Need LOKsound help

[LIRR]

I have my first LOKsound equipped loco, an Atlas U23b. I have 11 Bachmann units with their Sound value decoder. These are basic-prime mover, horn, bell and are just fine. But the LOKsound is of course superior, as it should be for more than twice the cost. Besides more and better sounds on the LOK, I’ve noticed some differences. All my Bachmanns started up (sounds) when I powered up the railroad. Not preferred as I can hear the units in a hidden staging yard on the other side of the wall. Also I heard units behind me On the other side of the aisle when switching the area i was working. The Atlas unit stays silent when I power up the railroad and has a nice start-up sequence when I select the unit and hit F8. But......once it’s powered up-idling on the engine track say- when I select it via select loc it goes quiet.

Is that normal? Can it be changed?

The Bachmann sound is constant.....

[LIRR]

It will also go quiet (df course) when shorted - going thru a closed switch....when I open the switch, it stays silent.

In this case the Bachmann sound will resume after the switch is opened, tho the head light will stay dark.....

[RBrodzinsky]

What DCC system are you using? It sounds as if the command station is sending an F8 Off command when you select the loco.  If you select the loco, turn F8 on and the loco goes through start up sequence, does it cut the sound off immediately as you increase the throttle, or is everything okay, and sound only cuts off if you reacquire the loco on the throttle.

To preserve function states across a power interruption, set bit 0 of CV122 to 1 (make CV122 an odd value)

[Maletrain]

I don't know if this is your problem, but I have had similar issues with some sound decoders.  Not all are programmed the same way.  For instance, ESU decoders seem to have F8 be both the startup and mute button, while Paragons seem to use F9 for startup/shutdown and F8 purely for mute.

What I have seen is that the status of the loco decoder and the status of the function key on the throttle get out of sink when I start some locos, so that hitting what I think is going to mute the loco will not do so until a second press, because the throttle is actually sending an "on" signal to a loco with a decoder that already has turned on the sound.  Or vice versa.  The problem seems to be that there is more than one way to turn on sound.  Just turning speed off zero will start sound in some locos.

Once I get the throttle and decoder coordinated, things seem to work as intended.  If you have a throttle or other device that will display the function status, check to see if you are having this mismatch of condition issue.

[LIRR]

system is an NCE Procab.  ...sound only cuts off when  I reacquire the loco on the throttle via: SELECT-LOCO

if I reacquire it via: RECALL, sound will stay constant

[RBrodzinsky]

That's the command station, then, resetting the status of F8 on the "SELECT-LOCO" command.   

[davefoxx]

That's the command station, then, resetting the status of F8 on the "SELECT-LOCO" command.

This makes sense to me, because I only use ESU decoders on my layout.  None exhibit the behavior that @LIRR is describing.  By the way, the LokSound decoders allow you to set whether the sounds come on automatically or not when the layout is powered up.  I control mine manually, so I don't have several locomotives all powering up at the same time.

DFF

[Maletrain]

Yes, I can reproduce the symptoms on my Power Cab with an ESU decoder version 151 255 in a Scale Trains in a GE C44-9W.

Basically, the ESU decoder doesn't just mute and unmute on the F8 function - instead, it goes through the whole simulated start-up and shutdown sound sequences to mute and unmute. 

So, when you first select a loco with the DCC system, it sets the loco's functions to defaults, which is no speed and no sound and no lights.  So, if the loco has already been run and has lights and sound on, they will probably get off signals, and that makes the ESU sound decoders go through the shutdown sounds.  On the other hand, if the DCC system already has the loco in its memory with some parameters set to other than default parameters, those are recognized on "recall" and it will not set things back to defaults when you recall it.

So, when first starting a loco, use the "select loco" button and enter the number, so that it will be in the recall list.  Then, use the recalls to get back to it, rather than just enter the number again with "Select loco."  (It is possible to bring power up on my Power Cab and have the last operated loco number still in its memory, but not in its recall list,  So if I just start using it, then select another loco, I cannot get back to the initial loco without reselecting it.)

The annoying thing about the ESU programming for these decoders is that it get confusing to have start-up and shut-down sound (and motion delay) tied to the mute/unmute function.  And it depends on the loco speed when you push the F8 button.  If the loco speed is zero, the F8 button makes the startup or shutdown sequence play, and motion will not begin until the startup sound sequence has fully played out.  On the other hand, if the loco is muted and you change the speed from zero to some value, the loco will simply move, and if you push F8 while it is moving, sound will come on without the startup sequence playing. So, you can just start moving the loco before turning sound back on and avoid the delay of the startup sequence.

But, other decoders have other programming, so I get confused about what my various sound decoders are going to do when I use sound.  I have to keep in mind what decoder brand is in each loco.  And making consists out of locos with different brands of sound decoders gets complicated when some want to start moving while others are trying to sit still and make the prototype sounds that happen before a prototype loco would start to move.  I tend to only consist locos with the same brand and vintage of sound decoders.