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First let me be clear, I LOVE DCS and Protosound.  All my MTH locomotives (about 20) are PS2, so I have no experience with PS3 yet and maybe this issue was fixed in PS3.

Does anyone else have an issue with how the labored chuff effect works?  Being that the rocker switch on the DCS remote only activates the labored chuff as long as you hold it down and when you do that you cannot increase the speed of you locomotive, it seams pretty useless.  When a locomotive is getting started and ACCELERATING, that is when it is laboring the hardest.  When it gets up to speed it stops working so hard.  With the way the labored chuff switch works you cannot do this.  You have to release the labored chuff rocker switch to increase the speed and when you do that, the chuff goes back to normal chuff (but the locomotive should still be laboring to accelerate).

MTH, why not make the labored chuff effect switch toggle on and then toggle off so we can turn on the labored chuff while we accelerate and then turn it off once you get to running speed?  This would make the operation of this wonderful sound system so much more realistic!

Just asking, unless everyone is happy with a momentary labored chuff that goes back to normal every time you want to increase your speed, during acceration.

Please tell me if I'm the only one that has noticed this.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts, especially you guys at MTH.

Jon Henshey

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I commented to MTH about it back in 2002, hoping they would fix it in future software versions, but I guess not enough people complained about it.  I would think it would be a simple change in the software that just makes the effect stay on until you push the switch again to turn it off.

How about it MTH, would this be hard to change?

Jon

Hang on...  I think the rev up on a diesel does stay on . Put the engine at 0 SMPH and rev it . .. it actually revs up  supposedly 8 notches as long as you hold the rev up button   and stays there after releasing the rocker  until you hit the rev down again... The smoke also increases. I love making quick switch moves with my RS-3. Scroll up the speed really fast and then use the rev up.

I like labored chuff  with steam  as well especially starting at slow speeds.... Some steam  sounds sets are much better than others and the laboured chuff is quite  more  pronounced ,  a real bark coming from the engine.... I'm sure the fireman is glaring over at the engineman  thinking  most of his fire is going out the stack in chunks.......

Lets say you have a heavy train on a grade, the speed will probably decrease but the diesels  could be  at  max rev.

Anyway, that my 2 cents.

I can live with it.

Last edited by Gregg

Greg, you are correct.  The diesel rev increase does stay put in increment (8 total).  My fault for not acknowledging that.  I was mainly referring to the steam labored chuff specifically. 

It is interesting that MTH made it so the diesel sound increases would stay engaged, but not the steam.  See, I'm not much of a diesel guy.  I have a F3 and an E8 set, but the rest of my stuff is steam, so I probably notice it more.

Thanks for your input.

Thanks Gunrunnerjohn, I do have Legacy and it works great.  But, I only have two Legacy locomotives and about 20 PS2.

Seeing how the competition between MTH and Lionel is so fierce and the primary complaint about MTH locos (that I've noticed) is that their sound isn't as robust as Lionel, I would figure that MTH would be open to any ideas that would make their product better and more appealing to their customers.

This modification to the operation of Protosound and DCS would be a great stride toward closing the gap between the two sound systems.

But, you are correct.  I now find myself looking for Legacy locomotive instead of MTH.  I guess MTH is ok with that.

Thanks for your reply.  I was just wondering if anyone else was thinking the same thing.

Have a great day.

Jon

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