Edit post

Edit your reply below.

Post Body
Enter your post below.
The CVs discussed are Configuration Values (or Variables -- I forget which) that are part of every decoder, regardless of vendor, and allow you to tweak the decoder settings as little or as much as you like. There are a couple of required ones that every decoder has to have, and then a few to a lot of optional ones depending on the vendor, type of decoder, etc. Getting a DDC decoder equiped loco to work can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it. Out of the box, the only change you absolutely should make to one is to set its address to whatever you want from the default of 03. If you don't have a lot of locos, you can use 2-digit addresses, or you can use 4 (usually the loco number) if you prefer. Once you do that, you can put it on the track and usually it'll run fine with the rest of the CVs at their default values. It's when you want to start tweaking the loco's performance or fine-tune certain features that you have to get into modifying other CVs. It sounds complex, but it doesn't take long to figure out how to do it. And do it once, and it'll make sense and become second nature after a while. The decoder vendors usually provide pretty good basic documentation with the decoder, and folks like Digitrax have complete programming manuals that explain as much as you'd like to know. It's almost a lot easier to do than to explain, and most of the DCC command station vendors make it pretty straightforward to do the programming.
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag

Update Reply

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Model Railroader Newsletter See all

Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!

Subscriber & Member Login

Edit post

Post Body

Tags (Optional)

Subscriber & Member Login

Users Online

Search the Community