Williams True Blast Plus

Could you take a video of what you are experiencing and upload it so we call could hear it?

FWIW, I've never been that impressed with the Williams TB+ sounds, so this is no surprise.  I upgraded mine to ERR Cruise and ERR RailSounds and sold the conventional electronics.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

FWIW, I've never been that impressed with the Williams TB+ sounds, so this is no surprise.  I upgraded mine to ERR Cruise and ERR RailSounds and sold the conventional electronics.

Can you get four chuffs per revolution with that system John?

JOhn

@Craftech posted:

Can you get four chuffs per revolution with that system John?

Well, we were talking about the 70-Ton diesel locomotive, so no chuffs there.

If you're talking about TMCC steam upgrades, I use my Chuff-Generator to generate chuffs, you can get any chuff rate with this board, it's user programmable as to the chuff rate.

@Zelmo posted:

I recently purchased a 70 Ton Switcher with the True Blast Plus sound package. It is a very poor package. It goes to a high rev knocking noise (no gradual run up of a prime mover) immediately and has no bell. The horn operates. I returned to Bachman for repair. They just sent me another engine with the same problem. I called their technician and he saying this is the best they can do. I have gone on-line to hear a Williams GP engine and it sounds like it should sound so I am telling them it is a manufacturing defect. They have one more expert tech that is supposed to weigh in next week. Has anybody experienced this issue? Thanks.

@Zelmo,

I think it's working the way it was designed to work.  Those of us who develop electronic things (and other complex things for that matter) use a two-step process for testing them:

1. Verification Test -- We test to make sure the item does what we designed it to do; this is a technical responsibility.
2. Validation Test -- Then, we test to ensure that the item does what it needs to do; this is a marketing responsibility, i..e. make sure that the customer is happy with it.

It appears that TruBlast Plus passed its verification test, but failed its validation test, miserably in your opinion apparently, and perhaps in the opinions of others as well.

I think there's nothing wrong with it technically.  It's doing exactly what the technical folks designed it to do, so you shouldn't expect it to be repaired.  In fact there's probably no way to do so.

Mike

I agree with Mike, it's working as designed, it's just that the design is suspect.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Well, we were talking about the 70-Ton diesel locomotive, so no chuffs there.

If you're talking about TMCC steam upgrades, I use my Chuff-Generator to generate chuffs, you can get any chuff rate with this board, it's user programmable as to the chuff rate.

Have you done any WBB steamers with ERR Cruise and ERR RailSounds or aren't they suitable or available?

John

Sure, I've done a bunch of Williams brass, and a handful of the Williams diecast models.

I upgraded all 9 of my Williams from Trueblast II to Trueblast Plus with great results. I went from a not so great horn with a grade crossing sequence to a much more realistic horn and bell, and engine sounds. They cost me about $75 each, and I sold all the old boards on EBay for $40 each.

All of mine worked great out of the box, horn, bell, and engine sounds.

@Craignor posted:

I upgraded all 9 of my Williams from Trueblast to Trueblast Plus with great results. I went from a not so great horn with a grade crossing sequence to a much more realistic horn and bell, and engine sounds. They cost me about $75 each, and I sold all the old boards on EBay for $40 each.

All of mine worked great out of the box, horn, bell, and engine sounds.

My WBB Baldwin 4-6-0 has True Blast II and it has a grade crossing sequence (which gets annoying). 

Not sure what the difference between True Blast and True Blast II is though.

https://shop.bachmanntrains.co...amp;products_id=5359

John

True Bast or it might been just called “horn and bell” was horrible, the horn was like a door bell buzzer very unrealistic, the bell was ok, and no engine sounds. True Blast II is a big step up, True Blast Plus is the best.

The nice part of a True Blast Plus upgrade is no solder required, just two modular plugs.

@Craignor posted:

True Bast or it might been just called “horn and bell” was horrible, the horn was like a door bell buzzer very unrealistic, the bell was ok, and no engine sounds.

I'll have to check that out.  Thanks Craig.

John

EDIT:  I am only seeing True Blast Plus add-ons for diesel.  For steam there only seems to be True Blast II which is what is in there.   My WBB GP-38 has True Blast Plus.  It's very nice.

John,

These upgrade kits are hard to find.

I found most of mine either on eBay, Trainworld, or trainsetsonly.com.

Check EBAY regularly or enter a ”saved search” and you will get an email when one is listed for sale.

Search Google regularly.

Go to York and walk around all the halls, you might find some there for sale.

Be patient, it took me two years to find all the ones I wanted.😀

@Craignor posted:

I upgraded all 9 of my Williams from Trueblast II to Trueblast Plus with great results. I went from a not so great horn with a grade crossing sequence to a much more realistic horn and bell, and engine sounds. They cost me about $75 each, and I sold all the old boards on EBay for $40 each.

All of mine worked great out of the box, horn, bell, and engine sounds.

But True blast II is only a horn and bell True Blast Plus is Horn, Bell, and EMD GP rev sounds only.

True Blast was done by OTT sound board and had single chime horn, bell, diesel rev, and boring crew talk..

1648 departing, "radio crackle" 1648 clear on Track Ten, "radio crackle" [no matter what road number engine you had]

@Craignor posted:

John,

These upgrade kits are hard to find.

John,

I have never looked for a steam upgrade, so I don’t know.

Try Googling it.

I did.  I don't think they exist.  I'll have to look into ERR.

John

@Zelmo posted:

I recently purchased a 70 Ton Switcher with the True Blast Plus sound package. It is a very poor package. It goes to a high rev knocking noise (no gradual run up of a prime mover) immediately and has no bell. The horn operates. I returned to Bachman for repair. They just sent me another engine with the same problem. I called their technician and he saying this is the best they can do. I have gone on-line to hear a Williams GP engine and it sounds like it should sound so I am telling them it is a manufacturing defect. They have one more expert tech that is supposed to weigh in next week. Has anybody experienced this issue? Thanks.

I believe the True Blast Plus sound card in the 70 Ton switcher is the same the one used in the 44 Ton switcher. When operated using a conventional Lionel sine-wave transformer, the prime mover will immediately start at full throttle, even at the lowest voltage setting, and stay at full throttle through the entire range of speeds.

However, when used with a chopped-wave transformer such as a CW-80 or a ZW-L, the prime mover will start at the lowest setting and increase through the full range of levels as the voltage is increased.

The other adjustment which helps is to rewire the motors so they are in series instead of parallel. That will help ensure that you can enjoy the full range of prime mover levels somewhat more within normal operating speeds.

I've only installed one TB+ package...in a re-done 624 switcher.  It sounds fine to me. 

However, I sure wish there were some sort of 'sound-keeper' arrangement to maintain (diesel) engine sounds through sequencing of the E-unit.  Intuitively it seems like a rather fundamental addition to their product.  However, I'm certainly no EE, and I'm probably minimizing the challenge.

I've mentioned my disappointment before...WBB reps and on the forum...without much commiseration or solution.  I know there are other sound package choices.  Maybe I'll succumb to the inevitable...and add a further conversion to my never-ending bucket list of projects.  More probably I'll end up selling it as is.

If you use the ERR RailSounds Commander, you can add an alkaline battery or my YLB - RailSounds Battery Replacement (RS-Lite) to keep the sounds during direction changes.  I'm sure some sort of "keep alive" could be done to the TB+ sound board, but I've never been motivated enough to figure it out.

True Blast Plus was generally OK. The speakers in those Williams engines were quite good and I retained them for many of my control system conversions with sound features. The results were quite good.