I have an older Lenz DCC system which I had previuosly upgrade to the 3.0 version. Lenz now has the 3.6 version upgrade available.
Does anyone have experience doing this upgrade themselves? I would rather not send it in to Lenz if I can avoid it since they will send me the EPROM to do it myself.
Don
If you have the proper tools and equipment can do it yourself. You asking for help - leads me to believe you are not comfortable in this- might be better off sending it back and having it done.
If you have the proper tools and equipment can do it yourself.
You asking for help - leads me to believe you are not comfortable in this- might be better off sending it back and having it done.
Don.
Not only does the LZ100 or LZV100 need the upgrade but the throttles need the upgrade also. The LH90 if you have any needs to be sent in for the upgrade. They are not user upgrade able. The LH100 can be done anywhere. Since Debbie Ames has retired AHD has taken over the Lenz America distributors. They are a side to Tony's trains exchange. They can be reached through the Lenz web site or you can call them with the 1-800 number from the web site. http://www.amhobby.com/support/contact.html I would call them first and make arrangements to have your whole system done at the same time. It should be a one day turnaround for them if arranged in advance.
As an aside. If you have any LV102 boosters the upgrade will enable Railcom in them. When the club did the upgrade to their systems we had a few NCE decoders that were messed up and needed to disable Railcom in the LV102 boosters. This only affected older NCE decoders and none other.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
I forgot to add that while the systems are being upgraded you may have them also change out the Cmos batteries at the same time. Depending on how old the components are. They do not last forever.
Also after the upgrade all your consists and double headers will be lost. You might as well kill all them before sending the system.
Thank you for your responses Woodone and Pete,
I do not have an LH90, so that is not an issue, but it does sound like it would be best for me to send it in.
I have a Lenz System 100 with an extra LH90 throttle added on, but the LH100 is my primary throttle, and I seldom use the LH90.
Looking at the upgrade information, I'm not sure that I would want to do it. It appears that the stack size on the LH100 in version 3.6 is 12 locomotives. The version I have now supports 32 locomotives in the stack. Since consists require both the consist address and the individual locomotive addresses to be on the stack, I typically have more than 12 addresses on my throttle. The upgrade, which seems to mostly add support for higher function numbers, doesn't seem worth the reduced stack size.
Is my interpretation of this correct, or can I still keep 32 addresses on the stack?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
I had the upgrade done by Lenz USA about six months ago including the command station and one LH90. I had the system returned within fourteen days (after making prior arrangements) and the total cost was $60.00 plus shipping. My LH100 was already V3.6 so didn't need to do that unit. Gerry S.
MisterBeasley I have a Lenz System 100 with an extra LH90 throttle added on, but the LH100 is my primary throttle, and I seldom use the LH90. Looking at the upgrade information, I'm not sure that I would want to do it. It appears that the stack size on the LH100 in version 3.6 is 12 locomotives. The version I have now supports 32 locomotives in the stack. Since consists require both the consist address and the individual locomotive addresses to be on the stack, I typically have more than 12 addresses on my throttle. The upgrade, which seems to mostly add support for higher function numbers, doesn't seem worth the reduced stack size. Is my interpretation of this correct, or can I still keep 32 addresses on the stack?
From reading the version 3 and version 3.6 of the manuals, it is not but my understanding is that the 1-12 loco LH100 stack is seperate form the command station stack.
CSX Robert From reading the version 3 and version 3.6 of the manuals, it is not but my understanding is that the 1-12 loco LH100 stack is seperate form the command station stack.
Thanks. I've sent a message to Lenz via their web site. I'll keep you posted.
Mr B.
Version 3.6 lenz handles 32 throttle addresses each LH100 throttle has a stack of 12 addresses. Each LH90 has 8 addresses. Each command station houses 256 entries in its database. The command station database will recall each loco entry and any function button and MU or DH changes to that loco. It also allows you to make any function button between 1 through 28 momentary instead of press once for on and press again for off. If your decoders have bidirectional capabilities you can read CVs on the mainline. Most users will not need the railcom and with some older decoders it must be disabled. I guess if you want a computer controlled layout then railcom will benefit that with bidirectional communications between loco and command station.
I guess I'm confused about the size and location of the stack. On my LH100, I have 22 locomotive addresses, and I can scroll through them all. On my LH90, I only have 8 scrollable addresses, so I have to remove one of them to run a locomotive that's not on the LH90 stack to make room.
Is the LH100 (which is an older SW version, about 6 years old now) recalling addresses only from its own stack, or is it reading all the addresses from the base station and showing them? And, if the LH100 can scroll and select from any address in the base station, then what's the point of the stack in the first place?
If you are recalling by using the CL key and then the minus key you are pulling addresses out of the command station database. Version 3 let you toggle between 2 locos using the ESC key. The latest version uses the ESC key to scroll through up to 12 addresses held in the throttle. You can also pull addresses out of the command station database by using the CL and minus keys. Like our club if there is about 200 loco addresses in the command station it would take awhile to recall one of them. That is why they added 12 recall slots to the ESC key in version 3.6. The amount of recall slots are customizable in version 3.6. On my LH90 there are up to 8 recall slots but I have mine set to only 4 so I can toggle between locos faster. On the LH100 you can cut the amount of recall slots down to 2 if you would like to.
OK, thanks. I guess it makes sense.
The last time I added a new engine, I guess I hit a point where scrolling through all of those addresses was taking so long that I found it was easier to just punch in each address manually.
My personal opinion and that's all it is. If you have no need for the upgrade why bother? Continue to run the system as always.
MisterBeasley OK, thanks. I guess it makes sense. The last time I added a new engine, I guess I hit a point where scrolling through all of those addresses was taking so long that I found it was easier to just punch in each address manually.
This pretty much sums up my feelign on the marketing use of some large recall stack being a 'feature'. What REAL use is a 32 slot recall stack if you have to press some button 31 times to get to the next to last one? You can press a maximum of about 6 buttons on any DCC system to select ANY address, assuming the addresses are a full 4 digits long. 2 and 3 digit addresses reduce that even further, which IMO makes a recall stack not such a big deal.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Randy.
You may be confusing the command station database with a recall stack. Although you can recall locos from the database it is used as storage of information about that loco. Each throttle has its recall stack up to 12. It is customizable to anywhere between 2 and 12 locos on the LH100 throttle. So in effect you can have a recall of 2 if you want.
The command station database holds up to 256 entries. Of those 256 entries a loco could be listed several times. For example I have loco 1234. I enter it in the database and run it around the track. Then I MU 1234 with 5678. The 2 digit MU address takes up one of the 256 entries until you dismantle and clear the MU. Recalling locos out of the database on the LH100 allows you to delete an entry. It is possible to fill the 256 slots. We have done it several times. When the database is full you will receive an error code on the throttle. Clearing an entry can be a pain if not done right. It is easier to do a system reset and dump the whole system memory. Most of the time the database is full because someone adds entries falsely. Typing the wrong addresses and hitting the enter key adds a lot of slot filling bytes.
I'm not confusing it with anything, that's the same way Digitrax works, except that every loco in the Digitrax command station stack gets command sent to it, it's never just storage. When you stop running one and release it from the throttle, it goes out of the command station stack. The recall stack is simply a list of recently used locos 0- currently active or not, just the last 4/8/16 locos you ever keyed in to teh throttle - specific only to that throttle. All or none of them could be actually running on the layout.
Ok Randy.
The Lenz system will not send change commands to a loco in the database unless it is addressed in a throttle. It is true you can start a loco and remove it from the throttle stack and it will follow the last command given. Even if you power down the layout and power up again. The loco will resume its last speed and direction even if not controlled by a throttle. I have removed locos with the bell ringing only to take them back to the club several sessions later and just setting them on the rails gets the bell ringing again. Then I have to address a throttle and shut it off. I think my friends Digitrax system does the same thing. He has through trains run by themselves during op sessions so we have to work around them.