Settings for DCC control and locos.

[ttc0169]

Hi Lads,

 

As you know my layout Tara Jctn has been converted to DCC control over the last few weeks-and I'm definatly NOT going back....,

One thing that I cant seem to understand/set up properly is the Start Voltage,Top voltage,Acceleration,deceleration etc on my 201 locos,

An example;

Loco 220 and 221 go like a rocket when the control knob is only turned to (1) so I cant use these for shunting anything,however locos 201,202,210,229 have the right amount of speed-until you try and shunt coaches slowly into the valeting plant-they go a little too fast and cause the coaches to derail,

My 141 locos have the right settings and havent caused any problems,

Can anyone suggest/recommend what settings I should try on these locos in order to achieve slow speed shunting and fast running on the mainlines,

I'm also having trouble with the headlights not coming on in the direction of travel-and in some locos the cab lights dont work either.

I'm using the Gaugemaster Prodigy advance 2 as my controller,

Any help is much appreciated-Thanks lads.

[BosKonay]

Which chips have you in the 201's?

[ttc0169]

Which chips have you in the 201's?

 

Two are fitted with sound chips,while the rest have all Bachmann standard chips.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

You need to adjust CV2 for you start voltage. When you go to notch 1 on the controller the loco should just move at a crawl it sounds to me that you have to high a setting on CV2 try giving it a value of 0 or 1 and see what happens. If the loco does not move then increase the value by one keep doing this until the loco starts to move at a very slow crawl. As for top voltage I very rarely bother with this as I just keep notching up until I get the speed I want. Your top speed voltage is controlled by CV5.

 

The lights on the 201's ain't the problem its the circuit board there ain't much you can do about this its a pain it the backside I have 10 x 201's and there are all different when it comes to the lights. The one that I fitted the TCS 21 pin decoder to and made adjustments to the circuit board works great the only other one that works is 210 with the sound decoder fitted. I spent an hour one day fitting and testing the sound decoder to all my other 201's to see if the lights were working on them and only 222 did everything it was supposed to do.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Have a look at this it maybe of some help

 

http://www.nmrailrunners.org/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/dccshortcutscard.pdf

[djkonore]

Make sure your actually using a decoder and not just the DC analogue blanking plate that is provided with the loco. If so it will not run properly at slow speeds and the other functions may not work. Failing that.......,,Each decoder has a list of CV's. Each CV is assigned to a particular function. Each CV has a range of numbers that can be adjusted to set the desired value of an individual function, ie. acceleration, auxiliary lights etc. Check the CV list for your decoders on-line. Everything you can think of is usually adjustable, although more expensive chips have more functions. As a suggestion, I like to use the momentum function on my controller which is applicable to all of my decoders. This function provides very smooth starting and stopping even if I select a high speed. Regardless of the momentum function, you should be able to run at extremely slow speeds with DCC. Hope that helps.

[ttc0169]

Many thanks Anthony and Conor for your valuable help,it's much appreciated ,

I seem to be getting the hang of things now.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

Many thanks Anthony and Conor for your valuable help,it's much appreciated ,

I seem to be getting the hang of things now.

 

Another month or so and you will be flying:-bd

[djkonore]

Happy to help, I've noticed some chips can jump suddenly between speed steps, again adding a little bit of momentum will smooth it out when notching up and down. You can also use your DCC controller to control point sequencing on the track etc. Lots of possibilities, Anto knows more about DCC than me.