Powered or Dummy B Units?

I like having both the A and B units powered, without a tether.  If a powered B unit is going to cost as much as a powered A unit, it should also have the same electronics and speaker and have the ability to run without a tether.

I also think the drawbar is an excellent idea.

Bob

With the drawbar I'd still like to see only the B units powered.  Use a stump puller motor and all 8 axles of both the A and B can be powered through a universal and this gives lots of room for speakers in both units (using the stereo of the QSI decoder for 2-rail) and electronics in the A unit.

Dave,

your suggestion would require the decoder's source code to differentiate between speaker outputs, which I don't recall the QSI titan or it's clone is able to do, and may require a code rewrite. Doable, but probable?

Powered A and Powered B.  I too pull no more than 14 cars.  A 9 car PRR Broadway train is very very heavy.

Yes, that's encouraging to see. But are the clones built exactly to that design?

Is that screen shot a clip from your FP7's decoder? With no values shown may I assume no decoder is being read?

David and All,

I am not familiar with the DP3, but only the Q2Upgrade program. And there you can choose between many different horns that are preloaded in the sound rom file. I was able to find the speaker selection page. If it is a simple program update, then I can program each unit before they go into the FTs, ARGGG.. takes 10 minutes X 180 units, many hours.

Scott

I will ask them. They do also have a CV manager program, that probably does the same thing. I will go what ever route is more stable for the delivered product. Not good to send out 150 powered units that have glitches.

You see, if a QSI board becomes hung, and the customer uses the magnet to reset it, then the CVs will go back to the Default original programming selection. And most people probably would not be able to get the 2 speaker setup back the way it was set by a CV manager program.

Scott

There's your answer. Once again Scott proves he leads the hobby when it come to customer responsiveness.

The best and most realistic sound system I ever heard in a diesel wasn't even a sound system. It was the motor and gear noise from the ca 1950 Lionel toy train F-3's. Had a great natural growling noise. No false effects there. I am going back to 3 rail and just using those old Lionel F-3's. It just seems easier.

Scott, It's quite easy for QSI to change the factory (and reset) defaults to anything you wish.

All the current large scale QSI retail decoders are stereo capable by default.  You can even direct specific sounds out specific speakers and have reverb come out the other.

For my 2 cents I would like to see in the future the way the FT’s are listed now. The A’s come powered and the B’s have the option as powered or dummy. But the powered B’s should have full electronics and sound as the A’s.

My Western Pacific FP-7’s showed up today, the set that I wasn’t going to purchase because the B was not powered. But with the WP FP-7’s I luck out, most of the time when they were in service pulling the Zephyr they did run two F3B’s for the extra power. F3B’s I can get powered.