@Norton posted:Not true. You can use a cam or other means to drive a smoke fan at 4 times per rev but it can’t be synchronized with sound reliably. BEMF doesn’t know wheel/valve position at startup so sound can start anywhere in the rotation.
Pete
IMO, that's a total crock! If you used a cam, it would be perfectly synchronized with the drivers. BEMF doesn't enter into the pictures, that's just controlling the speed, we're talking about inputting the chuff signal, not trying to generate it from BEMF, that's what they do now!
Now, if they're too lame to synchronize the chuff sound when they get the pulse, that's not a problem with synchronizing with the drivers. Truthfully, most of our O-scale stuff that doesn't use an axle cam doesn't synchronize with the drivers. Neither MTH or Lionel Legacy synchronizes to the drivers, somehow we live with that.
The MAJOR problem, at least IMO, is the smoke and sound aren't synchronized! Those are two things that are readily observed. It's almost impossible at any speed to see that the sound and/or smoke doesn't perfectly synchronize with the drivers, even using a cam.
I'm not nearly as worried about synchronizing the drivers with the smoke and sound as I am synchronizing just the smoke and sound.
Why can't they just be honest and simply tell you they don't want to do it or it's "too hard"? 
