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HO scale BLI E8 runs slow?

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  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 7 posts
HO scale BLI E8 runs slow?
Posted by CRH380AL on Thursday, January 31, 2019 9:09 PM

I have an HO BLI E8A, and as far as I tested, it could only reach almost 80 scale mph with 4 Walthers passenger cars under full throttle on my NCE PowerCab system. Aren't these locos supposed to reach 100mph or more (I know some E8 with different gearing have a top speed of 85, but the model is still running slow)? 

I tried to adjust CV5 from 250 to 255 but that only had a tiny effect. I went over the Tech manual and adjusted CV66 which doesn't exist in the operator's manual, and there wasn't even a minor difference.

So is this a problem with the model itself? Is there a way to fix it?

  • Member since
    December 2015
  • From: Shenandoah Valley
  • 9,094 posts
Posted by BigDaddy on Saturday, February 2, 2019 9:47 AM

I'll give your post a bump, and maybe someone who knows more than I will comment.  I did see another complaint in another forum of low top speed, which the poster blamed on decoder power consumption.  None of the youtube videos I saw showed anything but slow operations.

CV66 is Forward Trim

"There are two more CVs for adjusting the forward and reverse speeds. CV 66 is the Forward Trim, CV 67 controls the Reverse Trim.
These CVs multiply all data points in the speed table (either CV 67 to 94 or CV 2,5,6) by a factor of n/128 (where n is the value stored in the CV). This results the overall speed curve to be adjusted up or down without the need to adjust the speed table data points again."


The CVs can hold values between 0 and 255. A trim value > 128 will result in a higher speed, a trim value < 128 will result in a lower speed. A value of 128 maintains the original scaling factor of 1 and will therefore have no influence in the speed curve."

The above is from the Loksound manual

Henry

COB Potomac & Northern

Shenandoah Valley

  • Member since
    January 2019
  • 7 posts
Posted by CRH380AL on Saturday, February 2, 2019 11:58 AM

Thanks.

I tried CV66 again today. I set it to 5 and it did slow down quite a lot, but when I set it to 200, there's no different from the original 128. maybe power consumption is the problem.

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