Electronics and DCC

    i am running an nce dcc system and i am having problems consisting 2 locomotives with 2 different brand decoders. the decoders in question is a digitrax  decoder and a soundtraxx tsunami tsu 1000. my tsunami equipped loco will start moving at speed step 1 but the digitrax loco will not move untill at least speed step 12. i have tried modifying cv 2 6 and 5 as well as the speed tables but it does not help. i am happy with the response from the soundtraxx decoder but is there a way to get the digitrax decoder to start moving the loco on speed step 1. changing to 128 speed steps only compounds the issue. any help would be appreciated

Dan 

Does the Digitrax equipped loco start moving at speed step 1 when you are running it alone?

Which Digitrax decoder is it?

If so, there is a BEMF CV (Cant think of it right now) that comes into play when you are using advanced consisting.

Which type of consisting are you using?  Advanced or (as I think NCE calls it) Universal?

David B

I have a couple of Athearn loco's that i added Digitrax decoders to. I found that I had to set CV2 to a value of over 100 to get them to crawl at step 1 on my DT400 ( CV values 0-255 ). Remember you cannot set CV 6 to a value lower than CV2 and CV5 to a value lower than CV6.

good question as I ve had the same problem ,got two matching atlas rs3 one with psunami at1000 other w/dh165 thought Id run em together same address but Ive never got them perfect so on some speeds I here wheels of one slipping a bit .... Id love to learn to consist em but Im still in learning mode so I will follow along ...J.W.

 After struggling with several Digitrax decoders that couldn't be speed matched and consisted with an NCE ProCab system, I ripped them out and put in NCE DA13SR or TCS T-1 decoders.  Consisted and speed matched on the first try.

IMHO, Digitrax makes great DCC systems, but their decoders don't play well when mixed with other brands.

cacole:

 After struggling with several Digitrax decoders that couldn't be speed matched and consisted with an NCE ProCab system, I ripped them out and put in NCE DA13SR or TCS T-1 decoders.  Consisted and speed matched on the first try.

IMHO, Digitrax makes great DCC systems, but their decoders don't play well when mixed with other brands.

Can you describe the issues you were having? I may be able to help. I have many Digitrax decoders in locos and have successfully consisted them using an NCE system(ProCab Wireless with three boosters).

What version of the NCE firmware are you using?

Which command station/booster do you have?

Which consist method (universal or advanced)?

dcs077:

    i am running an nce dcc system and i am having problems consisting 2 locomotives with 2 different brand decoders. the decoders in question is a digitrax  decoder and a soundtraxx tsunami tsu 1000. my tsunami equipped loco will start moving at speed step 1 but the digitrax loco will not move untill at least speed step 12. i have tried modifying cv 2 6 and 5 as well as the speed tables but it does not help. i am happy with the response from the soundtraxx decoder but is there a way to get the digitrax decoder to start moving the loco on speed step 1. changing to 128 speed steps only compounds the issue. any help would be appreciated

 

Dan 

What are the brand and model of each loco?  Ditto on DavidBedard's questions

 the decoder is a digitrax dh 123 and it is installed in an athearn genisis sd 70. the tsunami is installed in a ready to roll athearn sd 38. i have tried the digitrax decoder in 3 different locos and the result is the same regardless of mechanism. the loco will not start moving until speed step 12-15 on its own out of a consist as well. i am using the advanced consist but i have also tried the other method nce recommends in the manual which yielded the same result.the back emf is not set up on the decoder as i returned it to default. i did set it up but made no difference. the powercab is just the base model one no booster and unsure of firmware version.

cmarchan:

What version of the NCE firmware are you using?

Which command station/booster do you have?

Which consist method (universal or advanced)?

 

I have the latest NCE firmware because I just replaced the EPROM in both my home and club systems; ProCab Radio throttles with 5 Amp PowerPro Command Station; Advanced consisting.  I was trying the Digitrax DH123 decoders.  Changed to NCE or TCS decoders and threw the Digitrax into the round file.

You may have been premature tossing the Digitrax.  I have run NCE on a three deck railroad, using 4 boosters since 1999-2000, have the latest upgrades and have consists running with Digitrax and NCE and TCE in the same consists with no problem.  I just keep tinkering.  My consists for the most part remain together from session to session, so once I have them set, I don't reinvent the wheel.

Bob

i would like to keep the digitraxx decoder but does anyone have any ideas how to get it to move the loco on speed step 1

i think that this is the main part of the problem. has anyone heard of any other decoders with the same issue?

 Best advice is to reset the decoder to defaults. CV8 = 8. Then start making changes to  CV2 to get engine to start at speed step 1.

After that, changes to CV5 and Cv6 can be made to speed match if desired. DH123 does not have BEMF so any changes to those CV numbers won't have an effect. Torque Compensation is not BEMF.

Programming a 28 step speed table is another option. The speed table would need to be enabled in CV29 for it to work. Enabling speed tables turns off CV 2, 5, and 6.

dcs077:

i would like to keep the digitraxx decoder but does anyone have any ideas how to get it to move the loco on speed step 1

i think that this is the main part of the problem. has anyone heard of any other decoders with the same issue?

 

You need to adjust CV2 until it will move at speed step one.  I have seen Athearn values from 20-80 for CV2.

David B

 You can get it to move at speed step 1 by adjusting CV2, but with a DH123 series decoder you'll never get the ultimate in slow speed eprformance, the DH123 does not have back-EMF. CHeck your value in CV54, it should be either 0 or 1 to turn on torque compensation, which helps but is not as good as BEMF, nor is it adjustable, it's either on or off. Getting a non-BEMF loco to run perfectly well with a BEMF decoder (the Tsunami has pretty good BEMF) is near impossible.

 For a much lower price, the NCE D13SRJ offers adjustable 'dither' to help customize slow speed running (still no BEMF). For the same price as the DH123 you can get the TCS T1 which does have BEMF. If you want to use Digitrax decoders, you need the DH163/DH165 series, those have BEMF.

                                        --Randy

 thanks for all the info will try tonight and let you all know how it goes

Dan