have an Athearn and a Proto 2000 that I tried to put in a consist last night, even though I did it quick last night... it seemed that either one was pulling the other and the wheels were spinning... is there a way to avoid that...
Mike
GrandFunkRailroad wrote: have an Athearn and a Proto 2000 that I tried to put in a consist last night, even though I did it quick last night... it seemed that either one was pulling the other and the wheels were spinning... is there a way to avoid that...Mike
Not surprising. The P2Ks are geard much lower than the Athearns. You'll need to play with the speed tables to match their performance (assuming DCC here). If this is DC, you don't have any real good options.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
I consist a P2K and an Athearn Genesis SD45, i had to alter start voltage, v-mid and max voltage in motor settings. It takes some patiance but its do able. They now operate very good together. If one of them trys to drag the other while starting, increase the start voltage of the one thats lazy which will probebly be the P2K. IIRC, the range is 0-255, my P2K is around 12 for the start voltage whereas the Athearn is about 5.
After you get the locos adjusted to run together, if the decoders have Back EMF, you mightwant to turn that feature off when consisting. BEMF can cause the engines to "fight" eachother when assending or descending grades.
Tilden
I am assuming that it is easy to do with the Power Cab...
thanks for the info...
It has been suggested to speed match all your locos so you may have the oportunity to consist any locos at any time with little effort. I think this was a great suggestion and I am working towards it.
Some decoders automatically turn off the bemf when consited, I believe the digitrax do this but you will have to check out your manufacturers website to confirm. I know that the digitrax decoders cut the limits in half when consited and maybe thats why I don't see to much draging or jumping as you discribed.
John
still haven't attmepted this yet.... been busy with other things on the layout...
is it possible to burn out a decoder if not adjusted right?
It's possible to overload and burn up a decoder if it is not rated for sufficient stall current amperage to handle the motor that you're running from it.
If you have two or more locomotives in a consist and one of them is not properly adjusted, you could conceivably overload the decoder because that particular motor would be pulling too hard.
I have adjusted my locos to have very similar speeds. There are two ways to do it, the hard way and the easy way.
The hard way!
RTFM very carefully. Then put in all the CV:s in the decoder with your throttle.
The easy way!
Use a computer with JMRI (or maybe some other software) and an interface to your DCC system. In JMRI it's quite easy to add your locos and set all the different CVs.
When I adjusted my locos I started with adjusting the start voltage for the loco, then I set the maximum speed in the speed table to be something near 60 MPH. Then I finetuned the forward and reverse speeds so the loco was running with the same speed in both directions at maximum throttle.
The fine thing with using a computer is that you don't need a throttle that can program. And the computer is much better than man to download a complete speed table to the decoder in the loco. Another advantage is that you store your settings on the computer and can easily put them in a new decoder if you need to replace it. When I have programmed similar locos i have copied the data and used it for the new loco.
When I have run my locos in a consist it has worked very well. I have only tried two locos in my consists so far.
GrandFunkRailroad wrote:still stuck at square one... how or where do I start to adjust voltage to make sure both decoders act the same....
Mr. Railroad, or may I call you Grand? In no way, shape, form or manner am I a DCC Guru but if I were I think my first bit of advice would be to read your manuel, the parts about setting start voltage, etc. and especially consisting. I have found that getting started in DCC is not too difficult, but if you want to go beyond getting started, and it's obvious you do, then you are facing a steep learning curve. There are others on this forum who can help you, but there's only so much they can do in the brief amount of time (space) available. Do a search on this forum using keywords such as, "Consisting,'" go to digitrax.com and join the DCC forum buy a book on DCC and especially seek out someone locally who can give you some hands-on help and again, read that manuel from front to back.