BLI paragon 4, what gives with no brake???

[TravelingCarpenter]

All,
   A friend has recently purchased 4 NW2’s with bli paragon 4 sound decoder. Said friend wants to run these with a proto throttle. After reading the snooze fest manual, yeah it makes the brake sounds but does not actually slow down the loco like ESU’s brake function does. I can program Esu chips all day long, the BLI chip not so much.
   I doubt he wants to drop 420$ on 4 lok sound v5 nano next 18 chips.

   There has got to be a way,, or maybe there is no way. BTW, I bought a stealth Milwaukee nw2, promptly installed an esu chip. I will say the paragon 4’s run nicely out of the box. 2 switchers and 24 cars, no problem.

  Thank you in advance for any help/insight

   TC

[reinhardtjh]

Find another friend that needs a LS 5 Next18 Nano then buy 5 @$95.54 at Streamlined Backshop, and take the 4 (or 5) Paragon4's and sell them for $15 to suckers other modelers that prefer BLI. 

Micro (won't fit - Thanks Tim!)
https://sbs4dcc.com/products/esu-58828-loksound-5-micro-nmra-dcc-sound-decoder-nem662-next18-integral-connector.html

Nano:
https://sbs4dcc.com/products/esu-58928-loksound-5-nano-nmra-dcc-sound-decoder-nem662-next18-integral-connector.html

[nstars]

Given that there is a good soundfile, I would go for the Zimo MS581N18 for the NW2. I wouldn‘t mind the slow speed running similar to the Kato NW2 

Marc

[kiwi_bnsf]

Find another friend that needs a LS 5 Next18 Nano then buy 5 @$95.54 at Streamlined Backshop, and take the 4 (or 5) Paragon4's and sell them for $15 to suckers other modelers that prefer BLI. 

https://sbs4dcc.com/products/esu-58828-loksound-5-micro-nmra-dcc-sound-decoder-nem662-next18-integral-connector.html

I concur with the recommendation for the Loksound Nano NEXT18. These have three different brakes that can be stacked for variable braking with the ProtoThrottle 

But please note that the correct link for the Nano at SBS4DCC is in fact the 58928 (not the 58828 — which is the Loksound Micro, which will not fit in the BLI NW2):

https://sbs4dcc.com/products/esu-58928-loksound-5-nano-nmra-dcc-sound-decoder-nem662-next18-integral-connector.html

Cheers

[jdcolombo]

There is a reason I've replaced every Paragon decoder (2, 3, 4) in all my BLI engines with LokSound.  This is one of them, but there are many.

The engines are great.  The decoders . . . not so much.  Your friend needs to bite the bullet, buy the ESU's, and then never buy a Paragon-equpped loco again (BLI now sells engines without decoders, though I don't know if the NW2 is available that way), unless he/she is OK with shelling out an extra $95 for an ESU replacement.

John C.

[peteski]

The entire idea of the E24 nano was for the decoder to be used as a daughter card on many different adapter boards (for N and H0). LokSound 5 (base E24) nano outline is 19.6mm x 8.5mm. I was wondering how ESU installed a Next18 connector on that board (board is not wide enough).

Looking at https://www.esu.eu/en/products/loksound/loksound-5-nano-dcc/ there are 4 versions of the nano.  There is the bare E24 nano (smallest of course), then two (wired and PluX16) use adapter boards with the bare E24 nano.  Then there is the Next18 version which looks nothing like the actual decoder ESU used to call nano.  It is not another  E24 to Next18 adapter. It is a completely different board. It is wider 15mm x 9.5mm (to accommodate the Next18 connector) and slightly shorter than the E24 nano.  At least that explains how they came out with a Next18 nano.

But it is not a LokSound 5 micro Next18 which is 21mmx10mm.  Interesting  . . .

BTW, SBS4DCC website has a wrong image shown for the Next18 nano. They show the standard E24 nano.

[TravelingCarpenter]

So the consensus is bli blows chunks. Got it.
Out of my 38 sound locos, there is nothing besides ESU.
ESU FOR THE WIN!
Friend said that the braking function is not important at this time. His choice.

Thank you for the input.

TC