Speed & DCC

[CN1]

How do you use DCC to set the starting power/speed of a loco?

All of my loco, except one, have fabulous slow speed capabilities. They won't move until I dial in about 15-20% power. At that point they just creep forward until I give more "juice".

One, however will move almost right away. As soon as I turn the "control knob" it creeps forward and speeds up quickly. Very poor low-speed control.

How can I change that? Is t because it's a different decoder (Digitrax instead of NCE?)

 

[Joepomp]

I will be no help!

Well I am new to DCC, but you should be able to adjust the engines behavior. I havent done this my self, but the Northcoast decoders have a lot of info on changing speed tables. It looks like a lot of trial and error to get it right.

 

[CN1]

Try again & again & again & again...

Hmm! I'm trying various setting as we speak but I haven't got a clue how to set it so it starts slower and with more "juice"

Live and learn and I might had: Be patient! :curse:

 

[Fred_M]

All of them can be progammed for starting voltage. Read The Manual for your DCC control system is my best advise. The brand decoder you are using shouldn't matter a bit if it follows NMRA guidelines. My Prodegy is super simple to set up, but other brands vary in user freindliness. FRED

 

[Gary Pfeil]

CV2 adjusts the voltage applied at the first speed step. It's default on all decoders I'm aware of is 0. Some locos will start with, say, .5 volts, others may require, say, 3 volts. This is not a function of the decoder, but the locos motor and gearing. Lets say you have a loco which doesn't start until speed step 15 or so. You can adjust CV2 by programming a value which allows speed step 1 to apply the voltage required to start the loco. Just program some value such as 15 into CV2, and observe which speed step the loco now starts on. Adjust again as required. For the sake of argument, lets say a loco requires 3 volts to start moving. If you set CV2 to a value which applies 3 volts (trial and error, as far as I know) then the remaining voltage range will be applied in increments according to how many speed steps you are using. So, the increment of increase will be lessened if you start at 3 volts as oppossed to .5 volts. This gives greater speed control between steps. This is not to be confused with speed tables, which require the setting of around 17 different CV's.

 

[CN1]

OK! So play with start voltage? Great!

Thanks

FRED the Prodigy is a great piece of DCC

 

[Fred_M]

Well if you have a prodegy just enter Program mode and set the throttle to 15% (what you say it is at starting now) and push the "program start voltage" until the loco bucks. That's all there is to it. If it creeps do it again at 12%. FRED