Charger (Siemens SC-44)
| Charger (Siemens SC-44) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Contents
Overview
Bachmann’s all-new DCC sound-equipped SC-44 Charger uses Siemens Mobility’s original design documentation and sound files. This model includes a TCS WOWSound® CD-Quality 16-bit 44,100Hz decoder with Audio Assist® for easy configuration without programming CVs and a Keep-Alive® device for uninterrupted operation, even over dirty track. The WOWSound® diesel-electric locomotive sound package includes horn, bell, prime mover, start-up/shutdown, compressor, cooling fan, coupler close/release, brake release and application, crew alert, grade crossing quill, departing and arriving station announcements, and more. Loaded with prototypical features, the Charger brings all the sights and sounds of Siemens diesel electric locomotive to your layout.
Features include:
- Siemens-approved design
- DCC sound-equipped for sound, speed, direction, and lighting control
- TCS true CD-quality audio in 16-bit 44,100Hz sound
- Keep-Alive® device that keeps your engine running during power interruptions due to dirty track or loss of electrical contact
- voice-guided Audio Assist® programming tool for easy set-up of almost all decoder functionality
- dual-mode NMRA-compliant decoder
- directional headlights
- interior corridor work lights
- roof-mounted strobe lights, per prototype
- marker lights
- steady/alternate flashing ditch lights
- die-cast frame
- separately applied windshield wipers, grab irons and detail parts
Charger only Features
(ADD A YOUTUBE VIDEO HERE DEMONSTRATING THESE FEATURES?) The SC-44 Charger locomotive features new sounds such as “Whoosh”, “Station announcements” as well as new traction noises such as “traction motor” and “traction motor gearbox. Listen for the whine of the traction motors as the prime mover spools up and the Charger takes off, as the locomotive gains speed the traction motors are drowned out as the noise from the gearbox hardware hums speedily as the Charger reaches 125MPH!
The Charger also features a fully functional emergency strobe light for more fun prototype operation. Send your DCC system into emergency and the engine will immediately stop and turn on the red strobe. Additionally you can also “emergency brake” by hitting the train brake on full (5x) The train will come to a quick stop and turn on the strobe. As a bonus the Emergency strobe light also works in conjunction with the “Crew Alert” Feature. Enable the crew alert feature and the Emergency strobe will come on when the crew alert timer expires. The Crew Alert features acts as a “dead mans” switch. If no user input is received after a set amount of time the alarm will sound giving the user short amount of time to enter input or else the train will go into emergency, brake, and come to a stop with the red emergency strobe flashing!
Prototypical strobe operation! Per section 1.4.12 of the Siemens manual the strobe lights will come automatically when certain conditions are met. The white strobes flash while the ditch lights are on (including when the ditch lights are flashing) and the headlights are switched to full illumination. To simulate this TCS has implemented automatic and manual control modes of the white strobe lights, the factory default is automatic mode (CV182 bit 7 is set/on) In automatic mode the white strobe lights will behave as described in the Siemens manual section 1.4.12 while the strobe button is activated on the throttle (default is F5) If Function 5 is turned on the strobe lights will turn on only if both the headlight and ditch lights are on. If function 5 is turned off the strobe light will turned off no matter what the state is of the headlight and ditch lights. In manual strobe control mode (CV182 bit 7 is cleared/off) the white strobe lights are only controlled by the throttle button and the headlight and ditch light status has no effect on the white strobes.
The SC-44 charger is at its heart a WOWDiesel decoder but has had some customization to make it specific to the SC-44 Charger locomotive. The information below details where CV’s and operation differ from the standard Diesel decoder.
DC mode operation In DC mode the locomotive will sit still until a sufficient amount of track voltage is present, at which point it will start to move and will sound a directional horn blast and sound the bell. A grade crossing horn quill can be sounded by “flicking” the throttle voltage up and back down quickly. The directional horn blasts, quill, and automatic DC mode bell are enabled by default and are controlled by the Automatic Sounds CV. Additional Sound Features
The SC-44 Charger locomotive features new sounds such as “Whoosh”, “Station announcements” as well as new traction noises such as “traction motor” and “traction motor gearbox. Listen for the whine of the traction motors as the prime mover spools up and the Charger takes off, as the locomotive gains speed the traction motors are drowned out as the noise from the gearbox hardware hums speedily as the Charger reaches 125MPH! The Charger also supports an Automatic Bell in DCC mode, after the locomotive starts the bell will play until the DCC mode automatic Bell cutout speed step is reached. See the Charger Sound CV Addendum for more information. New Lighting Features
The Charger features a fully functional emergency strobe light for more fun prototype operation. Send your DCC system into emergency and the engine will immediately stop and turn on the red strobe. Additionally you can also “emergency brake” by hitting the train brake on full (5x) The train will come to a quick stop and turn on the strobe. As a bonus the Emergency strobe light also works in conjunction with the “Crew Alert” Feature. Enable the crew alert feature and the Emergency strobe will come on when the crew alert timer expires. The Crew Alert features acts as a “dead mans” switch. If no user input is received after a set amount of time the alarm will sound giving the user short amount of time to enter input or else the train will go into emergency, brake, and come to a stop with the red emergency strobe flashing!
Button Mappings
The Charger locomotive supports "Function Pagination" - This makes it easy to access all 28 functions and all lighting effects even with limited throttles by adding an offset to the pressed function button (offset of 10 for function page 2, offset of 20 for function page 3) For example:
- Press function 8 twice to rotate through the pages until the decoder announces "Function page two"
- Press function 5
- The decoder will activate function 5 + 10(page 2 offset) = 15
(Note the decoder still supports accessing function 15 by pressing F15 on your throttle regardless of the function page its on)
| Button Mappings | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Function Button | Sound Action | Light Action | Dual Enabled | Page and Button |
| 0 | None | Headlights | Yes | Page 1 Button 0 |
| 1 | Bell | Blink Ditch Lights | Yes | Page 1 Button 1 |
| 2 | Horn - Long Blast | Bling Ditch Lights | Yes | Page 1 Button 2 |
| 3 | Horn - Short Blast | Ditch Lights (on/off) | No | Page 1 Button 3 |
| 4 | Whoosh | Number Board Lights | No | Page 1 Button 4 |
| 5 | Train Brake | Strobe Light (on/off) | No | Page 1 Button 5 |
| 6 | Startup/Shutdown | Marker Lights (on/off) | No | Page 1 Button 6 |
| 7 | None | Dim Headlights | Yes | Page 1 Button 7 |
| 8 | 1x Press Mute/Unmute 2x Press rotate light/sound mode or page 4x Press Audio Assist™ |
None | Yes | Page 1 Button 8 |
| 9 | Dynamic Brake | Corridor Lights | No | Page 1 Button 9 |
| 10 | Manual Notch Up | Ditch Lights Blink | No | Page 2 Button 0 |
| 11 | Manual Notch Down | Emergency Strobe (on/off) (or with 5x brake press) | No | Page 2 Button 1 |
| 12 | Coupler Close | None | No | Page 2 Button 2 |
| 13 | Coupler Release | None | No | Page 2 Button 3 |
| 14 | Brake Release | None | No | Page 2 Button 4 |
| 15 | Traction Motor Blower | None | No | Page 2 Button 5 |
| 16 | Momentum | None | No | Page 2 Button 6 |
| 17 | Crew Alert | None | No | Page 2 Button 7 |
| 18 | 1x Press Mute/Unmute 2x Press rotate light/sound mode or page 4x Press Audio Assist™ |
None | No | Page 2 Button 8 |
| 19 | Random Whoosh (on/off) | None | No | Page 2 Button 9 |
| 20 | Grade Crossing Quill | None | No | Page 3 Button 0 |
| 21 | Forward Quill | None | No | Page 3 Button 1 |
| 22 | Reverse Quill | None | No | Page 3 Button 2 |
| 23 | Stop Horn | None | No | Page 3 Button 3 |
| 24 | Rotate Bell/Horn | None | No | Page 3 Button 4 |
| 25 | Windshield Wipers | None | No | Page 3 Button 5 |
| 26 | Station Announcements Departing | None | No | Page 3 Button 6 |
| 27 | Station Announcements Arriving | None | No | Page 3 Button 7 |
| 28 | 1x Press Mute/Unmute 2x Press rotate light/sound mode or page 4x Press Audio Assist™ |
None | No | Page 3 Button 8 |
| Random Sound Mapping | |
|---|---|
| Random Sound Generator |
Sound Played |
| 1 | Air Compressor |
| 2 | Dust Blower |
| 3 | Traction Motor Blower |
| 4 | Whoosh (When enabled with F19) |
CV Addendum (standard CV's)
The Charger follows the motor and lighting CV's as described in TCS's Comprehensive Programming Guide. Listed below are the CV's that have been modified for the Charger decoder.
| CV Number | CV Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| CV3 | 6 | Acceleration |
| CV4 | 6 | Deceleration |
| CV13 | 247 | DC Mode lights |
| CV29 | 6 | Configuration CV |
| CV35 | 16 | Light output 1 mapped to F3 |
| CV36 | 16 | Light output 2 mapped to F3 |
| CV39 | 16 | Light output 3 (brown wire) mapped off of F3 |
| CV40 | 64 | Light output 4 (pink wire) mapped to F5 |
| CV41 | 64 | Brown wire mapped to F11 (Red emergency strobe) |
| CV49 | 8 | Front headlight uses Rule 17 |
| CV50 | 24 | Rear headlight uses Rule 17 |
| CV51 | 10 | Light output 1 is a Ditch light |
| CV52 | 11 | Light output 2 is a Ditch light |
| CV53 | 36 | Light output 3 (brown wire) is a single pulse strobe 1 (red emergency beacon) |
| CV54 | 27 | Light output 4 (pink wire) is single pulse strobe 2 (white strobes) |
| CV61 | 41 | Configuration CV |
| CV63 | 10 | Ditch light blink holdover time |
| CV117 | 221 | Ditch light blink rate |
| CV123 | 0 | So Rule 17 does not dim on F4 |
| CV124 | 76 | Ditch lights blink (F0-F6) on buttons 1, and 2 |
| CV140 | 255 | Increase red strobe blink rate to about 2 seconds |
| CV142 | 255 | Increase white strobe blink rate to about 2 seconds |
| CV158 | 4 | Enables Rule17 dimming on F7 |
| CV159 | 32 | Ditch lights blink (F7-12) on button 10 |
| CV182 | 134 | Disabled motor delay (motor changes speed right after throttle is changed, no delay), activate automatic control of the white strobes. |
| CV189 | 0 | Dynamic brake min speed set to 0 |
| CV190 | 10 | Rate of deceleration from Dynamic Brakes |
| CV191 | 10 | Dynamic Brake speed decrease (in speed steps) per press of the dynamic brake button |
CV Addendum (Indexed CV's)
The Charger follows the motor and lighting CV's as described in TCS's WOWDiesel Programming Guide. Listed below are the CV's that have been modified for the Charger decoder.
| Indexed CV Number | Indexed CV Value (CV203,CV204) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | 3 | Default to new Charger K5LA Horn |
| 9 | 0 | Charger defaults to Traditional throttle mode |
| 10 | 80 | Reduced Global Volume of decoder |
| 11 | 0 | Only one prime mover is available in the Charger decoder |
| v12 | 255,2 | Enable all DC mode automatic sounds |
| 14 | 16,15 | F0, 1, 2, and 7 dual mode enabled (active in light and sound mode) |
| 15 | 9 | Dynamic brake notch setting |
| 19 | 16,251 | Using Dynamic brakes does not notch up prime mover |
| 23 | 0 | Only 1 bell available (E-bell) |
| 32 | 10 | Notch 2 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| 33 | 25 | Notch 3 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| 34 | 35 | Notch 4 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| 35 | 50 | Notch 5 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| v36 | 60 | Notch 6 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| 37 | 70 | Notch 7 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| 38 | 80 | Notch 8 speed step (traditional throttle mode) |
| 43 | 5,0 | DC Mode start voltage – Voltage at which the engine will start making noise in DC mode, the higher the value the higher the voltage |
| 44 | 5,70 | Voltage at which the DC mode bell will stop playing, the higher the value the higher the voltage threshold. |
| 45 | 15 | Speed step in DCC mode that the automatic bell will stop playing at |
| 46 | 1,144 | DC Mode motor hysteresis – When the engine starts moving in DC mode the increased current draw may cause some oscillation, if so increase the value in this CV until the oscillation goes away. If the engine is going through a power on reset try increasing Sound CV 43 (Voltage at which the Engine will power up at while in DC mode) |
| 50 | 6 | “Switching momentum” mode acceleration value |
| 51 | 6 | “Switching momentum” mode deceleration value |
