KeithT
Hillwalking, chickens and - err - garden railways.
For nearly 2yrs I have been trying to get a suitable sound card for my Bachmann K27.
The first QSI card was a disaster as was an ESU alternative.
Last year QSI announced it was bringing out the QSI Titan which was to be a polyphonic materpiece. The only trouble was that the " 2 weeks to launch" claim went on and on and on and on ad nauseum.
I gather that finally they are out but appear to have sold out completely in the States.
In my wanderings to find about them on the mylargescale forum I have been sent an idiots mini-guide to DCC which I thought might be of help to others too.
" Just an explanation for people who might not be that familiar with DCC.
DCC works by storing information in "configuration variables" (CVs). Standard things--locomotive behaviors, sounds, lights--are assigned to specific CV numbers. For example, the locos rate of acceleration is set in CV 3, and its rate of deceleration in CV 4. If you set CV 3 to, say, 60, the loco will slowly accelerate. If you set it to zero, it will jump like a jackrabbit.
The more complicated the decoder, the more CVs you use, and in QSIs case, they started "indexing" cvs, so some cvs could have two or three values. It gets complicated to work with.
So people have come up with software that makes it easier. QSI offers a free program called "CV Manager," and there is also a free program called "Decoder Pro" available as part of JMRI.
These two pieces of software "talk" to the loco via a physical interface, a little box, that connects to your computer and then to the track. Put the loco on the track, open the software, and you can change cvs all day long, easily by means of simple check boxes and pull down menus. Instead of entering, say, CV 52.11.3 =15, you just move a little slider or click a radio button. Then you save the "file" for that loco, and off you go. I do it all the time, using Decoder Pro, which runs on Apples OSX.
To do any of this , you need that little interface box/dongle I mentioned. QSI makes one the QSI programmer. Digitrax makes one, the PR3. There's a cool one called the "Sprog." One of these boxes will run you between $50 and $150. You can program pretty much ny manufacturers decoder with a PR3, or the Sprog, or the QSI dongle. In my opinion, they are completely an totally worth it. I often change CVS on the fly, while the loco is running around the track, but it's just easier to have a file that records what you're doing, and lets you see the changes graphically.
BUT specific to QSI, if you bought a decoder, and you want to switch it from a steam sound to a diesel sound, or vice versa, you specifically need to have QSI's little programming dongle. Supposedly, QSI is now storing ALL loco files on the titan, and you can change sounds by just entering cvs. I briefly tried and could not get it to work. As far as I know, for now, If you want to modify the sound file--like switch horns, or bells, or etc--you need to have the QSI programming dongle.
It's the same dealio with other manufacturers sound decoders. For example, if I want to change the sound files on an ESU decoder, not just tweak the volumes, I need ESU's programming dongle.
But you can get a QSI titan for aristo, plug it into the aristo socket, and if aristo didn't mess up the wiring of the socket, start running right away."
[style="color: #993300;"]I still don't know if any cards have found their way over the pond and if they have would i be wiser to wait for the second hopefully bug free batch?
The first QSI card was a disaster as was an ESU alternative.
Last year QSI announced it was bringing out the QSI Titan which was to be a polyphonic materpiece. The only trouble was that the " 2 weeks to launch" claim went on and on and on and on ad nauseum.
I gather that finally they are out but appear to have sold out completely in the States.
In my wanderings to find about them on the mylargescale forum I have been sent an idiots mini-guide to DCC which I thought might be of help to others too.
" Just an explanation for people who might not be that familiar with DCC.
DCC works by storing information in "configuration variables" (CVs). Standard things--locomotive behaviors, sounds, lights--are assigned to specific CV numbers. For example, the locos rate of acceleration is set in CV 3, and its rate of deceleration in CV 4. If you set CV 3 to, say, 60, the loco will slowly accelerate. If you set it to zero, it will jump like a jackrabbit.
The more complicated the decoder, the more CVs you use, and in QSIs case, they started "indexing" cvs, so some cvs could have two or three values. It gets complicated to work with.
So people have come up with software that makes it easier. QSI offers a free program called "CV Manager," and there is also a free program called "Decoder Pro" available as part of JMRI.
These two pieces of software "talk" to the loco via a physical interface, a little box, that connects to your computer and then to the track. Put the loco on the track, open the software, and you can change cvs all day long, easily by means of simple check boxes and pull down menus. Instead of entering, say, CV 52.11.3 =15, you just move a little slider or click a radio button. Then you save the "file" for that loco, and off you go. I do it all the time, using Decoder Pro, which runs on Apples OSX.
To do any of this , you need that little interface box/dongle I mentioned. QSI makes one the QSI programmer. Digitrax makes one, the PR3. There's a cool one called the "Sprog." One of these boxes will run you between $50 and $150. You can program pretty much ny manufacturers decoder with a PR3, or the Sprog, or the QSI dongle. In my opinion, they are completely an totally worth it. I often change CVS on the fly, while the loco is running around the track, but it's just easier to have a file that records what you're doing, and lets you see the changes graphically.
BUT specific to QSI, if you bought a decoder, and you want to switch it from a steam sound to a diesel sound, or vice versa, you specifically need to have QSI's little programming dongle. Supposedly, QSI is now storing ALL loco files on the titan, and you can change sounds by just entering cvs. I briefly tried and could not get it to work. As far as I know, for now, If you want to modify the sound file--like switch horns, or bells, or etc--you need to have the QSI programming dongle.
It's the same dealio with other manufacturers sound decoders. For example, if I want to change the sound files on an ESU decoder, not just tweak the volumes, I need ESU's programming dongle.
But you can get a QSI titan for aristo, plug it into the aristo socket, and if aristo didn't mess up the wiring of the socket, start running right away."
[style="color: #993300;"]I still don't know if any cards have found their way over the pond and if they have would i be wiser to wait for the second hopefully bug free batch?
