# Success installing a QSI Titan in a Bachmann Heisler



## rreiffer (Jan 14, 2009)

All,
Well, I finally got around to reinstalling the QSI Titan in my Bachmann Heisler. I had started to install it last fall and when I went to program the long address it freaked out and quit responding. Well, QSI was gracious enough to swap it out for me but then I hit the road doing technology shows. So, tonight I brought the Heisler in and put the QSI back in the unit (fortunately I thought to label every wire so putting it in was very easy). And lo and behold everything worked perfectly. A few simple adjustments of the various CV volume levels made the unit sounded much more like the actual Heisler I road on in Cass. Thanks QSI for a great decoder. The indexed CV's give you a ton of options and I had put a speaker (2W) up front so I could make the bell sound like it was coming from the front. I hope to take a video and post it here in the near future. Thanks for all of your help Greg with all of yours various tips.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You're welcome Rich. I've been putting dual speakers in locos recently, did an RS-3 with a separate speaker for the bell and horn so that the motor sound from way back on the long hood stays there, and the bell and horn comes out around the cab. 

Just a nice additional "dimension" to realism. 

You can probably bias the chuff forwards too if you want... I'm sure you played with the balance controls for individual sounds? 

Regards, Geg


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## rreiffer (Jan 14, 2009)

Greg, yes I did, pretty cool and very easy to do but you have to think through the "logic" of the numbers when doing the balance. To me 0 would have been all the way forward and 255 all the way back with 127 balanced between them, but hey it still works great. I am going to add some small holes on the bottom of the boiler to get the sound out more in the front. Right now I was just happy to have it up and going in time for my open house this weekend.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yeah, completely agree with you on the "balance numbering", but of course in CV Manager, it's all visual. 

I've also drilled holes in the bottom of the smokebox like you did, on my Mallet it was a 2" hole saw!! 

Greg


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## rreiffer (Jan 14, 2009)

Greg, if I made mine a 2" hole the entire center of the boiler would be gone! LOL


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Rich, how large is the speaker in the boiler, and how do you have it positioned? I did a Climax with the Titan, using a 1.25" wafer speaker pointing forward in the smokebox, positioned about 1" from the end (in addition to the speaker in the bunker). The speaker fills the entire opening of the boiler at that point, so the boiler and smokebox combine to become a resonating chamber for the speaker. I get a whole lot of sound out of very little speaker in that installation. With that arrangement, there's no need for holes in the boiler. I'd love to bias the chuff fully forward, but there's just not enough bass to where the chuff I'm using has the presence I want. I split it about 60:40 towards the front; enough to where the chuff sounds like it's not emanating from the bunker, but enough to take advantage of the better bass from the rear speaker. Like yours, I've got the bell and whistle set to come from the front speaker. 

If the speaker is smaller than the boiler opening, you might also try putting a small cup over the front of the speaker. I did this with a speaker I was putting in an RGS Goose #6. I needed the speaker to fit under the hood, so it had to be small, but I wanted it to be loud. The cup (the same diameter as the speaker, about 5/8" long) made that little 1.25" speaker sound nearly as full as the 3" speaker I've got in the back of my RGS Goose #2 (whose freight compartment makes a wonderful resonating chamber in its own right). 

BTW, if you set the "sound of power," I find the rod clank noise sounds reminiscent of gear noise as the loco is drifting along. Pretty cool effect, especially when used in conjunction with the prototypical braking feature of the decoder. I've got that balanced equally between speakers so it sounds like it's coming from both trucks. 

Later, 

K


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

A speaker that small benefits from a sealed space behind it like you did Kevin. Much larger won't supply enough mechanical dampening and will allow it to distort on the lower frequencies. The enclosure has basically no effect on higher frequencies. 

The major effect of the sealed chamber is twofold, first you isolate the out of phase wave from the rear of the speaker from the wave from the front of the speaker. Allowing them to "meet" basically cancels the sound (identical waves 180 degrees out of phase, perfect cancellation). 

The other effect is basically an "air shock absorber" that helps the cone not move too far in either direction on bass. If you try to get a lot of bass from a speaker (and you can't get much from a small one) the cone moves further and further. 

If you "stop" it because the coil bottoms or you reach the physical limit of movement, you induce extreme distortion, basically it sounds bad (distortion is perceived differently by different people) 

Greg


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

There's also been a lot of discussion on the Soundtraxx forum about "sugar cube" speakers; the ultra-tiny speakers used in cell phones, tablets, and the like. While centered mostly around the small scales where space is an absolute premium, people are apparently having a lot of success with some of the better ones--getting incredible sound from a tiny enclosure. (At least as they describe it; it's hard to tell off of a YouTube video of an HO-scale engine shot from 4' away.) I haven't been paying enough attention to the discussion to get much more specific about particular brands or model numbers, and the sound may still pale in comparison to what we can get from speakers in large scale (even small-ish ones as described above), but it's certainly an avenue worth exploring should the need for something really tiny arise. 

Later, 

K


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm in Z scale and keep the sugar cubes "in stock", I have about 8 of them at present. The sound is OK, but does not compare to the compact 1-1.5 inch speakers like the ones from Train-Li or Phoenix. 

You could do some crazy stuff and make a flat array of them side by side, and THEORETICALLY get some bass, but the cost would seem to outweigh the benefits. 

For high frequencies, they are indeed capable of amazing sound levels, but any attempt at even lower midrange goes "unannounced" in my opinion. 

Greg


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## rreiffer (Jan 14, 2009)

Actually the sound is not too bad but could be better. Still learning on this engine but I actually had to drop the overall volume since it seems to really put out. The Titan module is great! Well worth the $$$ spent. 
By the way, I sure miss the emails letting me know when people post. That is one feature that I would love to see come back.


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