Completed Key 4-6-6-4 project

[carlso]

I have owned this loco since 2000 and have spent a good 12-18 months re-furbishing it. New motor, NWSL sleeves on motor shaft, new NWSL u-joints connecting to worm shaft, new LED headlight, New LokSound 5 Micro DCC decoder and new speaker. Yes, I still have some tweaks to make but here it is on 1st shakedown run. I may have to re-do the wiring between boiler/tender.

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Any & all suggestions, for improvement, are welcome,

Carl


Obviously I am not a retired moviemaker! !

[up1950s]

Just wow , jaw dropping . Is that staccato synced to wheels , or is it just random ?

[Jbub]

Nice job!  I love that whistle. The loco looks like it runs really smooth but sync that chuf rate up. The sound is way slower than the engine was moving.  There are a couple of cv's you need to adjust but with it being an articulated it doesn't need to be dead on accurate.

[carlso]

Thanks guys for the comments.

The sound is adjusted with cv's in the decoder. As Jbub stated, I need to tweak the chuff some. Not real sure how to do that but I will try to read an ESU explanation for instructions. Oh yeah, I might as well read the funny papers.

Stay well,
Carl

[Jbub]

Here you go. It's actually really easy to do this even if the directions seem a little daunting.

13.3. Synchronising the steam chuff
To synchronise the steam chuff with the wheel revolutions, you
may use an external cam as described in chapter 6.11. However,
most users prefer not do such massive changes on their valuable
locomotives and prefer to use the automatic exhaust mode of the
LokSound 5 decoder. Because of the excellent Back-EMF function,
the synchronisation will be satisfying most users.
To enable this function (and disable any external cam at the same
time), CV 57 and CV 58 are used. All you need is a stop-watch
and a little time. It pays to spend some time in order to achive an
optimal result. Please make sure that the load control is perfectly
adjusted to your loco and set the maximum / mimimum speed
according to your wishes. After doing so, you should start to syn-
chronise the steam chuff.
In CV 57, the distance between two steam chuffs at the lowest
possible speed (at speed step 1) is defined. The unit of CV 57
is a multiple of 32 ms (Milliseconds). In CV 58, you need to give
the LokSound V.40 some information about the gearing of your
engine.
Please proceed as follows:
1. Put the engine onto the track and drive it with speed step 1
and switch the sound on.
2. Using the stop-watch, measure the time in seconds it takes the
driver to complete one turn at this speed.
3. Divide the time by 4 (assuming you are using a 2 cylinder or
4-cylinder locomotive)
4. Enter a rounded value without decimal point in CV 57. We
recommend to use POM to be able to observe the result imme-
diately.
5. Observe the locomotive thoroughly and check if there are now
produced too many steam chuffs per revolution. If needed, ad-
just the value of CV 57 gradually by increasing or decreasing
the value one by one.
6. If you are satisfied, increase the speed of your locomotive to
speed step 4 (of 28).
7. Try to observe, if still four steam chuffs per revolution can be
heard. If you find that there are too many steam chuffs, incre-
ase the value of CV 58 (defaults to 43). If they are too slow,
decrease the value of CV 58. This procedure will oaken the
gear factor of the LokSound decoder.
13.3.1. Minimum distance of steam chuffs
Quite small driving wheel diameters are likely to make the steam
chuffs sound very good at small and medium speeds; however
during high speed it sounds strangely distorted and ticked off. This
has often to do with an excessive terminal speed that isn´t prototy-
pical at all. The minimum distance, which two steam chuffs need
to have, can be set with the help of CV 249 to reach a satisfactory
sound. A unit of 1 ms allows a quite exact adjustment.
If you are still not satisfied with the sound during high speed, you
should increase CV 249 gradually while the sound is switched on,
until the sound gets more natural since the steam chuffs are set
further apart.

[jdcolombo]

Hi Carl.

to Jbub's post from the manual, I'd add the following.

It is a lot easier to sync the chuffs if you turn off the "secondary chuff" for articulated engines by setting CV250 to zero.  Make sure you know what the default value of CV250 is for your sound file before your do this, however.  Once you shut off the articulated sound, then you will have a standard 4 chuffs per driver rotation, and it's a lot easier to see the sync when there are 4 chuffs per rotation than when there are 8 spaced close together.

When you are done with the sync process, remember to re-set the value of CV250.

John C.

[Mike Madonna]

Nice work Carl!!
I believe that was a Nakamura built loco, so I'm sure it ran great on straight DC.
I second what John said regarding adjusting the "chuff rate". After installing LokSound in all my IM ACs, I used the
exact same procedure.

[carlso]

Yes Mike, this was built by Nakamura back in 1985 and although I have spent a couple of $ on it I am pleased with today's performance because I did the re-furbish and paint job myself. When I get it totally "dialed in ", I will be ecstatic. I have set cv250 to a value of "0" until I get the speed step #1 chuff and mid throttle set properly. I apologize for all the background noise. There are many tweaks to do!

Stay safe and above all stay well,
Carl

[Nato]

                  Yes, Wonderful work Carl. I have 3 of these early Nakamura Challengers, a Rio Grande, a Greyhound, and a black 3985. I have not done anything to them except run the heck out of them for many years at train shows in the eighties and early 90's.             Nate Goodman (Nato).

[carlso]

Here is, I promise, the last video of my 4-6-6-4 project. I am quite pleased as I followed Jbub's  and John Colombo's help on setting the sound. I think it has turned out very nice !

One thing I am bummed about is I can't make the crossing whistle work. Did ESU remove that from the V5 ?

 Not bad considering what I had to start with....................


It is completed ! ! !

Thanks for all comments and help,

Carl

[Mike Madonna]

Carl,
I think you "nailed it"!
Sounds great. Wondering what file you used since it's a V5 version decoder?

[mmagliaro]

Carl, I like the last video the best, because you can really see the low-speed smooth running that it's capable of. I've had these here for repairs and they are one of the most solid, good-running N Scale brass engines I've ever seen.  What motor did you put in it?  That Maxon I see in the last photo?  Or something else? 

[carlso]

Mike & Max,

Pardon me and I will answer both of your questions with one post. But first I thank you both for the comments, truly appreciated, coming from two masters such as you guys.

Mike:

Yes, it is an LS5 Micro DCC ,with wires, loaded with sound file #S0556 version #V2-R2. To be honest, I do not remember if the file is for Challenger or Big Boy. In the case of an N Scale loco I see no difference in the two sound files.

Max:

I totally agree with the fact that these are some of, if not the best, brass runners made. I bought it in 2000 and it was already 15 years old. It ran flawlessly DC analog. I think that I have it running nearly as well with DCC, I hope. The Maxon in the photo was dead, it wouldn't even hum. I bought a new one from www.nfpmotor.com, a China Company named "Need For Power Motors Co., Ltd.". They were good to do business with. I don't remember any of the specs, all I knew was based on their info it would fit in the chassis so I ordered it. I am happy with it. I did have to sleeve the motor shaft and add NWSL u-joints. BTW, it does not have a flywheel which I think shows the power of DCC decoders and patient tweaking. It is running very nicely at speed step 1, but for how long? BTW, this is the one I had contacted you about.

Thanks again for the nice comments.

Stay safe, stay well,
Carl

[carlso]

I have one very short YT video made yesterday. The sound levels are set for home running so in the old Quonset hut with background chatter it is hard to hear the articulation, but it is there. I had to turn off the swamp cooler too. I am happy with my effort, it has taken quite awhile.

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Stay well,
Carl

[u18b]

Hi Carl,

Please edit 2 posts up (because this thread lasts for years and someone may search and find it). 
You entered the url wrongly.

You used an R instead of an N.

I'm assuming you meant this company:
https://nfpmotor.com/

Interesting company.

By the way- I love your work.