BLI T1, dead again

[rrjim1]

   Does anyone else have this much trouble with BLI engines.    So far the three 2-8-2s are perfect runners but i'm sure i just now jinxed myself.

I have several BLI locos and have only replaced 1 decoder. It was still working but was the one that was in some of the AC6000 that had an incorrect part. Didn't cost me anything BLI sent me a new decoder and I installed it myself. I have only seen a couple posts were someone has had a problem but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of locos sold. I have a T1 and a friend of mine has one and runs it almost every day. It was still running great the last time I talked with her. I'm sure I would be the first to hear if it has a problem.   

[jdcolombo]

I have several BLI locos and have only replaced 1 decoder. It was still working but was the one that was in some of the AC6000 that had an incorrect part. Didn't cost me anything BLI sent me a new decoder and I installed it myself. I have only seen a couple posts were someone has had a problem but that's a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of locos sold. I have a T1 and a friend of mine has one and runs it almost every day. It was still running great the last time I talked with her. I'm sure I would be the first to hear if it has a problem.   

The Paragon 3 decoders I replaced in my BLI Mikes were working perfectly.  And indeed someone bought them from me to re-use in some older brass steam.  The problem for me is that the decoder options are flakey.  For example, there is no way to program the P3 so that the headlight stays on in both directions.  That's just nutty - every decoder I've used before the P3, from the cheapest Digitrax to the most expensive ESU LokSound, could easily reprogram F0 so that the headlight stayed on in both directions.  Similarly, I could never get the P3 to adequately match its chuff rate to actual driver rotation.  There should be EXACTLY 4 chuffs per driver rotation on a standard single-expansion steam loco with single cylinders on each side.  Not 8.  Not 5.  Not 4.5.  Four.

These details might not bother many people.  But they bother me.  And there is truly no reason for it - it's not like doing chuff matching or keeping a headlight on in both directions requires some secret, complex programming.  Like I said, ALL decoders I've seen other than the P3 can do the headlight; ESU, Zimo, Soundtraxx (Tsunami 2) and TCS (WOW) seem to have mastered chuff timing.  So why this seems to have escaped BLI when designing an all-new decoder mystifies me.

But to each his own.  For those that love the P3, by all means keep it. 

I don't love it.

As for the old P2, which I replaced in my BLI PA-1's, that was more an issue of it simply sounding much-inferior to ESU.  The Alco 244 prime mover had a very distinctive exhaust cadence.  Many people describe it as "bucket of bolts, bucket of bolts, bucket of bolts . . . "  The P2 decoders in my PA's didn't sound anything like this.  ESU's ALCo 244 prime mover file, recorded from an actual 244 prime mover (though admittedly a 12-cylinder, instead of a 16-cylinder), did.  And it had a nicer Wabco E2 horn, too.

Of course, the real solution to all this is for manufacturers to quit forcing us to buy a sound decoder (or for that matter, any decoder) we don't want.  Make your models DCC ready.  Let the buyer decide whether they want DCC at all, and if so, what decoder to use and whether to add sound.  If you want to sell a full-on sound version with your own decoder along side a DCC-ready version, fine.  Be Atlas, not Bachmann (or BLI).

John C.

[peteski]

John, while I agree with you 120%, I don't think that this idea will fly (at least for now).  Why?  You, me and only a small handful of modelers have the necessary skills and desire to tinker with installing decoders in N scale models.  I can guarantee to you that a great majority of modelers can't be bothered (or are afraid or unwilling) to roll-their-own decoder installs.   So, the factory installed DCC models sell quite well.

The problem is ease of install.  There are too many proprietary ways manufacturers install decoders.  Yes, this is slowly changing with standards like Next82 connector, but we are just in the beginning of the standarization revolution. And even Next18 connector is not 100% plug-n-play in all instances.  Sometimes a speaker needs to be added. What impedance?  4, 8, 16, 32 or 100 ohm?  There is no standard for that either.  Yes, 8 ohm is popular, but not with all the decoder manufacturers.

I feel that until the decoder interface and speaker impedance get standardized (if ever?), manufacturers will keep pon selling models with decoders pre-installed.

[propmeup1]

As mentioned above, the T1 broke, got fixed, broke , got fixed etc. Good fit for BLI decoders although they left out the wheel slip sound that Tsunami has in F14.    The same issue happened to one of my PAs, two E7s, one M1, centipedes multi times and two of my three T1s and twice for this one now.  My T1s have more mileage in postal service then they have on the rails.

[Altoona]

Does anybody have the pinout on the Paragon 3 decoder in the T1.
i will be replacing it with Tsunami decoder.

Judd Barton