No. 139 A sound choice – Hornby King on analogue DC
My last post dealt with Hornby’s latest King George I engine and I finished with the question, what about some sound on DC?
The Hornby TTS digital chip allows running on both digital
and analogue DC layouts but does not provide sound on analogue DC. At the time
of my last Post I had removed the Hornby TTS chip and speaker and was running
the engine on analogue DC with an eight pin blanking plate.
Hornby King George I
King George was purchased at a discount and now I have felt
able to invest in a digital sound chip that will produce sound on analogue DC.
A LokSound Micro chip was purchased from Coastal DCC loaded with their own
Sound Project for a King.
My previous Blog Post concerned the running qualities of
Hornby’s latest King George I. The current Post covers the operation of the
King fitted with a LokSound Micro digital sound decoder.
The 28mm speaker supplied by Coastal DCC had a slightly
different geometry to the original Hornby speaker.
I had to add some black card packing to the Hornby Clamp to
ensure that the new speaker was held firmly down against the tender underframe.
As purchased King George was fitted with Hornby’s TTS (twin
track sound) system. For comparison I show the various 'sounds' that are
available using the function 'buttons' for the two chips.
I have loaded a video to YouTube with the Hornby King as
bought running on my programming track coupled to a SPROG II controlled by my
Sony Vaio laptop (upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10). I have run through
the different TTS sounds that are provided by Hornby.
For comparison I have also loaded a second video of the
engine on my programming track but this time fitted with the LokSound Micro and
the Coastal DCC sound project.
How does the King work on DC? I think quite well. Out of the
box so to speak it ran up and down the track and made appropriate chuffing
noises. However top speed was decidedly limited and more seriously it was not
able to haul a rake of coaches up my 1 in 60 inclines. I did wonder whether the
LokSound Micro was able to deliver enough power for the King. Kevin at Coastal
DC was reassuring and suggested that I turn my attention to the DC analogue
settings, CV125 (start voltage) and CV 126 (voltage for maximum speed in
analogue mode).
As supplied by Coastal DCC the LokSound Micro came with
values for CVs 125 and 126 of 90 and 130 respectively. After much to –ing and
fro-ing between layout and my SPROG programming track I arrived at values of 70
and 115 which I thought more suitable for my layout (and mains voltage)
conditions.
How does the King sound? ESU supply a small 4 ohm speaker with
their LokSound Micro, ideally I guess for use in N gauge locomotives. In its
place Coastal DCC supplied a 28 mm diameter 8 ohm speaker (with a paper cone as
opposed to the original Hornby plastic cone). The documentation with the
LokSound Micro indicates a preference for a 4 ohm speaker. However the ESU
literature also confirms that the 8 ohm is useable.
The perceived wisdom is that the volume of sound will be
lower with the higher resistance 8 ohm speaker. I have to say that this doesn’t
seem to be an issue and I have posted a couple of videos of my LokSound Micro
King in action on my layout.
The first video was recorded using my Sony digital camera:
The second was recorded with a Branor Systems Camtruck pushed
in front of the King running tender first.
For comparison I have also posted another Camtruck video
this time using the Bachmann Patriot. Can you tell the difference between the
four cylinder King and the three cylinder patriot?
Over the last twelve months I have dabbled with digital
sound. I have acquired a number of sound fitted diesels and am impressed with
the variations in sound from the different types. Bachmann Royal Signals and
the Hornby’s King George were purchased to try out digital steam sounds. From
this limited experience I am not as impressed with the digital steam sounds as
I am with the diesel noises. Yes – you can differentiate between the three
cylinder and four cylinder engines but I think there is a lot missing. Prior to
buying these digital sound locomotives I had misgivings about the sound
reproduction qualities from tiny 25 and 30mm speakers. Twelve months later I am
still not convinced that the bass sounds that are so important for steam
engines are being reproduced correctly. For the price of two or three digital
sound chips you could purchase quite a decent static sound system. Just a
thought and you wouldn’t need to sound fit all your locomotives and you could
carry on using analogue DC.
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