ESU - Preventing Startup Sequence After Momentary Interruption

Whether caused by dirty track, a bad frog, whatever, one of the most irritating things to hear is your thundering locomotive suddenly go through its engine startup sequence while continuing to roll down the track. Or even worse come to a screeching stop, go through the sequence and then continue on. 

ESU LokSound decoders have settings that can prevent this annoying behavior and you don't have to purchase a keep-alive either. Going all the way back to v3.5 decoders (that's as far as the author went) there is a sheet in the sound files called Special Options, see Fig 1.

Figure 1 - Special Options Sheet

Although the options available on this sheet differ according to version (see fig 2 and 3), selecting them will prevent the decoder from entering the startup sequence and/or causing the locomotive from coming to a complete stop. In other words, the locomotive will contiue on it's way with the sound where it was and the loco's speed  resuming where it left off. 

Figure 2 - v3.5 Special Options

Figure 3 - v4 and 5 Special Options

Figure 3 also shows that it is a DCC decoder with only the DCC protocol selectable by default.

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Volume Control By Function Key In LokSound Decoders

Those of us who may own a Broadway Limited diesel engine with Paragon 2/3 sound know that function key 8 (F8) acts as a mute button and also a volume control. A single press mutes the sound and double presses cycle through multiple steps which increase the engine volume until you reach the maximum volume and then it starts over at minimum volume.

What you may not know is that ESU LokSound v4 and v5 decoders also have this capability. You just need to map the functionality to a function key as this is not default behavior. Here's how.

After loading the appropriate sound file into the programmer click on the decoder view pane and select the function mapping screen shown in figure 1.

Figure 1

Select a function key mapping that is either empty or one that you can do without. Here, the author selects F6 since very few of his locomotives have a need for the AUX outputs. Also staying within the lower numbered function keys allows easy access. Do not select the prime mover sound slot. That will not work. Click on the Physical outputs column and un-check any functions that are there, figure 2.

Figure 2

Now switch to the Logical functions column click on it and select Volume control shown in figure 3.

Figure 3

Write the decoder data to the engine and you are done. That's it! There is no need to write the sound file to the decoder (30 minutes) as these adjustments only change decoder data not sound data. Now F6 functions as a mute/volume control. A single press mutes all engine sound and double presses cycle through the six sound levels. Easy enough.

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If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.