Quote from: Kevin Strong on April 03, 2010, 06:19:20 PM

I installed spacers on the #1 and #4 axles to essentially eliminate the lateral movement on those two driver sets. That keeps the loco centered over the rails where it should be, while still allowing the center two sets of drivers to swing back and forth around curves as need be. It works just fine around my 5' radius curves with that set up.

K

Kevin
If you want to install spacers I recommend the 2nd and 4th and not the 1st and 4th.  The reason is that in a prototype locomotive the pilot actually guides the locomotive around curves.  In the model the pilot does not have enough locomotive weight and lateral force to accomplish this task.  The side to side springs in the main drivers will perform the same role. Locking the 2nd rather than the first will still allows the 1st driver to perform this guiding role.  The first K I got I performed this mode, the other three I left as they came from the factory.

Stan

Quote from: armorsmith on March 07, 2010, 11:45:18 PM
Stan,

Please re-read the original post, I believe Mudhen is referring to the incompatibility of the Bachmann optical chuff sensors with any of the sound cards on the market. I believe I have read several posts on other forums about cutting wires and adding diodes to accomplish proper operation.

Personally, I spoke to one hobby shop who told me to simply ignore the optical sensors, "they don't work" was his statement, and use magnets and reed switches on the tender axle.

If you have information on how to make a Pheonix sound card work directly with the optical chuff sensors, please share with the rest of us K27 owners.

Thanks

Bob C.

Bob

The K27 has a chuff on high output. While ESU and some of the others can accommodate this with no problem, most common sound boards on the market utilize chuff on ground.

Bachmann has several installations under product references/product manuals which show how to invert the chuff.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/k27.php?k27page=3

I found the simplest of these is described under the QSI Solutions link.  Basically it requires the installation of an inversion transistor which inverts the chuff high to a chuff on ground.  The RCS plug in board has this inversion built in so no additional modifications are required.

Several years back I made of video of 3 of my K27s pulling a long train up a grade.  All the locomotives in the video have Phoenix P5 sound boards and all are using the optical chuffs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-0iUbSXl2s

Hope that helps.

Stan Ames

Quote from: mudhen on March 06, 2010, 10:37:52 AM
This my be old hat to some of you, but I haven't read any way how to make this work.
Has Bachmann found a solution to the optical chuff sencers problem in the K-27 yet ?
I would like to have proper chuff quartering......barring that the only way I can think of is to cut the wires at the steam chests, and add the trigger magnet from Phoenix Sound to them, mounting them ( triggers ) onto the bottom of the firer box. then placing smaller magnets to the 4th drive axle in the proper 1/4 erring spots.
Any sud jestions on this topic, and hoping to he from Mr Bachmann on this.....Please !!!!! 

Perhaps I could clear up some of the confusion from your post.

Quartering refers to the drivers and how they are connected to the rods.  If a locomotives drivers are out of quarter the locomotive drivers will bind.
As far as I am aware the K27 is in perfect quarter.

I think what you are referring to is the locomotive square.  The square of a locomotive refers to the adjustment of the exhaust.  If a locomotive is in perfect square the locomotive will have cuffs that are perfectly in time and the volume of the chuff will be the same for all 4 chuffs.

Locomotives are generally only in square immediately after a  significant service and can get out of square rather quickly.  For example if you listen to a K36 at the beginning of the season it is close to being in square while the same locomotive at the end of a season will have a chuff way out of square.  I was surprised how far the OJ-49 I operated last year in Poland was.  It gave the locomotive a distinctive sound.

Most model locomotives have 4 chuff triggers on the same axle so the chuff is always even so there is no ability to adjust the chuff to get a unique sounding locomotive.  The Bachmann 2-6-6-2 for example will always have an even chuff because all 4 triggers are on a single axla.

The K27 and the Forney have two separate chuff triggers one in each Cylinder.  Chuffs 1 and 3 come from one side while chuffs 2 and 4 come from the other side.  For locomotives such as this you will need to adjust the triggers to get perfect square.  I tend to adjust some to be much further  out of square like the prototype so I can identify the locomotive by its sound.

The Forney has a very simple square adjustment.  You simply move the trigger a little forward or backward on one side.  The K27 takes a little more effort.  For the K27 you need to move the circuit board that has the trigger receiver a little forward or backward.  You can see the board if you remove the lower cylinder cover. 
On two of my K-27s I  found the board was  a very tight fit from the factory.

Hope that helps.

Stan Ames

To properly work the decoder must power the locomotive electronics.

Connect the Decoder + to the locomotive +.  Connect the decoder ground to the locomotive ground.

Connect the locomotive chuff trigger to the decoder trigger. 

Hope that helps.

Stan Ames

The inductors on the dummy board are used as part of the motor sound suppressant and from my experience can be bypassed with no ill effect.  If you burned one out simply wire around it.

The more interesting question is to figure out why one burned out.

If you really need a new one the best way is to ask if someone has a spare dummy board they are not using and simply replace the entire board.  You can use the dummy board that came from the K27, 2-6-6-2 or Forney for this purpose.

Anyone who removed the dummy board as part of an installation will have  one that you can use or perhaps Bachmann has the dummy board as a part (it is not yet listed on-line as a part)

But I would simply wire around both inductors if they are providing you a problem as that will likely solve your immediate problem.

Hope that helps

Stan Ames

Deb and I took a video of our new Forney this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIHwCF1wiOk

Shortly later we have a few feet of scale snow.  Time to go out and get a plow train to rescue the stranded forney and its train.

Happy New Year

Stan Ames

Cale

It appears from looking at various threads that some sets tend to uncouple and others do not.  It may be the tension of the hook against the loop or how level the track is.  There is a lot of movement of the hooks as you go around a curve.

In any case since I wish to use thise ourdoors on the layout, I have replaced the loop and hooks with knuckle couplers.

For a real simple replacement use the stock Bachmann couplers found on their 1:22.5 cars.  Many of us have these in our spare parts box.  On R1 curves the plastic spring that goes out from the coupler is a tad tight and it is hard to couple and prone to cause derailments on R1 curves.  I simply cut the spring off.   I can couple and uncouple on R1 curves and the cars track much better as well on R1 curves.

I put modigfied 830s on Thomas as he will see frequent work on the railroad as a switcher.

Hope that helps

Stan Ames

Nathan

I can not iminage track that would uncouple hook and loop couplers with hooks at both ends.  Amazing that Thomas stayed on the track.

We ran both Thomas and Percy at our show both day this weekend.  The kids really loved it.  Sat for a long time just watching two trains go round and round and round.

These trains should be a real hit.

Stan

Greg

If ever life was so simple.  For questions on the legacy of the socket please open a dialogue with Lewis at AristoCraft.  Alas up to the time that we all collectively defined the pin layout there was no consistent use from one locomotive to another.  Some locomotives did it one way some the other. Some manufacturers of after market products did it one way and some the other.  Thus there is no right and wrong just one way and the other.  And also in the past some pins have been used in various undocumted ways.  Such is life when evolving an existing design.

In cases of inconsistent use Lewis was provided the opertunity to define the use for the future.

Most now live with the inconsistencies which are well known to the designers.  QSI for example has tailored its sound files to the way the actual locomotive is wired. Aristocraft has a simple setting for the light and motor direction.

For the future indeed it would be beneficial for all to use a single industry wide concensus.  Till then I believe Bachmann will consistanntly use in its locomotives what the team came up with several years back.

Stan Ames

Greg

There is no mistake in design of the Bachmann locomotives in regards to headlight or motor direction.

AristoCraft, Bachmann Digitrax and QSI among others participated in the design of the socket specifications.  In regards to the headlights there was a disagreement on which pin should be which headlight.  Ultimately AristoCraft made the final decision on which pin should be for what headlight for future socket use.  Bachmann locomotives use that convention.   

All Bachmann locomotives with the socket have been consistent in this use.

The specifications which both Bachmann and AristoCraft approved are

http://www.tttrains.com/largescale/Topic%200707092%20Large%20Scale%20Plug-socket.pdf

The only subsequent change to this draft was to make the chuff pin active low rather then active high.  Tne K27 which was produced prior to this change has a chuff as active high.  All subsequent Bachmann locomotives with the socket use the chuff low convention.


Stan Ames

Quote from: Peter O on November 14, 2009, 10:29:20 PM
Stan, what is the correct config file for the QSI in the Mallet? I didn't see anything speciic to Bachmann on their download page.

Peter.

Peter

Good question.  I went to their site and could not find the sound file either.  Its one of their sounds but I am not sure which one.

Called Tony and he said it will be on their site and clearly labeled in the next few days.

Stan

The hardest part of the conversion is removing the boiler from the locomotive.  Lots of screws.

The DCC installation is simple.  Remove the two wires going to the motor and attach them to the decoders track input.  Install two new wires from the decoders motor output to the motor.

Connect the two headlight to the decoders front light and decoder +

Reinstall the boiler.

The existing sound unit is battery powered and will work as it did before.  You can also replace this with any other sound unit you desire.

Stan Ames

Has anyone found a good paint match for the Box Car Red used on the Pacific Coast 1:20.3 box cars.

Thanks

Stan Ames

Alas this particular QSI decoder does indeed not have support for functions other the front and rear headlight.

The best way to look at the switch is rather then

DCC, off, DC 

think of if it as

switched from the socket, off, on. 

Leaving the switch in the DC (or on) position simply turns that function on.  It does not matter if you are in DC/DCC/or RC.  If you want to the function to always be on set the switch to the DC position.



Kevin

The QSI decoder provides the user the ability to play with a ton of confugurations.

That is both a plus and a minus. The plus is that you can customize it to your hearts content.  The downside is that some feel that the ability to customize makes the product complex.

The QSI sound file not only provides unique sounds, it also configures the decoder to that particular locomotive.  This makes it much more plug and play and removes the need to perform any configuration changes.

If you desire to configure a decoder manually,  you can set CV29 bit 1 to switch the motor direction.  To switch the lights you can also remap the light functions using the function mappong table.

Stan Ames

The current QSI decoder only supports the front and real headlight functions.  The QSI decoder does not provide any connections  or support for extra functions.  When using the current QSI product you can only turn on and off the functions manually using the switches in the locomotive.

To achieve the proper direction and lighting with the QSI decoder you need to use the proper sound fille from QSI.  This is a software load on their part, if not correct then you need to talk to QSI solutions.

Stan Ames