I got my first Blunami project onto the layout last night, an older PS2 era MTH H10:
I really enjoyed the whole process and I think this board is amazing. I am not running any DCC hardware on my layout, just using the app on some Apple devices.
A few things:
- Bluetooth range doesn't seem to be an issue even with the diecast tender. There was really nothing special about the way I mounted the board, it's just a few mm off the tender floor. I could control the engine reliably from opposite ends of my layout (~36' feet long at its longest).
- Speed control is very much like ERR using BEMF technology. I have yet to set up a speed table for max speed limit. Speed curve is linear. There are some accel, decel, and braking settings to play with. I only have some nominal accel/decel values entered right now, will play with it some more.
- Chuffing seems pretty easy to set up but I am a bit suspicious that the rate increases at higher speeds, speeds which I wouldn't normally run at anyway. Not sure this will be an issue after I get some time to play with the speed tables. I did 'calibrate' the DDE. There are cutoff CVs one can play with and rod clank. That's what you're hearing in the video above.
- PRR whistles are on point. They really only had two anyway but trying to get those for TMCC upgrades/mods means you have to be pretty savvy about hunting for vintage RS4 boards.
- Supply voltage turned out to be a non-issue. I set up a 10amp bridge rectifier with a 470uF cap (what I had on hand) across my nominal ~18VAC track power. The Blunami app was showing ~22-23VDC during the course of operation. I verified this readout on the bench during the install and found it to be very close/close enough. I got some cheap buck/boost boards and went as far as making printed mounts for them but probably won't bother since I feel I'm below the 27VDC max limit.
- Lighting is all LED, 3mm ones for the headlight and backup light, 0402 SMDs for the markers and class lights, cab light and firebox. I used 3.3K resistors for the 3mm LEDS, and 5.8K for the SMDs. These gave me a good baseline brightness at 16-18VAC track voltage. Lighting outputs are supposed to be floated about 1.5VDC so all lighting is isolated.
There is a lot of play value in these boards that's for sure. For those that like to explore and experiment there is a lot to check out. I am only using the app and just accessing the easy CVs with the sliders, etc. You can adjust every sound for volume and reverb and there are some EQ settings too. The price is pretty good considering a full ERR setup is getting close to $300 and your sound choices are limited.
