My German is pretty rusty, so won't dive into the first language on this one. I have a Lenz Silver decoder that I'd like to set up for Rule 17 lighting, i.e. manually dimmable for locos standing on the siding to indicate they are in the clear, etc.
The Lenz manual suggests that Rule 17 lighting is available, but isn't explicit about how to implement it. I've exhausted my options in figuring this out. I found an old thread from 2006 here where someone asked about it in the course of a more general Lenz discussion, but never got an answer. Not much out there on the web on this (only six pages of returns on a Google search, mostly irrelevant.)
The one thing that did nsound like a possibility was engaging F3, which on a Lenz enables "swicthing speed" i.e. running really slow. They mentioned that the lights dimmede automatically when this was engaged. I had no luck with this, either.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I use the Lenz system also with both gold and silver direct decoders. I have not tried to acccomplish your aim and I'm certainly no expert on setting CVs in DCC. However, looking at the instruction manual for the Lenz Silver Direct decoder, I came across the following information which may be helpful to you.
CV 57: Dimming function (no factory setting); Range 0-255; Factory setting 0
CV 57: Function mapping - Each bit of the CV stands for a function of the digital system: Bit 0(1) for function 1; Bit 1(2) for function 2 and so on up to Bit 7(8) for function 8. If you wish to allocate a function for dimming, the respective bit in CV 57 must be set.
CV 58: Switching speed function (factory setting F3); Range 0-255; Factory setting 4. According to the manual, this CV only controls switching speed but not light dimming.
I hope you'll find this useful.
Protip: JMRI. Even if you don;t have a connection device to connect to your DCC system, or if it's one that's not supported (MRC), you can still use JMRI to calculate the CVs for you. There is a tab to view the decoder CVs, so what you do is configure JMRI for one of the system 'simulators' as the connection, and then go in and pick your decoder, make all the desired settings, and then view the CV pane, and program those values the usual way.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
DayWhitemtns,
Thanks. Those are the settings I played with to no avail. As you note, seems like it should be there with some random stabbing at those CVs, but no joy.
Randy,
Yeah, I plan on implementing JMRI/DecoderPro someday, but have some things to get out of the way before I do so. I do have a copy of it on my "new" computer, which is rather flaky running W7. Gonna have to get it figured out since MS has dropped active support for this one, which works fairly reliably (XP). Maybe will try a stab at it with DP off-network, as you suggest if no one who has done it gives advice.