A little while ago, I ordered a Piko BR221. Very nice model, but doesn't come with sound, so I also ordered a Loksound5 and asked the dealer to program it with the V200.1 sound package. Usually that works flawlessly, but not this time. I got an empty Loksound5 with only the default sounds, and a note that it was programmed. Urgh. No point to send this back to Germany.
To fix the programming I borrowed an ESU LokProgrammer from another ETE member. The unit had been rarely used and mostly sat on a shelf since 2011.
The LokProgrammer comes with a serial port. It took me a while to hash out problems with the USB/Serial cable that was in the box. ESU ships USB/Serial cables with a chipset from FTDI, but the cable I had came up as Prolific and the driver refused to function. I eventually determined that this was not an original ESU cable and tried using an USB/Serial cable with a FTDI chipset I had at hand. That worked and the LokProgrammer software was able to detect the LokProgrammer. The program's UI is functional, but not exactly user friendly or logical. It feels like 20+ year old software ... which it is.
Nevertheless, 30 minutes later the BR221 had the sounds programmed properly, and when firing it up I got the rumbling sounds of the two Maybach 12 cylinder diesels.
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