I recently acquired an NW2 from BLI. I only have 1 other BLI product and a couple QSI equipped Locos. The rest of my stuff (40+) are all Tsunami equipped. Paragon and QSI appear to be kissin' cousins in many ways and I am pathetic at understanding the settings with these two systems.
My NW2 will run at speed step 1. As a matter of fact it's almost too slow-sluggish would be a better description. The decoder defaults to 128 step and I would prefer 28 step. After ready through the user manual and 100 pgs.of the 192 pg. tech manual I give up. I would prefer my switchers to be more responsive to throttle settings.....like almost direct drive. I've played around with CV's 3 & 4, no help. In a nutshell what I would like to accomplish is to use 28 speed steps and to get a more responsive reaction to throttle settings and higher speeds. I think CV2 is part of my problem. I screwed with the speed table and ended up having to perform a reset.
Reading thru the manual, I feel like a chimp trying to put a 1000 pc. Jigsaw puzzle together. The loco in question is sound equipped and I'm using an NCE Powercab. I' d tear my hair out, but I don't have any.
Thanks
Hergy Reading thru the manual, I feel like a chimp trying to put a 1000 pc. Jigsaw puzzle together. The loco in question is sound equipped and I'm using an NCE Powercab. I' d tear my hair out, but I don't have any.
Please see page 19 of the PowerCab manual: http://www.ncedcc.com/images/stories/manuals/power_cab_manual_v1.28.pdf
Down the bottom of the PowerCab you'll see 4 buttons. Second from the right is marked 28/128. Stop running the engine and push that button. Either 28 or 128 will appear on the Cab display. If the display does not show 28, push the button again. When it does show 28, try running your engine again.
I'll refrain from making any banana comments or bald jokes
You may also try setting CV3 &4 to 3 and set CV2 to the default. Then adjust CV 5 to what you want for the top end (fastest running) and take note of that setting. Make CV6 higher than what is the middle of CV2 &5. As an example if CV2 is 0 and CV5 is 200 if you make CV6 which is the mid voltage 130 then the loco will have fast acceleration at the slower speed steps. Another thing to check is CV29. Make sure it is set for 28/128 speed steps. Then make sure the Power Cab is set for 28 speed steps.
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!
If you set CVs 2,3,4,5 and 6 to zero, the engine should behave pretty much the same as it did under DC. From there you can adjust the top speed (CV5) and momemtum (3 and 4) if you wish.
If it's too slow on step 1, the fix is to increase CV2, however this will also make it leap into motion as soon as you hit the throttle.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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I'm aware of the 28/128 button. I want the default to be 28. Works for sndtrxx, once set it stays. I'm also going to turn off BEMF (cv10). I've already turned off acceleration & decel (cv 3&4) no help. I'm using Decoder Pro so I guess I can try changing cv 2,3,4,5 & 6. Cv 29 is set for 28/128. I just loaded loco into Decoder pro in its current configuration so if fiddling with the CV's above don't work I can restore back to current config.
28/128 speed steps is not a decoder function, it is the throttle/command station. The settings in the decoder are exactly the same regardless if 28 or 128 steps are used.
Hergy I'm aware of the 28/128 button. I want the default to be 28. Works for sndtrxx, once set it stays.
I'm aware of the 28/128 button. I want the default to be 28. Works for sndtrxx, once set it stays.
Should work the same for the decoder you have.
Hello again
Well, I spent a couple hours last night experimenting with primarily CV's 2,3,4,5,6 and 10. What I finally determined was that cv6 or V MID was set at the factory default of 50/255. After trying various values I settled on a setting of 150. As another poster mentioned, this puts more speed at the lower end. I also tweaked cv2 one step. Slowly, I returned the rest of the cv's (3,4) back to the default values and turned BEMF (cv10) back on.
The sluggish response was due to the cv6 setting. Others may be happy with the original factory settings, but I am much more pleased with the speed and throttle control now at the low end. This has been a good lesson for me as this is the first loco I've had to tweak in this manor. Thanks to all who responded. Tonight, if I get a chance I'm going to try to mess with the speed tables to measure the running qualities against the current settings.
I have found that just using the basic 3 CVs for acceleration is fine and using speed tables can do more frustration than needs to be done. CV2 start, CV6 mid, and CV5 should get you a dual straight line acceleration in 2 phases. On my switchers I set the mid higher than the center of low and high. On my road engines it is either in the middle or below. On my helper fleet CV6 is set a little lower than the road engines. This prevents bunching the train on curves but not so much that it will sting line the train at a quarter of throttle. Some people disable CV3 and 4 but I like to add just a little maybe between 3 and 10 depending on the decoder and loco combination. This is because of club operations where there is rarely a half mile to stop to avert a disaster.