New BLI Challenger

[spookshow]

Wow, these things have been out for at least a couple of weeks now and no comments yet? I'm stunned.

FWIW, I got mine a couple of days ago and am seriously impressed so far.

-Mark

[KSTXFLID]

Please elaborate. To be honest I didn't even know these were being offered. 3985 having a special place in my heart got my attention.
I don't generally pay attention to steam but the upcoming Northern's and now this Challenger have sorta lit the fire box. 

[skeeter1024]

I got mine a few days ago, #3711, one of the stealth runs. This was a bit of an experiment and now I don't think I would do another stealth engine approach, just would get the full blown DCC install.  At my age I have discovered I have lost of a lot of dexterity when comes to disassembly, installation and reassembly.  Its a beautiful engine, runs smoothly in stealth and DCC mode, with a lot of heft. For comparison I have the Athearn version, #3710 and prefer the BLI version, seems a bit more robust. Both now have Tsunami2 sound.

Mark

[spookshow]

Mine (a DCC-Sound equipped version) defeated the Spookshow Ultimate Torture Test like it was walk in the park - I took it out of the box, put it on some seriously dirty track, set the throttle to speed step 1 and then turned it loose. And it proceeded to chuff along one-tie-at-a-time without a single hitch for 24 hours. Now that's impressive! 

-Mark

[peteski]

That is seriously impressive for BLI Paragon 4 (or any version for that matter) decoder. Yes, the model has lots of wheels to pick up power but I wonder if BLI added some real keep-alive circuit in there.

[spookshow]

That is seriously impressive for BLI Paragon 4 (or any version for that matter) decoder. Yes, the model has lots of wheels to pick up power but I wonder if BLI added some real keep-alive circuit in there.

I have to assume there is some monster-sized keep alive going on in there, but I won't know for sure until I start yanking shells.

-Mark

[Chris333]

How do we buy before the Spookshow review? 

[ATSF_Ron]

I wouldn't mind seeing an NP version on the next run.  My Athearn is nicely detailed but not a massive puller for an articulated.  Then again, my trains aren't usually more than 15-20 cars on my smaller layout.

ATSF_Ron

[reinhardtjh]

Wow, these things have been out for at least a couple of weeks now and no comments yet? I'm stunned.

FWIW, I got mine a couple of days ago and am seriously impressed so far.

-Mark

My Stealth version is due here in DWF tomorrow.  It went straight from Walthers, to my dealer in Cincy to me.  BLI claimed they were shipped around Feb 28th but I've only recently seen them listed in places like Lombard and HOGtrainZ. 

Mine (a DCC-Sound equipped version) defeated the Spookshow Ultimate Torture Test like it was walk in the park - I took it out of the box, put it on some seriously dirty track, set the throttle to speed step 1 and then turned it loose. And it proceeded to chuff along one-tie-at-a-time without a single hitch for 24 hours. Now that's impressive! 

-Mark

I'm glad you aren't having the usual start/slow down/stop problem.  Though I got a stealth version because I'm putting an ESU 58928 Next18 Nano in mine.

[jbonkowski]

I have to assume there is some monster-sized keep alive going on in there, but I won't know for sure until I start yanking shells.

-Mark

BLI has definitely done something significant to improve their decoders, which I assume involves keep alive capacitors but could in addition be improved chip/PCB design.

I fixed several engines (early runs back when they were called PCM) by replacing the decoder with a different brand, so the problems were more complicated than just poor pickup.

But those days are gone. I have a few of their latest heavy Mikados and they run great.

It's sad it took them like 15 years to fix the issues, but today they are some of the best N scale available. I'm sure there are plenty of people who will never forgive them for all of the previous problems.

Jim

[peteski]

Every time there was slightest power drop Paragon decoders used to "reboot" which took a long time.   They probably rewrote their internal programming (firmware) to do faster reintialization and also added some capacitors to ride out very short dropouts.

But they still do not get along with some DCC systems in service mode programming, and they have very strange and cryptic configuration (which I never really fully comprehended). I'm much happier with ESU and ZIMO decoders. They are pretty reliable and have very flexible programming (and also means to update their firmware and reinstall sound projects).  With BLI Stealth versions there is no need for me to ever use Paragon decoders.

[wmcbride]

I thought the big change from Paragon 3 to the current Paragon 4 decoders was the addition of capacitors for "keep alive" capabilities.

I wonder, on the stealth version, if there are capacitors still in place on the board or if they are integral with, and only on, the Paragon 4 sound board.

[peteski]

I thought the big change from Paragon 3 to the current Paragon 4 decoders was the addition of capacitors for "keep alive" capabilities.

I wonder, on the stealth version, if there are capacitors still in place on the board or if they are integral with, and only on, the Paragon 4 sound board.

From what I remember from a thread about then new Paragon 4 and how much better it was, that was before Stealth and all the capacitors (which there weren't all that many) were on the decoder.  There is also no universal way to add caps on the Next18 adapter to be compatible with every Next18 decoder out there.

When equipped with Paragon 4 the model does not have the Next18 adapter. Paragon 4 replaces the Stealth Next18 adapter board.

[wmcbride]

From what I remember from a thread about then new Paragon 4 and how much better it was, that was before Stealth and all the capacitors (which there weren't all that many) were on the decoder.  There is also no universal way to add caps on the Next18 adapter to be compatible with every Next18 decoder out there.

When equipped with Paragon 4 the model does not have the Next18 adapter. Paragon 4 replaces the Stealth Next18 adapter board.

Thanks; I had assumed as much (no capacitors on the Stealth board). For what it's worth to anyone, I posed the question to Gemini AI and it claims no capacitors on the Stealth boards in N scale.

[peteski]

Thanks; I had assumed as much (no capacitors on the Stealth board). For what it's worth to anyone, I posed the question to Gemini AI and it claims no capacitors on the Stealth boards in N scale.

Good to know that "peteski's intelligence" is as smart as Artificial Intelligence. I think . . .