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ATLAS master h-15/16-44 decoder problem. HO

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  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: malahide dublin ireland
  • 129 posts
Posted by fingalrailroad on Thursday, January 1, 2009 6:28 AM

 Good morning every one and a very Happy New Year.

Thank you for all the help on this problem,I run the loco on # 1050 and get very good results,I have not studyed dcc to much and can not comment on the the way the systems work.

It is fair to say that i have found my nce power cab and my pro cab super units.

                         Regars

                                     PATRICK.

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 11:01 AM

See page 50 of the PowerCab manual. Short addresses with NCE are 1-127. Long Addresses can be 1-9999. It syas that when programming it you only need the extra 0 if the address is below 100. Hoever, if you look on page 26, when selecting a loco to run, you need to enter the leading 0 for any long address below 127. So, to get 105 PROGRAMMED as a long address yo uonly need to enter 105 and seelct LONG as the address type. But to select and operate this loco you need to key in 0105 so it knows to use long address 105 and not short address 105.

 Again a confusing resulting from the failure of the NMRA to set one specific way for this to work (and to accomodate the pet Lenz who uses 1-99 as short and anythign over 99 as long). In the end we have confusing and a series of possible addresses that will not run on all DCC system. Your 0105 long address will not be accessible by a Digitrax system. If you set 105 as a short address, you could use it on Digitrax and NCE but not Lenz. You can set a long address in NCE of 0050 and it will be useable ONLY on an NCE system, Digitrax and Lenz could not address it. Seen this here many times - someone takes their loco to the club which uses NCE and it get set for a logn address of like 0050 and they take it home to their Digitrax and can't run it, or they have a PowerCab at home and set it to 0050 long address and take it to their Digitrax club layout and it won't run.

                                                   --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 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 10:53 PM

rrinker
NCE overlaps the address ranges, so 105 is a short address and 0105 is a long address

I understand the overlapping thing.  But I thought that if you were programming a long address with NCE, you had to add a zero in front of the desired address if it was only two digits (for example 025 if the address you wanted was 25), but did not have to add a zero if the desired address was three digits (for example 125).

Or is this only the case if the original three digit number is greater than 127?

In any case, if the long address is the active address, I thought that you would only have to put in the address that you wanted when you select the engine (for example 25, not 025 or 0025).  Is this not correct?

Anyway, the instructions for the decoder (see link above if you're interested) say that the short address range for CV1 is 1 through 99.  If this is really correct, I can't see how the NCE system can give it a short address between 100 and 127.  What am I missing there?

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 7:15 PM

 NCE overlaps the address ranges, so 105 is a short address and 0105 is a long address, two different addresses.. When selecting the loco you have to use the extra leading 0, this is how it tells if you want to control the short or long address.

                                        --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 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:59 PM

fingalrailroad

 Thanks MAXMAN i have licked!!!!!!!!! i retried the long address with an extra 0 and it works just fine,many thanks to all that helped.

                                 regards

                                            PATRICK

 

Just saw this.  Happy it worked out.  I wouldn't think you would have to enter the zero in front of the 105 if you are using the long address (ie: the long address is the active address).  Are you sure that you really have the long address active?  You know that (normally, I think) you can have short addresses up to 127.  Out of curiosity, go back and look at what is in CV1.  I say normally because looking at the decoder instructions I see that the range for this CV is given as 1 through 99, so maybe this particular decoder will not accept 105 as a short address.

Otherwise, glad you got it running.  I guess Irish Eyes were shining (sp?).

And a Happy New Year. 

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:49 PM

Does the engine still run on address 3?  If so, the short address is still the active address.  When you went through the programming and gave it long address 105, the system should have asked you if you wanted to make the long address active.  If you did not tell it "yes", the short address will still be active.

So the question right now is what address it is running on.  If address 3, then that address is still active.  If it does not run on 3, and does not run on 105, this would mean to me that it has been programmed to some other address which you may or may not have inadvertently entered by mistake.

Is it possible that you gave it a consist address by mistake?  Look at CV 19 and see what value it has.  It should be zero.  If there is anything other than zero in this CV, that means it has somehow been given a consist address.  Reset this CV to zero if necessary.

I don't have a PowerCab, but I do have the NCE PowerPro.  I think the process of programming engines is the same for both, at least as far as the cab displays is concerned.

If the above stuff does not get you going properly, then more information will probably be required so that the smarter folks on this forum can help you.  For example, are you using the programming on the main function, or the programming on the programming track function.  I think with the PowerCab you use the "on the main" choice all the time.  But be careful with this.  If you have more than one engine on the track at a time, and you go through that decoder resetting process you did to get the engine running on address 3 like you did, you will have reset all of your engines to address 3.  I suppose I should have mentioned this originally, but sometimes it is assumed that the person asking the question may have more knowledge than what they actually do.  So if you had more than one engine on the track when you did the resetting, you'll have to go back and re-program all of them.  And, as Maxwell Smart would say, "sorry about that chief!" 

Let us know how you make out.

Regards

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: malahide dublin ireland
  • 129 posts
Posted by fingalrailroad on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:40 PM

 Thanks MAXMAN i have licked!!!!!!!!! i retried the long address with an extra 0 and it works just fine,many thanks to all that helped.

                                 regards

                                            PATRICK

 

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: malahide dublin ireland
  • 129 posts
Posted by fingalrailroad on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 5:14 PM

 yes i have  followed your advice and i now have the loco running on address #3,it works fine.

BUT i can not get it to run in long address mode #105.it just sits on the track,i am using a nce powercab.

                                          patrick

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 3:21 PM

Well, you can try resetting the decoder.  According to page 6 of the instructions for this decoder, http://www.atlasrr.com/pdf/HO_H15-44Manual_Atlas.pdf

setting CV 8 to a value of 33 should reset the decoder to the default values.  This should reset the short address to 3.  Also according to the instructions, the default value of the short address CV (CV 1) will be "3" when you are done resetting.  I suggest that you look at CV 1 prior to resetting CV 8 to see what it is before you start.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: malahide dublin ireland
  • 129 posts
Posted by fingalrailroad on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 1:44 PM

 

 Yes i tried #5 but nothing happened .I AM just missing some detail as this is new out of the box.

                                                           patrick

                                                              

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,877 posts
Posted by maxman on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 12:54 PM

fingalrailroad
i checked Tonys list, and do not see a manf. # 127 listed

 

According to the NMRA, manufacturer number 127 is Atlas: http://www.nmra.com/standards/DCC/mfgnumbers.html

Did you try running the engine with short address 5 selected?

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: malahide dublin ireland
  • 129 posts
Posted by fingalrailroad on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 12:19 PM

 thanks DEN.

                        I have done all the bits required by the instructions, but no joy.I have read the ATLAS INSTRUCTIONS  on their site no luck there either.

                                                     patrick

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Plantsville Ct
  • 102 posts
Posted by dbradley on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 12:14 PM

Hi Patrick,

I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly you have to remove the body, pull the pin jumper, turn it around and reinstall it. But just to make sure, it's in the directions that came with the loco, check them to be safe.

Den.

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • From: malahide dublin ireland
  • 129 posts
ATLAS master h-15/16-44 decoder problem. HO
Posted by fingalrailroad on Tuesday, December 30, 2008 7:06 AM

 Hi every body,

                          Happy New Year from the Em erald isle.

         My christmas present from my granchildern was the  above.It runs fine on dc but when i changed to dcc nothing happens. the lights are on and i can read the manf '# of 127 ver.046 on theprogramming track.

i checked Tonys list, and do not see a manf. # 127 listed .who are they.also the default # was showing 5 instead of 3.

 any ideas on how to rescue this  situation.

                                             Regards

                                                                  PATRICK

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