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Consisting Kato and Athearn units

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  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: St. Paul, MN
  • 82 posts
Consisting Kato and Athearn units
Posted by oarb00 on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 3:08 PM

Help !! I am trying to get my N scale Kato U30c's to run with an Athearn FP45 and it seems the two don't play well together. I have tried all methods I can find to speed match them and nothing seems to work. Niether of the two types are responding to CV5. I can adjust the starting voltages on both but cannot slow the top speeds down. If tried resetting the decoders. The FP45 wants to accelerate like a bat out of hell, but it's top speed is far slower than the Kato's. I have enabled speed tables on them both. I hope I don't have to program every individule CV67-49 to get them to behave. I have TCS decoders in both

 

  • Member since
    January 2001
  • From: SE Minnesota
  • 6,847 posts
Posted by jrbernier on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 3:47 PM

   Do a reset of the decoder to clear your previous work.  Start with CV2(vStart), and set the CV so that the engine starts to move at the 1st speed step on your throttle.  Then set CV5(vMax) to the top speed you want the engine to move at when the throttle is at the top speed step.  CV6(vMid) should be set for your average running speed.  Most decovers will average these values and build a speed table basen on them.

  If the model is 'stiff', you very well will need to set the individual speed steps and ditch the basic speed control.  I have two models that I had to use the speed tables.  Thank Heaven I had JMRI to adjust them!

Jim

Modeling BNSF  and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin

  • Member since
    January 2014
  • 25 posts
Posted by Iansa on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 8:36 PM

What brand are the dedoders?

There are some basic decoders that don't support CV's 5 &6

Cheers

  Ian

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Mpls/St.Paul
  • 13,892 posts
Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, May 14, 2014 11:48 AM

I would try what Jim suggests (except I usually get the running speeds matched before using CV2,3 and 4 to get them to start and stop together). It may be that in enabling speed tables you 'turned off' CV 5 (top speed) and CV 6 (mid-range speed). Remember when you do the resets that CV5 can only make an engine run slower that it's normal top speed, it can't make it go faster. A quick way to speed match would be to leave the slower engine as is (CV 5 and 6 at zero), and use CV5 and 6 to slow down the fast engine to match it.

Stix
  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: St. Paul, MN
  • 82 posts
Posted by oarb00 on Thursday, May 15, 2014 2:15 PM

Thanx for the input, I have tried all of that and it seems they only respond to CV2. The values are correctly showing what I program for CV5 and CV6 but they are still not slowing down. I have reset the decoders by programming CV8 to a value of 8. I have run the recovery program. Still not responding. They are TCS drop in decoders in both units.

 

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Thursday, May 15, 2014 2:43 PM

Hmm, TCS definitely supports CV5 for top speed and CV6 for mid speed. Or a 28 step speed table. I'd say check the value you are putting in CV29 to make sure you aren;t setting it to use a speed table, but if you did a CV8=8 reset it should be ok. Did it actually reset? TCS supports two different methods of resetting. If it defaulted back to address 3, then it did reset.

          --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    July 2010
  • From: St. Paul, MN
  • 82 posts
Posted by oarb00 on Friday, May 16, 2014 2:37 PM

Besides the CV8 Reset, what is the other method you mention?

 

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Friday, May 16, 2014 9:09 PM

 Actuially it's not CV8=8, it's CV8=2

The other one I think is CV30=2

           --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
    February 2007
  • From: Christiana, TN
  • 2,134 posts
Posted by CSX Robert on Wednesday, May 21, 2014 8:41 AM

 

oarb00
...Niether of the two types are responding to CV5...

oarb00
...I have enabled speed tables on them both...

If you have speed tables enabled, they will not respond to CV5.  If you want to use CV5 and CV6, then leave speed tables disabled, if you enable speed tables then you have to program the whole table to speed match them

oarb00
...I have reset the decoders by programming CV8 to a value of 8. I have run the recovery program. Still not responding. They are TCS drop in decoders in both units.

As Randy said, reset for TCS is program CV8 to 2, not 8.

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