Thank you Randy. I posted a reply several days ago but somehow it didn't show up. Any way, I think I know what I need to do now, so let's see what happens.
Mike
The NCE decoders have an adjustable kick start which help them start slower, so you will need to play around with that a little as well. The NCE decoder manual (they all have the same CVs, they are just different shapes and/or have more or less function wires) says to set the kick start CV65 to 0 first, then adjust CV2 in small increments until the loco barely moves on step 1. If it starts moving but doesn;t keep running, add a little to CV65 until it runs smoothly.
CV6 for mid speed and CV 5 for top speed are entirely up to you. Set CV5 first - the default is 0 which is the same as 255 or as fast as it can go. A value of 127 would be half that speed. Pick something reasonable for a switcher. Now, if you don;t set CV6, the default value of 0 will mean exactly halfway between the start in CV2 and the max in CV5. To extend the slow speed control, put a value bigger than that middle point in CV6. But don't exceed the value in CV5. So if you have CV2 at 5 and CV5 at 205, not putting anything in CV6 is like it having a value of 105. If you put in something between 105 and 205, you will have more speed steps in the slower speeds and then as you reach maximum throttle it will pick up speed. If you put a value between 5 and 105 in CV6, it will have just a few speed steps at low speed and a lot of fine adjustment in the faster speeds. You probably want the former for a switcher.
It's really pretty simple, CV2 sets how fast the loco moves on speed step 1. CV6 sets how fast the loco moves at 50% throttle, and CV5 sets how fast the loco moves at full throttle.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I recently purchared a brass 0-6-0 switcher with an NCE (I thinK) decoder (no sound) and I need to set the starting, mid, and top voltage for smooth passenger yard operation. I've read a lot of posts that speak to this question--sort of-- but they rarely are clear so I thought I'd try again and see if anyone had a straight forward suggestion.
My system is the MRC Prodigy Wireless.