There's been a lot of questions lately on how to program the extensive CV's in the Loksound decoders. Seeing as how a good number of factory equipped engines are coming with Loksound decoders, I'm sure there will be a lot more to come !
Here's a little known option for you to take full advantage of the Loksound programming software to program your Loksound decoders manually without having to actually purchase the Loksound programmer hardware.
First, go to the ESU site and download the Loksound programmer software ....
http://www.esu.eu/en/downloads/software/lokprogrammer/
Next, you will need to download the sound file that is in your engine from the site and save it to your desktop. Once you have installed the programmer software and your sound file, double-click the sound file and it will open in the Lokprogrammer.
You can now go through all the various windows and make all your required changes you want using all the on-screen controls. Once you have made the changes you want, go to the top toolbar and click on tools. Select the SHOW CHANGED CV's option. This will give you a window showing all the CV's you have changed and their values. Using this list, you can now change all the proper CV's manually using your DCC system.
Understanding all those indexed CV's in the upper registers can be confusing. By using the programmer software in this manner, all the confusion is eliminated.
Mark.
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How do you get through all the error messages that say can not find or can not communicate with decoder? Without the programmer all you will get is error messages.
Pete
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I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
locoi1sa Mark. How do you get through all the error messages that say can not find or can not communicate with decoder? Without the programmer all you will get is error messages. Pete
Not sure why you would be getting any error messages Pete - you are just playing with the software loaded on your computer. You will get error messages if you try to do something like read or write the decoder, as it obviously isn't there. I get no error messages at all when I open the program without my programmer hardware plugged in. (?)
I do the same thing with other manufacturers software that I don't have hardware for no problem either.
Mark R.Here's a little known option for you to take full advantage of the Loksound programming software to program your Loksound decoders manually without having to actually purchase the Loksound programmer hardware. First, go to the ESU site and download the Loksound programmer software ....
I (and others) have been advocating this method for some time now, using JMRI software, for folks who either don't have a computer to DCC interface, or don't have one that JMRI can support (Hello MRC!).
With JMRI, it works well for any decoder in it's library (there are many!). There isn't a "show changed" feature as such, but if you go to the CV pane it lists all the CV's and their values, with the ones you've changed highlighted.
On the other hand, although I haven't tried the Lokprogrammer software, it sounds like a nice piece of software tailored to the needs of the ESU decoders. Probably a good addition to the toolkit of anyone with those decoders.
Thanks for posting this, Mark!
P.S. JMRI allows you to pick a simulated DCC connection, which would eliminate any errors due to a physical device not being found.
There's a couple advantages of using the Lokprogrammer software over the JMRI for Loksound specific decoders ....
First is the fact JMRI isn't fully complete yet for all the Loksound parameters - especially the function mapping.
Second, when viewing the CHANGED CV list in the Lokprogrammer, it also tells you the values to be set in CV31 and CV32 for each of the upper register CV's you have changed - no guesswork there either.
This really shouldn't be a hard decision maker - the software is a free download, you have nothing to purchase. The onscreen windows are WAY easier to decipher than pages and pages of written text and calculations in any manual. You will probably end up changing some great features that you didn't even know existed in your decoder !
I just gave it a try and it did work. When I use the programmer I get some error messages sometimes. I had to get the new USB cable and the version 4.4.5 locked up my computer. I reverted back to the version 4.4.0.
locoi1sa Mark. I just gave it a try and it did work. When I use the programmer I get some error messages sometimes. I had to get the new USB cable and the version 4.4.5 locked up my computer. I reverted back to the version 4.4.0. Pete
This thread is intended for folks who don't have the Lokprogrammer hardware. Getting error messages with your hardware plugged in is a whole other topic. Just running the software in the manner I described gives folks the opportunity to accurately see the required CV changes so they can program them manually using their own DCC system.
As a side note, by reverting back to the 4.4.0 version software, you will get error messages when you attempt to upload the latest release sound files to your decoder using the Lokprogrammer hardware. The latest sound files were created using the later version of the software. You will need at least version 4.4.3 in order to load them. Otherwise you will continue to get more error messages.