Programming Problem with Loksound and Zephyr

[hobo9941]

I am trying to program a Loksound diesel decoder, with my original Zephyr. I am having a problem programming three digit CVs. I have programmed CV 32 to various values, 0, 1, 2 as per the instructions, to program the higher registers. But the Zephyr wont take 3 digit numbers. I was trying to program CV 139, and I entered the 1 and the 3 and when I hit the 9, the 1 and 3 disappeared and I kept getting 009 on the display. That happened with other CVs in the three digit values. The first two digits disappeared, when I entered the third digit. Am I doing something wrong?

I was able to program CV 120, 121 and 122 on an early Soundtrax DSD 100 unit, however.

[Mark R.]

The ESU engineers have taken these exceptions into account and provided a fairly easy process for adjusting the Extended Range CV's manually.

Manual Programming Procedure

In order to make full programming possible on any DCC system, ESU has implemented an on-board assistance tool.   This tool allows you to write the number of the desired CV temporarily into two assisting CV's (so-called address registers), since the usual CV's cannot be reached.    Next the value of the desired CV will be programmed into another assisting CV (so-called value register). When the value register is written, the content will be copied to the actual desired position and the assisting CV's will be reset back to 0.    Consequently, 3 CVs have to be programmed to write one CV.    These 3 CVs are described as follows:  CV96 - Address Offset (0 - 9) - Saves the CV number that should be actually programmed in hundreds.  CV97 - Address Offset (0 - 99) - Saves the CV number that should be actually programmed in units and tens.  CV99 - Value (0 - 255) - Saves the CV value that should be actually programmed.  Example:    You wish to program CV 317 with value 120.  Proceed as follows:  Program the value of the CV number in hundreds in CV 96.  In this example: CV 96 = 3.  Program the value of the CV number in units and tens in CV 97.  In this example: CV 97 = 17.  Program the desired value in CV 99.  In this example: CV 99 = 120.    As soon as you have programmed CV 99, the value of CV 99 will be transferred into CV 317.    Once the programming is finished, CV's 96, 97 and 99 will be set back to 0 automatically.  CAUTION:   Be sure to program the CV's in order starting with 96 as the data will be automatically written to the CV's once the value in 99 is entered.   This procedure is ONLY needed when programming CV’s above 255 on a system that cannot access extended range CV's.   Mark.

[betamax]

Bookmark this link for future reference:

https://dccwiki.com/Programming_ESU_Decoders

Much of the information from the previous post is in there, as well as a few other pointers.

 

 

[BigDaddy]

Not to hiijack the OP's question, but I thought the whole point of index cv's, CV 31 and 32, is that using different values, for CV 31 & 32, one could enter different values for, say, CV 317

I have a lokprogrammer and it prints out all the CVs with CV 32 = 0, 1,2,3 and 4. There is also CV 31 which can be 1 or 16.  Using the combinations, there are 7 ranges of values for the high number CV's

Everything is 0 for CV32=4, but with other combinations of CV31 and CV32 there are different values for CV 259, for instance.

How does the above technique address the index CV's?

I would think, maybe incorrrectly that if currently a high number CV is only actually is used once in modern practice, CV 259 would a value of 0 in all but one range.

[Stevert]

Get a Digitrax PR4 and use JMRI for your decoder programming.

JMRI does all the manipulations and calculations behind the scenes so all you have to do is point and click. It can also save the configuration of each of your locos in case you ever need to go back to it, or duplicate the setup in another loco.

There's really no need to have to struggle through setting indexed CV's.

http://jmri.org/

[rrinker]

 Indexed CVs aren't even complicated. It's the OTHER workaround to program CV numbers higher than 127 (or in some cases 99). 

 The two work together - The index CVs still apply, but instea dof addressign the base CV directly, you need to set the other two to chose a high number base CV. It's not one thing or the other, it's both, if using a system that can;t directly set a CV number of say 329. 

Do get a PR4, not a PR3. Or SPROG, to use JMRI. The direct mode is FAR faster at reading all those CVs than the older devices.  There are a lot of CVs in a Loksound, but most of it is just the function mapping table, which is row after row of the same thing, allowing you to define which F key turns on which wire and/or plays which sound under what conditions.

                                          --Randy

[hobo9941]

Thanks for all the info. I don't do a lot of fine tuning and programming. I just wanted to disable the "Press F8" requirement for the sound on a Loksound unit, so it didn't go through the whole startup sequence every time there was a momentary short or power loss.