real problem with it - but don't let this experience put you off DCC sound.

I agree with Brian .... dont let this experience put you off sound .. the retailer should be able to help you and show you it working there in the shop, if your not happy ask for your money back.

 

[Piemanlarger]

there is a review in this months hronby mag that says the sound is all out with this loco and i know my local model shop had one returned due to poor sound.
Perhaps on this model the chips have been loaded poorly.
Mag review said changing cv did help alot, but its not what you should be having to do, bit like having to change the speaker on the duchess!

 

[alan p]

QUOTE (pepe007 @ 15 Feb 2009, 07:55) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>hi,

i called the shop and he gave me some more info. there is something wrong with the locos when they have been done. he told me to press f5 four times but iam still not happy with the sound. it sounds nothing like a class 66 there is not change in speed sound untill the train is at speed step 128 which is to fast for a class 66. i will be asking him for my £148 this monday, i will not be going down the road of dcc sound. very very poor.
You have just got a duff model. I have a class 37, 20 and a deltic with sound and there is nothing like it!!!

 

[a4pacific]

I bought the same loco (Class 66 GBRF) last week and I do not have any issue with it only the Bachmann leaftlet which came with it was a bit wrong, F5 and F6 are not notching up or down, but coupling and buffer sounds, F9 and F10 do not have any functions. The loco do have a habit of not changing sound when you change your speed too fast, what ever speed you do, let it run for a while and then next time you increase/decrease your speed, the sound will change. One thing I noticed though, when you stop the train, there is no braking squealing noise. If yours only change sound when you hit very high speed, try changing the CV 6 to a lower value.

 

[Robert Davies]

Could I just recommend resetting the loco to the factory defaults - Write 8 to CV8 and then switch the track power off then on again.

See if the loco behaves then and go from there.

If you want to do some experimentation, my CVs are:

CV2=1
CV3=30
CV4=20
CV5=42
CV6=10

To start, give it full throttle, the speed will build very gently, and the sound should change very markedly, when you get to the speed you need back the throttle off to around a quarter.

-Rob

 

[Richard Johnson]

***Beware about advising doing a factory reset. It should NOT be done to any sound decoder unless it is followed by a full re-loading of the original sound file via a lokprogrammer.

Each sound file has a different set of optimum settings for many, many CVs which affect the way that the sound works.... most of them are in the CV range between CV50 and CV199... not in the common motor control area... those very useful motor control CVs can be changed at will.

If you do a reset the chances of irrevocably damaging the way that the sound reacts are very high indeed.

It is clear that the sound chip in question needs to be worked on or reloaded as the 66 sound file, although not wonderful, does usually react to engine speed properly. In the sace of a new loco with preloaded sound, it should be returned for a bit of TLC.

Richard

 

[Robert Davies]

Hello Richard, in *ALL* other cases *APART* from a Bachmann factory fitted decoder (ESU), I would agree that doing a factory reset of 8 into CV8 would be somewhat unwise. However Bachmann have taken it unto themselves to 'hard code' their chips with their (Bachmann's) values. In fact, it's what Bachmann recommend (factory reset) in their instruction leaflet supplied with the loco.... I'll see if I can retrieve one of mine from my err... 'geological' filing system to confirm (!)

On a related noted, Howes in the instruction leaflets supplied with their reblown decoders specifically say *NOT* to do a factory reset on their decoders, I suspect for the very reasons that you have intimated.

Bachmann, somewhat bizarrely, have made it very difficult to access the 66 chip's full 'repertoire' as it were, unless you make quite significant changes to the speed curve on the loco - it sounds like it is just revving highly all the way to speed step 126 with almost no change in engine note. Prior to making the changes that I related, I was somewhat disappointed with my 66's sound.... to say the least! Now, however I believe it to be a very reasonable rendition, especially as I lived lineside to the 1:1 scale beastie for several years after their introduction.

-Rob

 

[railstimulator]

The Bachmann Branchline info sheet that comes with a DCC Sound Onboard Loco says the following.
'Decoder reset'
The values can be reset to the defaults as above (CV table) by writing 08 to CV8. Please note that for best performance the LOCO may have been shipped with values that are not decoder defaults. The sound samples are NOT affected by the decoder reset'

The Howes sheet that comes with their sound chip says
IMPORTANT WARNING.
CV08 is an ESU factory reset. Changing this setting resets the decoder to its factory settings. If this function is reset you will LOSE the CV settings installed by us to drive this loco correctly

My Class 20 sound was not impressive when originally bought and I had it re-blown by Howes.

To ensure that if I have a further problem I will not be caught out I read back the values from the decoder and noted them in the ESU User Manual CV listings.

As an example of differences for CLASS 20
The Bachmann number/value is the left, Howes is the middle & ESU the right

CV2 3/2/3
CV3 8/30/8
CV4 6/11/6
CV5 64/51/64
CV6 22/21/22
CV53 56/50/56
CV64 NA/2/7

CV64 Is brake squeal threshold & can be between 0 - 64 the higher the value the sooner it will start. If 0, it sounds when the loco has stopped. I note that the Bachman sound file for this was more effective than the Howes, however the squeal can still be heard.

 

[Richard Johnson]

***I stand corrected... thanks for the added info.

A shame they make it harder to redo things but probably sensible as an RTR item I guess. It will still be able to be reloaded with new firmware to restore original defaults and reload it though, as RS mentioned

(I agree re the Bachmann 20 file - bloomin annoying sound set wasn't it!)

Richard

 

[Nthusiast]

I just receive the 66 blue lightning with sound decoder and also cannot get any brake squeal even playing around with CV64 through the range. Rest is all good. Is this just my decoder that is bad or is there no brake squeal???

 

[Brian Considine]

To get the brake squeal to work on all the ESU sound equiped locomotives I have you need to return the speed selected to zero quickly.

Hope this helps.