Hi!
I've got factory installed decoders in my BLI locos, but will be installing some in Stewart F (kato drive) and ft (stewart drive) units at some point in the near future. I figure on getting NCE DASR decoders for the Stewart F units, and NCE D13SRP decoders for the FT locos. I "assume" these are OK, but if anybody feels I could do better, please advise.
Anyway, my real question is this....... I realize that decoders are set up for the number "3" as a default, but do all the other functions have defaults resident in the decoders? I feel this is a very basic question, but I just can't seem to find the answer to it in the literature I have on hand.
Thanks a lot,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
mobilman44 Hi! I've got factory installed decoders in my BLI locos, but will be installing some in Stewart F (kato drive) and ft (stewart drive) units at some point in the near future. I figure on getting NCE DASR decoders for the Stewart F units, and NCE D13SRP decoders for the FT locos. I "assume" these are OK, but if anybody feels I could do better, please advise. Anyway, my real question is this....... I realize that decoders are set up for the number "3" as a default, but do all the other functions have defaults resident in the decoders? I feel this is a very basic question, but I just can't seem to find the answer to it in the literature I have on hand. Thanks a lot, Mobilman44
I can't comment on the NCE decoders. I've only used Digitrax decoders to add to existing units. Yes, all registers in a decoder have a default value, even though some may be 0. The decoder manual should be able to tell you what the default value is.
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
davidmbedard This is why I preach about decoder Standardization. Or, at least, keep within a certain MFG. This allows you some working knowledge of the ins and outs of the particular decoder programming.
Amen to that, since you're "preaching."
My Bachmann trolley dims its lights when I press F1 for the bell, because they didn't go by the de-facto standard. I remapped the "coupler crash" sound on my diesel Tsunami down from the inaccessible F13 to F6, but they wouldn't let me put it on F3 where everyone else puts coupler crash.
Standardizing on a motor decoder isn't too bad, but standardizing on a sound decoder is much more difficult.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Since you're not using a sound decoder, it's basically going to be the same in so far as any decoder you install will use F-0 to turn the lights off and on, and come from the factory set with (unfortunately unprototypical) reversing headlights (only the headlight in the direction of travel is on); they'll also have no momentum and the CV's for start, max and mid-range speed will be "0" meaning they're shut off.
So when you install the decoder, the engine will work pretty much the same as it did in DC - if it goes 90 MPH at full throttle in DC, it should be somewhere in that range in DCC (maybe more, since it's speed won't be limited by the constant lighting circuitry in the light board.)
The only exception being if it has Back EMF "Cruise Control"...BLI engines with QSI decoders work a little differently, you have to turn the cruise control on and off via a Function button. On most other decoders, it's on all the time, so if you set the throttle to a certain speed the engine will maintain that speed without slowing down going uphill or speeding up going downhill without you needing to do anything.
If you want, you can install the decoder, change the ID to the engine no. and not do anything more and it will work on DCC just fine...but after time you may find that experimenting with momentum and lowering the top speed gives you more control and a more realistic-running engine (and that allows you to run it in a consist with other engines). You can also fine-tune the BEMF cruise control to make it have more or less compensation depending on your preferences.