Hi guys. I need some help from the ESU experts here. I received my first ESU decoders and got them installed this weekend. LokSound Select in a Proto 1000 F3A, and a LokPilot Standard in the P1K F3B. I love the movement delay on the sound version that spools up the prime mover and releases the brakes before letting the locomotive move. I can't for the life of me get the LokPilot to behave the same way though. I tried several times to get the virtual sound part to work that should enable that same delay effect, but have had no luck.
I'm using an NCE PowerPro system and tried programing on the main and on the program track with no luck. I'm trying to set the delay to a value of 24 to start off with (just guessing trying to match the A unit), and setting the virtual sound to function 8 to turn the feature on/off with the sound on the A unit. I've tried using the LokProgrammer software to tell me what CV's to change (I don't have the hardware) and what it says is:
CV148 = 8CV128 = 24
CV31 = 1, CV32 = 1----------------------CV273 = 32CV274 = 2
I go through all these and....nothing. It actually appears that I can't write to most, maybe all these CV's on my programming track, as attempting too, and then selecting the same CV it reads back a value of zero still. Is there some significance to CV31 & 32 being on the same line, with a dashed line before the remaining CV's? I treated them like they were in list form all the way through. Is there some trick I'm missing to all this? I'm at the limit of my knowledge on this at the moment. Hopefully someone is thinking "Geez you dummy you missed this...." I'll take it!
Thanks guys!
Mike
If you have an NCE Power Pro system, you will not be able to correctly set the value of any CV > 256 on the programming track. This is due to a firmware issue in the Power Pro. You can use Program on Main (no read-back possible) or JMRI V3.8 or later (which uses an ESU-provided workaround to program the correct CV).
That being said, I'm not sure how you are arriving at such a complex set of CV changes. CV252 controls whether the start delay is active or not - you can set this CV with your system on the program track. A value of 0 has it turned off. Incremental values from 1 to 255 select the amount of delay.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Mark,
The numbers I came up with came from the LokProgrammer software. The documentation that came with the decoder, which was sparse at best, mentioned CV128 for enabling the delay. After that didn't work, and their manual downloaded from the website was of no more help, I did some searching on the internet and found a guy talking about using their programming software to determine what CV's to change and to what value. To get the CV's I mentioned, I start a new LokPilot Standard V1.0 decoder project in the tool, select enable sound delay, and assign the virtual sound delay to function 8. The software then spit out the CV's I listed above as what needed to be changed. As you can see, no mention of CV252. I'll try that when I get home from work and see if that does it. Thanks for helping!
That's how I came up with I did as well. (?) The sound delay is normally an automatic setting being controlled by a CV setting. Didn't think it could be mapped to function button - will have to re-check that myself when I get home from work as well.
That being said, as I mentioned, there are problems with programming any CVs higher than 256 using your Power Pro on a program track. If you have attempted that, I would first suggest doing a factory reset as who knows what you may have inadvertantly set at this point.
Yes, you can assign ANYTHING to ANY function key, it's what makes JMRI all but useless with Loksound, it takes standard programmers forever to read and write all those CVs. ESU's proprietary protocol with Lokprogrammer does it in seconds. I don;t even want to think about how they coded a huge matrix reprsenting each sound slot, function button, function wire, and state. Definitely needed a raft of CVs to cover all those combos. But no one else has that level of flexibility.
I can see why you would want to put the function enable on F8, that way it only turns on if used with another Loksound decoder. If used with another non-sound decoder, or one that doesn't have the delay, it just stays off.
One thing to keep in mind, if you aren't programming the Lokpilot loco to the same address and instead are just consisting it with the Loksound, you will need to set CV21 so that F8 is controlled in consist, otherwise the Lokpilot won't see it when you hit F8 to start up the Loksound.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Well, the strangeness continues. I got home, put the engine on the programming track, set CV8 to 8 and cycled power. Put it on the main, dialed up loco #3 and it ran. Backwards. Put it back on the programming track, set the direction bit to reverse, tried again, and it ran backwards again. Put it back on the programming track, set the bit direction to forward and it runs forward again. Tried to program CV252 on the programming track, but couldn't get it to take a value. (?) Looked at CV128 and it showed my value of 24 that I put in it last night still! All the reset on the programming track did was wipe out the address and reverse its direction. Did a reset on the main and that wiped everything clean.
Now that I was confident I was back to factory default, I programmed on the main CV252 to a value of 100. Hit the throttle, and it moved instantly. *Sigh* Set CV128 to 50, hit the throttle, and it moved instantly. Set CV148 to 8 to program the virtual sound to F8, and the loco moved instantly regardless of if I hit F8 or not. Grrrrrr! Stumped again. The reason I decided to try the ESU decoder was that little delay that the LokSound does (and all the great things I read about them on here). Why won't that stupid LokPilot work the same way? Argh!
Mark & Randy, any other ideas?
Far as the odd programming behavior on the programming track - did you power-cycle the engine after the reset ? These decoders need to have the power removed, then re-instated in order for the full reset to take place.
As for the CV values, you are I are no where close (don't know why just yet). I get the following when I activate the delay and set it to F8 ....
CV252 = 1
CV31 = 16, CV32 = 2
----------------------
CV414 = 1
Yeah, I did. Pulled it off the tracks 1-2 secs then put back on.
Well Mark. I tried the CV settings you mentioned in your post using programming on the main (did a reset first just to be safe) and it responds exactly the same as before, regardless of if I pressed F8 or not.
My apologies Mike - I was using the wrong decoder.
Now that I have the correct decoder, I'm getting the same results as did you in your opening post.
CV128 controls the amount of delay - 1 to 255. A value of 0 has it off. Try resetting the decoder back to factory specs and just try a value of 200 in CV128 and see if it responds as you would expect. IF it does, then try activating it using CV8 after setting the proper register CVs and CVs 273 and 274
Again, my apologies for steering you down the wrong path ....
No apologies necessary, believe me. Your lingo in your last response got a little ahead of my understanding, but let me see if I followed correctly. I reset the decoder, entered a value of 200 in CV128, and the locomotive took off instantly with the throttle just like it has been. I then set CV148 to 8, CV31 to 1, CV 32 to 1, CV273 to 32, and CV274 to 2, in that order. Tried the loco, and it moved instantly. Hit F8, tried the loco, and it moved instantly again.
Maybe I just need to give up on it and remove the delay on the A unit? (Which I managed to do, and reinstate successfully! Go me!)
Thanks,
Huh !
Dumb question .... it IS a LokPilot Standard and not a LokPilot Basic, right ?
Not a dumb question at all. I double checked this myself tonight, twice! It is the 53611 Standard. I even looked up what the Basic looked like, and mine definitely is the Standard.