Consist Headlights - DCC Programming

[jrbernier]

  Currently I have been leaving the lights default to the standard forward/reverse directional lighting.  Is there a way to control the lights so that they work like the prototype - the mid-consist engines have dark lights in either direction, and the trailing unit is dark, unless the consist is backing up.  I currently have a mix of Digitrax DH163 and TCS DP5 decoders in my engines.  I normally 'consist' using command station consisting on my Digitrax system.  Can what I want be done with 'command station' consisting, or do I need to use 'advanced' consisting in the decoders?  Any link to a 'how to' would be nice - Thanks!

Jim

[rrinker]

 For command station consisting there isn;t much you can do besides manually control the lights (since you can have the consist on one throttle and any single loco from the consist on the second throttle - so you can put a sound unit between two non-sound and still control the sounds.

If you try CV19 advanced consisting you can set CV21 and CV22 to control which functions are active on each loco in the consist - so the lead loco would have F0F active but not F0R, and the trailing unut would have FoR active but not F0F. Limited to 2 digit addresses below 127, what fits in CV19.

FOr pairs I have that always run together, I just program them to the same address. I also configure the lighting CVs such that the lead unit only has the front light functional and the trailing unit has the rear light functional. If I stuck in a 3rd or 4th unit I would set the lights on those to be disabled. Since I don;t have any lights besides headlight and backup light in any of my locos, this works out quite fine.

 Sound can be a bit tougher, if multiple units in the consist have sound, then CV19 is probably the best way to go so that the horn and bell can be disabled on any trailing units. MTH already thought of this, the FA B unit has no horn and bell sounds to begin with, so you only get sound fromt he A. My F units are backwards because in both cases the ONLY sound decoder is in a B unit, the A's are motor-only. Works fine as long as you don;t put your ear right ip to the loco and discover the true source.

                              --Randy