Atlas S2

[Cajonpassfan]

Has anyone seen any undecs, or did they not come, as I understand, in the first batch?
Any word on when they may be available?
Regards, Otto K.

[coosvalley]

At the request of another forum member, I will share how I got my S2 apart to paint it..

First, I took out the two screws holding the frame to the long hood, these are easy enough to find above the trucks...Also I removed the cab handrails by pulling them out, and the end railings by pushing them out from behind..these were glued, but did not break!...
 Next you have to rock the cab back and fourth(side to side) until you disengage the cab,.this took a good amount pf pressure, but tools would probably damage the frame parts...this is the toughest part to figure out...

I pried the cab windows out with a small screwdriver, and a hobby knife to cut the glue ...Again, I didn't break any!( I doubt parts are available yet!!!)

Next you separate the the walkway from the frame, this will in turn release the side handrails...I separated them by pushing the pins up from the bottom, then prying the rest of the way with a small flat screwdriver..BE CAREFUL not to bend it where the hood meets the cab...

At this point I stopped, as that was enough for me to get my loco painted....if you have to paint the frame, it appears that you have to remove the motor, trucks, and light board (this one is without sound, which, in turn, leaves a lot of room for additional weight in and under the speaker port) ....

Sorry for the lack of pics, but it wasn't too hard to do...Once I stripped it, the detail was much crisper, the paint on the hood was pretty thick..I did manage to strip mine with 91% alcohol, but the hood took a few tries, and a dremel with a soft brush came in handy, taking care to avoid the plastic bits(look over the diagram that comes with the loco to figure out where these are).....

[nkalanaga]

Coosvalley:  Thank you!  I have an Undec reserved, so don't have to strip it, but will have to take it apart.

[Joetrain59]

Thanks Coosvalley. But glue???? Has Atlas done this before, aside from GP-15? My E-L unit came out of box with end handrail at pilot broken off. Yellow nub in pilot hole.
 No Undecs yet, have one on order too, Cajonpassfan. Should be in before August I believe Paul said.
 Hope they do LIRR schemes.
 Joe D

[coosvalley]

Yes, glue.....only on the ends rails, probably because they're glue-ing Delrin to Metal?????.They are VERY thin handrails, maybe that is part of the reason too....

 Broken out of the box?...Not good!........FYI.......The RS-1 end handrails look like they will fit..but they are pretty thick compared to the ones from the S2....Not having parts available yet is a little frustrating.....I got 2 B&M units, and in the pre-production photos, the B&M S2's have the vertical grill, but the production units have the horizontal ones.....Which is correct for the numbers they chose, but now I need the vertical grilles to paint up the other one as a Portland Terminal unit...I was hoping to use the already painted hood, and just changing the lettering, but the red and white stripes are not correct either, they have 3 bands of color, white, red, white again...The bands are the same size, but they should be red with a small white outlines....since the stripes are the paint scheme in this case, it's a little disappointing......

If you like to add wire grabs to your locos, as I do, this loco does not seem very friendly for that, either.....I wanted to add some, but the metal shell probably won't be as easy to "clean up" compared to a plastic one.....I didnt bother to try, since I figured I'd just trash the shell, and end up with a need to order parts....Once they become available that is!....The rest of the detail is pretty good on this model, but cast on grabs are something we'll probably have to live with.....I wish MFR's would just give us "dimples" and let us drill and add our own grabs......think FVM GP-60......But, I bet I'm in the minority on this....

[SkipGear]

Everything here has centered on the drivability of the DCC/Sound version. I finally got to play with the DC version and I hate to say but the DCC version starts and runs slower than the DC version, at least mine does. My DCC version with CV2 = 0, will run at half the speed of the DC version at the minimum sustained speed I could muster and it took a bump in the throttle to get it started.

[central.vermont]

This question goes out to the people that have a sound equipped unit. I do not own one YET but will at some point when the CV unit comes out but I have been messing with one that a friend has. The question is has anyone put one of these on Decoder Pro and read all the CV's. I can't seem to figure out which decoder it is in there list of decoders. Not sure what version Decoder Pro is being used so it may not be up to date enough for this decoder. So does anyone know what the decoder is? It will make it easier too pick it out of the list.

Thanks, Jon

[Altoona]

Tried and program mine with Decoder Pro, the board was not found. Don't know if it just me or need to wait for the net JMRI update (July?).

Judd Barton
PRRT&HS #9210

[mark dance]

This question goes out to the people that have a sound equipped unit. I do not own one YET but will at some point when the CV unit comes out but I have been messing with one that a friend has. The question is has anyone put one of these on Decoder Pro and read all the CV's. I can't seem to figure out which decoder it is in there list of decoders. Not sure what version Decoder Pro is being used so it may not be up to date enough for this decoder. So does anyone know what the decoder is? It will make it easier too pick it out of the list.

Thanks, Jon

ESU Loksound...all their normal speed and sound control CVs work.

md

[jdcolombo]

For JMRI, Select ESU (Electronic Solutions Ulm) in the decoder list, then the folder for Select, then the ALCO 539T file (if that one is in the list; I don't remember.  If not, any ALCO version will do because the CV's are all the same.). Note that if do an all CV read, it will take about 45 minutes.  There are literally hundreds of CVs in the ESU Select decoder; not all of them are used, but they are all there and will be read.  Writing is much faster.

John C.

[wishj]

I am stilling waiting for my GN S2 (DC version) hoping it will be the next batch John

[reinhardtjh]

Tried and program mine with Decoder Pro, the board was not found. Don't know if it just me or need to wait for the net JMRI update (July?).

Judd Barton
PRRT&HS #9210

Although the support is continually evolving, you need JMRI V3.11.1 at a minimum to work the any ESU LokSound decoder.  The latest is usually better, although 3.11.5 has some problems if you are upgrading (path issues) so 3.11.4 is probably best for a while.

The snag is that the LokSound decoder is versatile enough that different sound projects can have different CV settings and it's impossible for the JMRI guys to keep up with all the variations.  Dave Heap is the main person and he's working on getting around that but it's in the future.  Right now you just have to pick the closest one you find in the list so you need a bit of knowledge about the LokSound decoder and the particular project.

The current best practice suggestion is to do a "Read All Sheets" the first thing when you get a new unit so that you have a baseline to compare against.  Be aware that there are over 1000 CV's to read and it will take up to 30 minutes (give or take depending on your command station brand and computer speed) to finish.  But once that is done, you only need to read CV's you change and that goes much faster.

[central.vermont]

Although the support is continually evolving, you need JMRI V3.11.1 at a minimum to work the any ESU LokSound decoder.  The latest is usually better, although 3.11.5 has some problems if you are upgrading (path issues) so 3.11.4 is probably best for a while.

The snag is that the LokSound decoder is versatile enough that different sound projects can have different CV settings and it's impossible for the JMRI guys to keep up with all the variations.  Dave Heap is the main person and he's working on getting around that but it's in the future.  Right now you just have to pick the closest one you find in the list so you need a bit of knowledge about the LokSound decoder and the particular project.

The current best practice suggestion is to do a "Read All Sheets" the first thing when you get a new unit so that you have a baseline to compare against.  Be aware that there are over 1000 CV's to read and it will take up to 30 minutes (give or take depending on your command station brand and computer speed) to finish.  But once that is done, you only need to read CV's you change and that goes much faster.

This is very helpful John. One of the things that I am trying to change is the rate at which the bell rings. I would like to slow it down a bit. Has anyone tried this?

Jon

[jdcolombo]

This is very helpful John. One of the things that I am trying to change is the rate at which the bell rings. I would like to slow it down a bit. Has anyone tried this?

Jon

There are two basic bell speed settings that ESU uses: a fast bell and a slow bell.  The base bell ring rate is selected using CV48, which also selects the prime mover sound file (if there is more than one - some sound files have multiple prime mover sounds) and the horn.  I suspect the S-2 has the fast bell pre-selected.  If you read CV48, you will probably find that the value is >64.   A value of 64 in CV48 selects the fast bell.  So, read CV48, then subtract 64 from the number you get on the read, and then enter that number (the difference) as the new value for CV48.  That new value will preserve the prime mover and horn sound, but select the slow bell ring rate.

If you read pages 33-34 of the LokSound Select Users Manual, it will describe the programming of CV48 in more detail.  Page 32 of the manual lists the various air horns that can be selected.  The general programming for CV 48 follows the following pattern.  0 (prime mover 1) + air horn number (1-15)+64 (for fast bell) or 0 (for slow bell) + 128 (to change brake squeal sound from the default to #2).   So, for example, say that you wanted the Leslie A200 air horn, slow bell, and you're happy with the brake squeal sound.  To get this, you would enter "6" in CV48 (0 for prime mover 1; 6 for the air horn; 0 for slow bell; and 0 for Brake Squeal #1).  If you wanted the fast bell, you would enter a value of 70: 0 (for prime mover 1) + 6 for the horn + 64 for the fast bell.

You can further customize the bell ring rate after selecting either the base fast bell or slow bell.  This is described on page 34 of the manual.  To do this, you first have to enter the value of "1" in CV32, then you adjust the ring rate using CV 285.   Obviously, you'll need a way to access CV's above 254; you can do this with a Digitrax DT402 throttle; you can also do it with JMRI.  Not sure what other DCC systems have this capability.

John C.

[sirenwerks]

I am stilling waiting for my GN S2 (DC version) hoping it will be the next batch John

Simplified scheme, me hopes.