Broadway Limited rolling thunder User Manual

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SYNCHRONIZED FULL

SPECTRUM SOUNDS

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T

hank you for purchasing the Broadway Limited Rolling Thunder

TM

System. We strive every day to make model railroading a more enjoyable hobby and to that end, we’ve developed Rolling ThunderTM. Real trains shake the very ground they roll on. Their sounds are unmistakable in their depth and power. With your new Rolling Thunder

TM

system, you can unlock the more realistic sounds of your Paragon3 equipped BLI locomotives in both frequency and volume. Rolling Thunder

TM

truly represents the next generation in model railroading technology. Enjoy.

Robert Grubba President / CEO Broadway Limited Imports, LLC

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M

odel train sound systems have always been limited by the

physical size of the speakers that can

t in a scale model. Until now.

Broadway Limited locomotives equipped with the Paragon3 sound system transmit the low frequency portion of the locomotive sounds to the Rolling ThunderTM receiver. The receiver is connected to a powerful subwoofer that reproduces the deep rumbling sounds of a real locomotive, perfectly synchronized to the movement of the model and to the higher frequency sounds that continue to play through the speaker in the model. The result is the most realistic sounding model train ever made.

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Setup

For most layouts, the subwoofer should be positioned under the center of the layout. The receiver should be

RT Receiver

Subwoofer

RCA Cable

Wall Power

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positioned near the layout controls, plugged into a household outlet. The

red power light will ash for a few

seconds, then stay on. The supplied RCA cable should be used to connect the receiver to the subwoofer. To start, set the Subwoofer Level knob to 6 and the Low Pass Frequency knob to 200. Turn on the power switch.

LOW PASS

FREQUENCY (Hz)

SUBWOOFER

LEVEL

Place your Paragon3 locomotive on the track and operate normally. You should hear the deep low frequency

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sounds coming from the subwoofer within a few seconds of starting the locomotive. If you do not hear the

subwoofer after the rst 10 seconds

of running the locomotive, you may need to position the receiver and the locomotive closer together. The locomotive can typically transmit about 15 feet, but may need to be closer to the receiver to begin transmitting. Positioning the receiver near the height of the track will improve reception.

When running a locomotive, adjusting the volume of the locomotive with Function Key 8 or with the DC Master will also adjust the volume played through the subwoofer.

Setting CV214 for a locomotive will adjust the subwoofer volume for that locomotive. The range is 0-255. A

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higher number is louder. The default is 128.

If you are running one locomotive at a time on a layout less than 15 feet long, you probably don’t need to read the rest of this manual.

Using Multiple Locomotives

The subwoofer can only play the sounds of one locomotive at a time.

Once the receiver locks onto the rst

locomotive, it will continue to play the sounds from that locomotive until that locomotive moves out of range or is turned off, after which the next available locomotive will begin playing through the subwoofer. If more than one locomotive is running at the same time, each locomotive must be set to a unique transmit channel. There are 29 channels,

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selected by setting CV 212 for that locomotive to a value between 1 and 29. Channels 1-4 should be used

rst, Then 5,6, 7, etc. (Using channels

5-29 require changing CV143 in the receiver to match the highest channel number. See page 16).

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Larger Layouts

For larger layouts or in areas with unusual electrical interference, it may be necessary to increase the transmitter power of the locomotive. To do that set CV213 for that locomotive according to the following table.

Transmitter Power Level

(915 MHz)

Locomotive CV 213

Value

1 (Lowest) 240

2 224 3 208 4 192 5 176 6 160 7 144

8 (Highest) 128

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Fading

It is difcult for our ears to tell the

direction of low frequency sounds, so when the locomotive is close to the subwoofer it appears that all the sounds are coming from the locomotive. If the locomotive gets too far from the subwoofer while still transmitting, it becomes apparent to the listener that the low frequency sounds are not coming from the locomotive. For this reason, once the locomotive starts to get out of transmission range, the subwoofer sounds will begin to fade away.

Once the locomotive (or another

locomotive) gets close to the receiver again, the low frequency sounds will gradually fade in and begin playing again.

On smaller layouts, this effect is kind

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of cool, so you may want to achieve it by moving the receiver all the way to one end of the layout, or farther. You may also need to lower the transmitter power of the locomotive so the sounds can fade in and out. Very small layouts may require some

ne tuning of the receiver. See below.

Multiple Receivers and Subwoofers

Larger layouts can be equipped with multiple receivers and transmitters. If they are spaced out around the layout, the low frequency sounds will follow the locomotive as it moves around the layout. This provides a very realistic effect.

Fine Tuning the Receiver

There are a number of settings in the receiver that can be adjusted

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using the BLI DCMaster or any NMRA compliant Digital Command Control

(DCC) system. To set using a DC

Master or DCC, instead of plugging the receiver into household power use the supplied track power cable and connect the receiver to your track.

Using DCMaster, hold both the Aux and Vol buttons down while turning on track power all the way. Then use the Bell and Horn buttons to display the CV you want to change. Press Vol to select. Then use Bell and Horn to display the new value. Press Vol to select.

For DCC, the receiver’s default address is 1. You will need to use Operations Mode programming. To change CV’s, press the Program/ Reset button on the receiver for one

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second. The power light will start

ashing. Program the desired CV’s

and then press the Program/Reset button again to exit the programming mode.

After programming, it is best to switch back to the wall power plug to prevent inadvertent reprogramming.

RT Receiver

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Receiver Channels

The receiver must scan all available

channels until it nds a locomotive.

To scan faster, the channels it scans are limited by CV’s 142 and 143. CV142 sets the starting channel. Its default is 1. CV 143 sets the ending scan channel. Its default is 4. To use more than 4 separate locomotive channels, set CV143 for the receiver equal to the highest locomotive channel used. Acceptable values Are 1-29. Setting the value higher than needed can increase the time required for the receiver to connect to each locomotive.

To dedicate a subwoofer to one locomotive, set the receiver CV142 & 143 to the channel of the locomotive. Using this setup, you could, for example,

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set all the locomotives operating on one track loop to channel 1 and all the locomotives operating on second loop to operate on channel 2, and dedicate a receiver and subwoofer for each loop:

Loop 1, CV212 of the locomotives =1 and for that receiver CV142 = 1 and CV 143 = 1.

Loop 2, CV212 of the locomotives =2 and for that receiver CV142 = 2 and CV 143 = 2.

Two receivers can be connected to one subwoofer using BLI part #1597, Multi-Receiver Expansion Cable. Plug the expansion cable into the subwoofer, and connect the RCA cables from the receivers into the expansion cable.

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Reset

To reset the receiver to factory defaults, unplug the power cord. Hold down the Program/Reset button while plugging the power cord back

in. (Or set CV8 to 8.)

RT Receiver

USB CONNECTION

POWER INDICATOR

LIGHT

RESET / PROGRAM

BUTTON

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If the engine does not transmit far enough:

First, set CV213 to 128 in the locomotive, which sets the transmitter strength to maximum.

If that is not sufcient, change the

following CV’s in the receiver, using the instructions on page 14.

Set CV141 to 40 Set CV136 to 50 Set CV135 to 60

These settings lower the signal strength needed to lock onto a locomotive.

CV141 is the minimum signal strength to lock onto. Default is 100, so 40 is pretty low. Setting lower than 40 can cause it to lock onto background noise.

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CV135 is the signal strength above which the bass sound fades in.

(Default is 135)

CV136 is the signal strength below which the bass sound starts to fade

out. (Default is 111.) It has to be

lower than CV135. If the range is still

insufcient, set CV142 and CV143 to

1.

CV143 is the upper scan channel.

CV142 is the lower scan channel.

If CV142 and CV143 both equal 1, the receiver will only receive from locomotives on channel 1, instead of scanning. This helps if the signal strength is weakened by local interference. The locomotive must be set to channel 1 also, which is the

default setting. (CV212 = 1 in the

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locomotive.)

As a last resort, set CV132, (minimum

bass volume) to 60, and try setting CV141 to a lower value than

40.

For more detailed instructions, refer to the Rolling Thunder Technical Reference manual at:

www.broadway-limited.com

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NOTES:

____________________________________

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NOTES:

____________________________________

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Broadway Limited Imports, LLC

9 East Tower Circle

Ormond Beach, FL 32174

United States of America

TEL: 386.673.8900 FAX: 386.673.8080

E-mail: [email protected]

www.broadway-limited.com

www.facebook.com/BroadwayLimited

BROADWAY LIMITED IMPORTS, LLC