DCC/sound MFG where are we heading

[WP 257]

Mike--

I've had only one (plastic) model that was legitimately bad, and the selling dealer tried to fix it, but then ultimately returned it to Walthers for a replacement. A screw on a P2K USRA heavy 2-10-2 backed out in the first hour of break-in and bent a main rod for me...but also caused other hidden damage. When the repair tech fixed the bent rod, the model still would not run right, certainly not as it did out of the box.

I'm not saying people should ever "eat" a bad model and shut up. Please don't mistake that. There are definitely those instances when it has to go back for replacement.

[mlehman]

Oct 11, 2014 13:24:42 GMT -8 WP 257 said:

Mike--

SNIP

I'm not saying people should ever "eat" a bad model and shut up. Please don't mistake that. There are definitely those instances when it has to go back for replacement.

Yeah, I understand it was your observation, not something you advocate. Lord knows I get myself in trouble all the time by making impertinent observations...but the truth comes no matter how hard we try to ignore it, but I seem to find a shortcut here and there, then pay for what I said, which nonetheless both is often true AND something I disagree with.

I would consider it a significant problem if dealers were generally refusing to accept returns of defective merchandise, I suppose because they'd say they're "special order" or something, because that would be a very poisonous thing for the hobby given such a large percentage of its sales are conducted on the basis of being preorders. That's the long term picture. The short term is such a practice is just plain illegal federal law and under most state laws. You order what is represented to be a new, non-defective item or some sort of fraud could be found to have orccured. That's what you get or you have every right to refuse it without penalty. The dealer is in exactly the same position to the importer. They're supposed to send good merchandise, not something at odds with what was represented.

This did prompt me to produce another brain fart about the future of DCC/sound. Decoder could record errors, faults, and failures, kind of like the ECU on your car. Presuming the decoder was internet-enabled, if you ran into an issue you could just log it onto the mfg's site and let it analyze things, maybe even fix common issues. Sort of like Decoder pro as Big Brother, but in a good way. IIRC, there are already decoders out that have some of these capabilities, but adding the ability to log in and rework a decoder's programming remotely would cut out a big part of the issues the industry runs into with users who are klutz's (which I am to a certain degree) or don't read the manual/read me (I always do, but more and more it just confuses me half the time.)

[WP 257]

I feel like I've paid personally for some things I've said on these forums. I try to be honest, clear, (ok at least relatively) concise, etc. but still people get the wrong idea or think I mean them personal "ill" will in some way (which is never the case)...then to make matters worse they've actually contacted manufacturers about stuff I said, which caused needless annoyance...

Think I should just run trains more and not post...or just lurk.

[mrsocal]

Fellow modellers and manufactures I am going to add my 3 cents into the mix. Though it does not pertain to the ongoing topic it does fall under this thread heading as I feel. The industry of DCC sound is on point and making locos both diesel and steam sound as if you are standing at track side as it goes by and down your layout however.... Once the locos have pasted you still have a lot of train that follows. Flat wheel spots and grinds, squeals as metal to metal goes around a curve. These are the sounds of the rest of the train after the power train has gone by. For me growing up in the Cayon Pass every weekend and hearing the thump thump thump of an empty 85' Auto Parts boxcar and hearing the high pitched squeal of wheels making the tight curves these are the next DCC sounds that we need for the home layout. A boxcar or a three bay covered hopper... DCC sound interrogated through the length of the train this is the next step in the realm of realism.

[mlehman]

Scotty,
Soundtraxx recently brought to market a basic piece of the puzzle in making train sounds, not just loco sounds, the Soundcar decoder: www.soundtraxx.com/dsd/soundcar/soundcar.php

I think once the JMRI/DecoderPro people start hacking programs to drive these in multiple in real-time, it'll be very close to what you describe. That would be very cool.

[mrsocal]

Thanks Mike, that is a real start. I will do some research on it.

[mlehman]

Scotty,
The only thing really missing from your scenario in the Soundcar is some form of active transponding. With the Soundcar, you rely on the decoder's internal randomization to generate the sounds, like Fireman Fred does on the standard Tsunami with his shoveling coal, lubing around, and other sound "tasks." My thought was that JMRI could hold a programming session open and that could be manipulated to act as a form of transponding, in that I am supposing a program could be written to control the Soundcar's reprogramming on a near real time basis in order to control the sound. Not sure that's possible, but I think it is.

I'd almost bet the next version has some sort of transponding built in. IIRC this was one of the NMRA's goals of updating the DCC standards, but sometimes when I read that tech stuff, my brain turns to mush...