Lionel RS 4 , RS 5, chipset questions

I think there's a point with the RailSounds where the chuffs start blending together and don't sound as good.  I have my original Super-Chuffer demo locomotive, the RK Camelback that I put all the stuff into, I run it in R100 mode.  At around step 25-30, the chuffs are so close together it's hard to tell what they are.  It currently has the old RS4 Generic Steam sound board, that was before the new RailSounds Commander versions.

Nature of the beast.

I have two Kline Berkshire with RS4 boards I plan on getting 5.0 boards for.  So yes if you want to spend the money you can improve the sounds

So is there any difference in the 4.0 vs. 5.0 regarding the chuff rate?

Sidebar, I understand the 6.0 legacy is not a drop in upgrade...

Jim Harrington posted:

So is there any difference in the 4.0 vs. 5.0 regarding the chuff rate? Chuff rate is set up in the engine, mostly by a micro switch in older engines.  With that said RS4 boards were designed when most Lionel engines were only two chuff, that's why they don't sound good at speed when your engine is producing four chuffs per rev.

Sidebar, I understand the 6.0 legacy is not a drop in upgrade... correct

 

I have a k line berk also. Are the railsounds 5.0 boards a direct swap with the old rs4 sound boards? 

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

I have a k line berk also. Are the railsounds 5.0 boards a direct swap with the old rs4 sound boards? 

From what I've been told, yes.  

superwarp1 posted:

 With that said RS4 boards were designed when most Lionel engines were only two chuff, that's why they don't sound good at speed when your engine is producing four chuffs per rev.

 

 

 

So will the RS 5.0 have improved fidelity over the 4.0 at a faster chuff rate?

Jim Harrington posted:

superwarp1 posted:

 With that said RS4 boards were designed when most Lionel engines were only two chuff, that's why they don't sound good at speed when your engine is producing four chuffs per rev.

 

 

 

So will the RS 5.0 have improved fidelity over the 4.0 at a faster chuff rate?

Yes, and why your at it change the speaker out for a better one.

I have a few of these to do...

Is there any sampling/audio available for the different sound sets?

Is a RS 5.5 board a plug and play replacement for a RS 4.0?

You can use anything up to the RS 5.5 board in the socket for the RS4 board.  RS 5.0 and RS 5.5 use the same hardware, just different firmware in the plug-in chips.  The RS6 board is a different design, and although it will sort of work with some sound motherboards, it apparently also blows up in the Lionel Powered Motherboard.  It also doesn't function properly in any case, so I'd leave them alone.  I got lucky in my testing, I didn't blow mine up, but it didn't work 100%, so it's not a viable replacement.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

You can use anything up to the RS 5.5 board in the socket for the RS4 board.  

Just to clarify - Anything up to and including 5.5?

Yep, the hardware is compatible through the 5.5 board.  RS 5.5 is actually the RS5 board with different firmware.

What 5.5 audio steam sound board would you choose for this engine? That is if lionel has it in stock. Also anything else needed if one were to add a fatboy or err speaker? Thanks.

Looks like my engines not done after all. Maybe a fandriven smoke unit with grj supercuffer. Thats down the road though. The mechanical one works surprisingly well on this model. Just does not hold much fluid so you have to be carfull with it. 

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep, the hardware is compatible through the 5.5 board.  RS 5.5 is actually the RS5 board with different firmware.

A 5.5 board with a TMCC board won't give you quilling whistle though, correct? 

You'll never have quilling whistle with TMCC control, that requires Legacy hardware.  As for the RS 5.5 board to use, you need to look at what Lionel has available and pick from that list.  Most folks try to get the whistle as close as possible to the prototype, but that's certainly not mandatory.

Just went to the lionel web site. I am not typing in the correct name for the rs boards.in the search box. What do you type in to find the various rs boards to get the list to vome up? Thanks 1

Lionel Search for RS5 and RS5.5 Boards.

Wondering if Lionel will have another 50% off parts sale?  I'm in no rush to swap sound boards as I have way to many projects to do anyway

Omg thanks john your a time saver. 

Most of the 5.0 and 5.5 boards have the engine road # specific anouncement call out correct. Lionel droped this feature with the newer legacy right? Guess one could over look this part of the dialogue. The 5.5 763 berk one looks like it maybe would be a good canidate to drop in this engine. What do you guys think?

Many, if not most, will have road # specific announcements.

Unfortunately, not prototypical...

Dispatchers/crew typically correspond by train #. 

But...  most RR's did not have radio in equipment until the late 50's.  So, much of the steam that is modeled may have never seen radio anyway.

That's the good news Jim, since they didn't have radios, just don't use those two buttons on the remote and the # specific chatter is not a problem.

Kinda how I was rationalizing  it myself!

As @ericstrains.com said, if you don't like the CrewTalk, you don't have to use it. I guess the generic CrewTalk isn't always a bad thing after all.

When I upgraded my conventional Lionel Southern Mikado, I opted for the S gauge Pennsylvania Mikado 5.0 sound board, which had a whistle that sounded very close to the real 4501. Ironically, the 5.0 board for the S gauge 4501 Mikado had a whistle that didn't sound close to it at all really... :/