Hello folks, I have a pair of Atlas N scale SD24s that were originally purchased dcc equipped with stock decoders. I believe they are Lenz leo63xf decoders. I replaced them with Digitrax drop in units because the Lenz units do not support cv2 and cv6. The problem is both units barely make about 35 scale MPH even thought cv5 is set to 255. My other Digitrax units do not have this issue. I usually have to decrease the value of cv5 to get a reasonable top speed. These locos did not have this problem with the Lenz decoder so I don't believe binding in the mechanism is the problem.
I also have several Atlas locomotives that run at crawl speed until they have a good 15 minutes of warmup runtime on them. Could this be due to excessive lubrication? Is it possible these decoders are not delivering the proper voltage to the motor despite the Cv setting? Thanks for any suggestions.
Sounds like maybe you have switching speed turned on - is F6 on? Digitrax decoders have a switching mode that cuts top speed in half and also cuts momentum levels in half when activated, the default function is F6.
Unless you need to reduce the top speed from what the decoder can do, you don't have to set CV5. Left at the default, the top speed will be as fast as it can possibly go.
First thing to do with a decoder that's acting wierd - reset it. For Digitrax, this is done by setting CV8 to 8. Test run it on address 3, which is what it should be if the reset took effect - this will also have no speed tables, no momentum, or anything else that might change how the decoder behaives. If the loco runs fine on address 3, first set the address you really want, and then start working on setting CV 2, 6 and 5.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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