Setting Up the Grade Crossing On Quantum Q2 Decoders

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The Quantum Decoders have impressive, uniquely customizable, “Grade Crossing Effects”. Here are some of the options to use them!

Here we'll show you how to set-up your Grade Crossing signal on Q2 decoders so that with a single function button you can alert everyone of your incoming train! First we'll reset function three to trigger the grade crossing then we'll show you how to adjust the timing of all the horn blasts and silent periods.

Setting the Function Key

We are going to use function 3 for our grade crossing. This will disable the couple crash sound which is usually on function 3 but only when the locomotive is moving. The coupler sound will work just fine when the locomotive is stopped. The CVs to map the grade crossing to F3 are: CV50=0, CV49=5, CV53=154.

Setting Up the Timing

With Q2 you can also adjust the timing of each horn blast and silent period so you can truly customize the length of the grade crossing signal for the size of your pike. If you want to customize the default, I will make a recommendation of what CVs I used to do this.

You will use the value in CV50 to direct which part of the grade crossing you are changing the timing on. CV49 will always be set to 154 in this case but you still need to enter it EVERY TIME. CV55 then contains the final value that represents the amount of time that either the horn blasts for or the length of silence between horn blasts. CV 55 has a potential range of 0-255 with each value representing a 0.1 second increment of time, so a value of 25 into CV55 equals a 2.5 second blast on the horn. It is very important that the CV's get programmed in the order they are listed. If you do this on the main line or in “ops” mode then our verbal CV acknowledgment will let you know you've done everything correctly by reading back the ENTIRE number (example the decoder will actually speak out: CV five, five point one five four point zero equals xxx.

HORN BLAST 1
CV50=0
CV49=154
CV55= default 30 (horn sounds for 3 seconds) I set this for 15 so the horn sounds for 1.5 seconds.*

SILENT PERIOD 1
CV50=1
CV49=154
CV55= default 15 (silence for 1.5 seconds) I set this for 20 so there is silence for 2 seconds.*

HORN BLAST 2
CV50=2
CV49=154
CV55= default 30 (horn sounds for 3 seconds) I set this for 15 so the horn sounds for 1.5 seconds.*

SILENT PERIOD 2
CV50=3
CV49=154
CV55= default 15 (silence for 1.5 seconds) I set this for 20 so there's silence for 2 seconds.

HORN BLAST 3
CV50=4
CV49=154
CV55= default 10 (horn sounds for 1 second) I set this for 2 so the horn sounds for .2 seconds.*

SILENT PERIOD 3
CV50=5
CV49=154
CV55= default 15 (silence for 1.5 seconds) I set this for 20 so there's silence for 2 seconds.

HORN BLAST 4
CV50=6
CV49=154
CV55= default 30 (horn sounds for 3 seconds) I set this for 17 so the horn sounds for 1.7 seconds. It sounds better when you leave this last blast a little longer than the initial two.*

* It should be noted that these parameters will not work well with certain whistle/horn recordings. It depends heavily on the amount of reverb in the recording, if there is a lot of ambient noise to the end of the recording you may need to lengthen the times to allow for a little sonic spill over. If the silent period interrupts the end of the horn blast it can cut the horn off too early which disturbs overall effect. The horns I typically use are single chime WABCO and Typhon A styles which have very short, succinct recordings.