When I push the PFA button while running it does not play the station announcement. I get a bell ringing until I push the stop button but sound just goes dead. It is doing this on more than one proto 2 DCS equiped engine so maybe the problem is in the hand held or TIU? Puzzled. Any help appreciated.
Ray
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Either your battery going bad in your engine or speaker if its PS2 5v and when you push the pfa button the bell rings then hit your direction button.
By "stop button" do you mean the Red Stop button below the PFA button?
Ray,
From page 120 of The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition:
13. Using Passenger and Freight Yard Announcements (PFA)
Every PS2 engine is equipped with either freight yard or passenger station announcements. Each series of announcements consists of 5 linked sound sequences that starts when the PFA key is pressed. To play the engine’s passenger or freight yard announcements, proceed as follows:
• Press the PFA key to begin to play the announcement sequences
• Press the DIR key once to stop the engine and play the first sound sequence. The engine’s reverse unit is temporarily disabled so that the train will not move until the full PFA sequence is completed. Also disabled is the use of the BELL and WHISTLE/HORN buttons
• After waiting about 30 seconds for the sequence to finish, press the DIR button again to play the next sound sequence. Repeat this for the third and fourth sound sequences. At the conclusion of the fourth sound sequence, the PS2 engine's bell will begin to sound
• Once the bell turns off, the operator regains control of the engine.
This and a whole lot more is all in MTH’s “The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book at MTH's web store!
Not all PS2/PS3 engines start the same after pushing the PFA button. Some start with an announcement and then go into the bell ringing, while others start with the bell ringing first and no announcement's until after using the direction button as stated by Barry above.
I never heard that before? What engines do that? Normally pressing PFA "arms" the effect and starts the bell. Pressing direction button stops the engine and the bell and starts the first announcement. G
I have several that start off with the bell, some have a little dialog then the bell and I have one that has at least a full minute of radio chatter before the bell starts.
That was one of my diesel switchers and can't remember which one right now.
Not all of them handle PFA the same way:
I don't use the PFA function very often--rarely, in fact--but I just tried it out on five diesels that I happen to have on the layout at the present time and all worked in the manner described by Barry (above). All started with the bell sound. It was a mix of PS2 and PS3 engines.
Barry, et al, I understand how the PFA is suppose to work and I believe I have activated it correctly but something is different now than in the past. Not only am I not getting the 5 linked items on PFA but I am losing all sounds completely unless I shut down and restart the engine or do a feature reset. I also noticed that when I push the button to shut off engine sounds that it will not always return when I push the button to restart and requires another feature reset. Maybe these two things are unrelated but I think I should try some new batteries in the hand held for starters.
Ray
Ray,
I also noticed that when I push the button to shut off engine sounds that it will not always return when I push the button to restart and requires another feature reset.
That's fairly common behavior with some PS2 engines.
Not only am I not getting the 5 linked items on PFA but I am losing all sounds completely unless I shut down and restart the engine or do a feature reset
That's not!
Maybe these two things are unrelated
They are.
but I think I should try some new batteries in the hand held for starters.
That certainly couldn't hurt.
If you have a conventional transformer, activate PFA with the Bell-Whistle-Whistle button sequence and use the Direction button to cycle stages. That might help isolate the problem if PFA behaves differently than when using the remote/TIU.
Barry didn't say it started with the bell. Realize the weed sprayer and station stops are different, but all the standard freight or passenger I have seen seem to always start with a bell. I will have to pay attention to a switcher next time I get one in.
Ray, Interesting is this a 3V or 5V board? You can try a sound file reload. If 5V you may have a bad speaker, or the audio amp is going bad. G
Barry, GGG, et al, I tried the affected engine again this morning and guess what? It worked perfectly. There must have been some kind of anomaly that went away by itself. The only thing I can think of was that yesterday while I was having problems, the voltage or amperage being put out by my transformer might have been compromised by a swimming pool filter motor operating on the same circuit. I have noticed other problems before when this happens like trying to run too many trains and lighted passenger cars while the pool filter is on. Anyway, that's my guess. I did not even have to change the batteries in my remote hand held device which show no sign of being run down.
Ray
Interesting, I assume your in CA as the weather is a little cool around here for swimming pool filter to be running! G
I spent a good part of the afternoon trying the PFA sounds on various PS2/PS3 switchers, including SW-9, RS-1 (3 models), SW-1500 (3 models), SW-1, and Alco S2 (2 models) and didn't find the sound sequence itself to be any different. All of these were in Alaska, Southern, or U.S. Army road names.
Allan, That is what I thought. G
My Southern Crescent Limited, Cataloged 2003, and Norfolk Southern F3, Cat. 2010, start off with telling arrival city before the bell rings. However, my Southern Kanawha, also Cat. in 2010, with Passenger station sounds begins with a bell. Any of my engines with Freight Yard Sounds start with bell ringing. Ken
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