Back in November I wrote a post documenting the new Rivarossi Heisler that I’d just acquired.  I gave a brief description of the good (and not-so-good) features of the model, and mentioned at the end how I loved the whistle.  Well, the whistle turned into a bit of a problem.

I had noticed that the short whistle sound didn’t seem to match that of the long whistle (there are two buttons that control these sound variations).  Reading the instructions, I learned that there were actually six different whistles programmed into the thing, so I set about changing the whistles to see how each sounded.  While doing this, I noticed that one of the other whistles seemed to not match sounds between long and short toots as well.  After going back and forth, I finally realized that the short whistle sounds of these two whistles were reversed!  I wrote Rivarossi about this problem, and they in turn directed me to Matt Herman, who is the General Manager for ESU in North America (the loco uses a LokSound decoder by ESU).  Matt advised me to return the locomotive for reprogramming (which I did).  Well, it took three and a half months to get the loco back!  I suppose the timing couldn’t have been worse with all the things going on at ESU.  First there was a Christmas break, then a manpower shortage at the office, then ESU moved to a new building, and finally they hired more people, one of which was assigned to repair things.  But it’s here now, it works, and it works correctly . . . so much better!

This afternoon I set about customizing all the settings to my liking, a job made much easier using the latest version of DecoderPro.  This decoder is very complex, but as such it’s very powerful in it’s features and function.  For this reason I wanted the newest decoder definition and I wasn’t disappointed.  This definition is a vast improvement over the older version I’d had some limited experience with back in November.  I even figured out how to do some especially neat things with the decoder that aren’t even mentioned (directly) in the manual.  I’m going to have fun with this engine.  🙂

And to be sure, I’m still installing Tortoise switch motors.  I only have about four left to install though, and I’ll be caught up with the track that’s down.  I’m finally getting started on modifying all those Shinohara code 70 switches for DCC compatibility.  That’s one of those tasks that I really don’t want to do, and I’ve avoided it for many months now.  But trains ain’t gonna roll any further down the line if I don’t get this project done, so I just need to bite that bullet.

Oh, I noticed that this is my 100th post to the blog.

Hmmm, is that applause or jeers that I’m hearing???

-Jack