BRAWA RhB 108 - LOST SOME OF ITS SOUND

[TONYWARD50]

A few years ago I was fortunate to get one of these lovely, but delicate, locos.
At the time I could not afford the sound unit so opted for a Lenz Gold Maxi as this has the SUSI interface for sound, so making it easier when I eventually purchased the Brawa Sound Unit. Althoug this has worked well, for some reason part of the sounds have recently disappeared, e.g. part of the station announcement.

When I have connected the decoder to my Massoth unit for reading the CVs ( as I also need to tweak the decoder) the Mssoth is unable to read any CVs, but the loco responds to most of the Dimax functions.

Does this seem as though the decoder or sound module is faulty ?
If it is, can I reprogram or is it worth changing to another decoder/sound unit and can anyone suggest one that either replaces the SUSI interface or does not need it ?

Confused of Dorset

 

[Cliff George]

Hello Tony,

Did you turn the sound off while trying to read/program CVs? That usually helps.

One of my Lenz Gold Maxi's stopped being able to be programmed on the programming track but still worked on the Main (PoM), however you can't then change the loco address.

If you can get to program the units try first putting the sound unit back to its factory defaults, and if that doesn't help try the decoder.

If the above doesn't help I would open up the loco disconnect the sound module at the SUSI and see you can program the Lenz decoder like that.

Massoth have recently introduced their 'S' units which will connect to the SUSI. The only other manufacturer I know of is DIETZ. I've used the DIETZ units. As you probably know quite a few manufacturers now make combined driving decoder and sound units, and good one is the Massoth XLS. Compared with separate decoder and sound module the cost is very competitive now (unless of course you already have one of the combination). Massoth have lots of different sounds you can get programmed into them. I don't know if they have an RhB 108.

Hope that helps.

 

[TONYWARD50]

Thanks, Cliff. I will try that.
The sound unit is manufactured by Dietz.
I believe that Zimo may do a SUSI if they are still around.
I have used the Massoth XLS Decoders/Sound Units without any problems and may be tempted to go down this route.
The only thing is that it seems silly to pay out about £160 fto replace something which is 90% functional.
But that's my problem.
I will let you know how I get on.

Regards

 

[TONYWARD50]

Since writing the original post the sound unit seeems to have amind of its own and the sounds seem mixed up with each other and don't correspond to the press of the butrtons as they should - help!
As the Brawa has a pulsed smoke generator, would it be easy to connect this to a Massoth XLS which I know has the correct sound ?

 

[stockers]

Yes - the XLS has inputs for pulsed smoke.