QSI Revolution-A Athearn and Atlas Installations
by Don Fiehmann
The local PBS TV station ran “The Daylight, the most beautiful train in the world”. What I did not know was that when SP converted to diesel locomotives, there was a complaint that people along the right-of-way did not like the sound of the new horn and preferred the sound of the air horn on the Daylight steam locomotives. SP changed the air horns to please the public.
A few years ago making a change like this to a sound decoder was unthinkable. There is an alternate horn feature with the Quantum Revolution decoders that allow switching between two different horns or whistles using the F11 key.
The “cut and paste” feature using the Quantum Programmer (Sold Separately) allows you to choose sounds that best fit your locomotive and is just another one of a long list of exciting new features available on the new Quantum Revolution decoders. This new line of sound decoders raises the bar for sound, control and flexibility with the ability to setup custom sounds and lighting to customize and fit your particular locomotive.
Athearn F3
My first Quantum Revolution-A installation was in a in an Athearn Genesis F3a. The decoder installation simply replaced the existing light board in the locomotive.
The lights on the Genesis were 1.5 volt incandescent lamps. With a conventional decoder this would require adding a dropping resistor for the voltage from decoders track voltage. The Q2 has a regulated output of five volts and an “onboard” 180 ohm resistor for each of the outputs. This works great for LEDs and 1.5 volt ,1 5mA lamps as no additional parts are required, just wire to the decoder board.
Athearn F3A with Quantum Revolution installed.
If you have 12 volt lamps it is best to replace them with LEDs. If you have a locomotive apart to install the decoder, it is a good idea to replace any lamps with LEDs. The LEDs will last as longer than the locomotive. The LEDs are not fragile and will not burn out like one of my 1.5 volt lamps did in the F7a.
Athearn F3A with Quantum Revolution installed.
One other problem with lamps is the manufacturing variations. I talked with Miniatronics and they said the variations in lamp currents can be as high as 20%. LEDs are rapidly replacing lamps and for a good reason. LEDs are the future and also use less energy.
A 1.0” inch speaker and enclosure fit in the cab area without any changes other than removing the cab interior (a separate part). The two wires to the speaker from the circuit board are very close together, be sure not to short them. (Some of the boards come with these wires connected.) A small piece of foam tape was used to hold the speaker and enclosure to the frame.
The Q2 board also comes with an electrolytic capacitor connected to the board with a few inches of wire. In the case of the F3 there was plenty of room in the back for this capacitor.
I first tested the locomotive on the program track without the lights connected to check for shorts. I used my NCE system and was able to read be CVs without using any programming booster. No problem setting a 4 digit address.
The volume was very loud that I had to reduce it. The master volume (CV51) was reduced from 127 to 48 to blend in with the volume of other sound equipped engines on the layout.
F3 Lighting
The lower light on the F3 worked fine as a headlight. The upper light was connected to output Port 3 on the Q2 decoder. The problem was port 3 was programmed to be a ditch light and I wanted a Mars light! I was able to reprogram port 3 output to be a Mars light. In forward, the Mars light and headlight were on and in reverse the Mars light was off and the headlight was dimmed.
By reprogramming I was able to have control of the headlight only or the headlight and the Mars light. The trick I found was to use the alternate lighting setup. F12 switches from the standard to the alternate lighting. The alternate lighting was setup with only the headlight selected. With this I’m able to completely control both the upper and lower lights. The headlight was programmed so it was bright in forward and dim in reverse. When in neutral (stopped) the light could be changed from bright to dim by going to reverse or dim to bright by setting forward direction with the NCE system and in speed step 0.
The following information came from the internet from G Pruss of QSI. This firmware is configured for
- Front Headight - Port 1
- Rear Headight - Port 2
- Front Left ditch Light - Port 3
- Front Right ditch Light - Port 4
- Front Mars Light - Port 5
- Front OHBL - Port 6
Sound
The sound file I used for the F3 was the 1050-291 file that has the XB (extra bass) feature. The one inch speaker and enclosure was installed so the speaker pointed down to the truck. The two horns used were the Wabco and the Leslie. F11 switches between the two horns. The XB adds a little extra bass to the engine sounds. The basic sound from the decoder sounds like you are close to the engine. Some engine clanking can be heard. I had a chance to compare the sound to the new SoundTraxx Diesel decoder. Both are very good, but different in the way they sounded. The way I feel is the SoundTraxx sound was recorded from a distance and the QSI was closer to the engine. The QSI had more sound of the engine while the SoundTraxx was less crisp sounding. Both sounded great.
F3 Motor Control
Motor control was exceptional. The engine would start to move on speed step 1. I did play a little with the PID settings to see how it worked. Got a little bit slower speed in step 1. The engine seemed to just smoothly glide along the rails. Speed changes were also very smooth. The transitions were noticeable as the engine speed increased out on the mainline.
Athearn F3b with Hi Bass speaker in “cab” area.
I had a Genesis F3b that went with the F3a and installed a Quantum Revolution in the F3b. In this case there was more room in the “cab” area. Room enough to install a 1.06 inch High Bass speaker and enclosure with no file to fit.
Athearn F3b with Hi Base speaker in “cab” area.
The speaker pointed down. It was a tight fit and the enclosure had to be trimmed on the corners to match the roof curve of the F3b. The enclosure was then taped to cover the holes.
Atlas TrainMaster
I installed another Quantum Revolution-A decoder in an Atlas TrainMaster. This TrainMaster is one of the Silver series that came without a DCC decoder. (The Gold series came with a QSI decoder.) The frame was the same as the Gold series with provisions for two 1.2 inch speakers and room for the decoder. The decoder was mounted above the motor after the existing lighting board was removed. It looked like they designed the chassis to fit this style decoder as it was a perfect fit. There were clips on the top of the motor for the light board, but the spacing did not work out for the Q2 decoder. I glued some thin plastic over the top of the motor to insulate the bottom and ends of the area for the decoder.
Atlas TrainMaster with Quantum Revolution and new light board.
The connectors were cut off the exiting wires and connected to the decoder. The sound file I used was the TrainMaster file. The hardest part was the lights. The LED lights with the Silver series were different than the LED light boards on the Gold series. They both have the very small surface mount LEDs. The Atlas lighting board had resistors that are not needed with the Q2 decoder when using LEDs. After spending time on trying to modify the existing front LED lights, I decided to build a new board using perf-board with 0.1inch hole spacing. I used the existing board as a template and cut out a new board. I used surface mounted LEDs that came with 6 inches of wire already connected. (Like Miniatronics part 12-625). I needed four LEDs for the front end; headlight, Mars light and two for the number boards. The rear only has two LEDs. There are total 6 function outputs on the Revolution-A , I choose not to use 5 and 6 so I could have the four forward LED’s come on with the headlite. Each end of the Q2 decoder only has three outputs for the four LEDs in the front. My solution was to wire the two number board LEDs in parallel and them connect them to a single output. Would the two LEDs work in parallel? A bench test showed it as OK and it worked OK on the final installation. On the rear LEDs I simply remove the resistor from the light board and replaced them with a short piece of wire. This also worked when both LEDs were on in reverse.
New surface mount LEDs on the front of the TrainMaster.
With everything together I did a little adjustment of the motor control to smooth out the starting and reversing. The TrainMaster is now on the layout with a companion Gold series TrainMaster. They consisted together without any speed changes.
Conclusion
The Quantum Revolution series of decoders gives the modeler many choices that are not available with other decoders. When using the Quantum Programmer (sold separately), the “cut and paste” feature is very easy to use and allows you to make your own custom sound files. The sounds are all hi quality. Lighting is extremely flexible. The Quantum Revolution decoder can be ordered with the sound file of your choice from the list of available files.
