Atlas Gold Loksound Issue

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

Hello,

I have a weird problem with my Atlas Gold GP-7. When I bought this loco back in September I programmed it as usual with my NCE Powercab with the three number address 114 and all was good. It has not been run for about three or four months and when I tried to run it again this afternoon it had lost the address.

It would go through the start up sound but then just sit there. When I tried to give the same address it read some different addresses in each short and long areas. I gave it a reset and I could hear it reset. It still would not let me go with 114 as an address. I reset again and in the long address it had 128? It worked fine. Also when I put in 1114 it works fine and all the functions work fine on the NCE and the Digitrax powered layout.

I took it back to the bench and tried to reset the long address back to 114 and got the same problem sounds but no control. I reset it to 1114 and it works again.

I did notice something I had not noticed on any decoder before, after two of the resets, in the area to enter the long address on the Powercab I got an odd symbol and a three digit number starting with 8. Is there a ghost in the decoder or am I missing something?

Thanks

SB

2

SB,

After you reset the decoder, are you using programming track mode to set up the short and long addresses? Try entering “3” for the short address and “0114” for the long address? Does that make any difference?

Also, when you select and enter an address that is < than 4-digits long, do NOT use any leading zeros. All you need to enter is the actual number itself - e.g. “114”.

Hope that helps…

Tom

3

It will let me run it as 0114. I also do not have to reset to get it to run fine on a four digit long address. But it will not let me set it up with a 114 long address. So I am beginning to think its a compatability issue between what ESU, NCE and Digitrax think is a long and short address.

When I did another reset on the Powercab the short address showed 255 and the long showed @383. Don’t know if that means anything in Loksound lingo or not. When I normally do a reset on anything decoder it will show 003 for the short and nothing for the long. I don’t have a problem running as 0114. I just want to make sure there is nothing wrong with the decoder.

Thanks

SB

4

If you can live with that, SB, then go for it. I would be curious to find out if resetting & readdressing it the way I prescribed in the earlier post would make difference.

Tom

5

It did run fine on 0114 as the long address. But it would not run on 3 or 003. But I think it was because the Powercab was set to read the long address. I went back in and added 114 to the short address and told the powercab to read the Loco using only the short address and again all works fine on both systems. Weird.

Does one need to have address 3 as a short address?

SB

6

Although I always setup and operate my locos with 4-digit addresses, I also enter “3” and press “1” for yes for activating the 2-digit address. The locos, however, always operate with the 4-digit address.

Tom

7

Do not use the reset in the PowerCab menu on non-NCE decoders. It doesn;t use a ‘reset cv’ - it actually sets all the CVs in the decoder to default - CV and values used for sure ONLY by NCE decoders. Loksound decoders reset by setting CV8 to 8.

–Randy

8

I hope I don’t add confusion, but want to suggest an issue. Unfortunately I don’t recall the details.

One typically wants to select a loco by it’s number. With my NCE PowerPro 5A, I hit Select Loco, the #, and Enter. With long loco numbers, such as 4014, no issue. Just set long address, 4014.

But with “short” addresses IIRC it can get more interesting. If I want to call it up as a “long” address (ok for 1-9999), I must enter a “0” and call it long address 044, because it is less than 128. So, since I want to just select loco “44”, rather than change the current address to long address 044, I choose to just set a short address of “44”. So, while I usually set a loco up with its long address, I am more deliberate with the lower numbers.

Again, IF I understand it (???), the locos with numbers 1-127 can be set for similar short addresses, or you can set them it for a long address IF a leading zero is added. Not so desireable, since you want to enter Select Loco, #, Enter. Why make it a long address and have to remember to add the zero up front?

So, I’m guessing you want to set this loco to a short (not long address) of 114, and it will respond to Select Loco, 114, Enter. Unless the mixed brands of throttle, booster and decoder have an issue in that area.

I think the following item (Step 7) supports that. Please try that (short address 114) if you have not. Preferably after a decoder reset.

http://www.allpointsnorthmrrc.org/files/tech/DCC_Decoder_Prog.pdf

What I am most unsure about is whether the above is true, for short addresses 100 - 127 with your particular system. I believe I read somewhere that some systems only handle short addresses 1 - 99. But I see the PowerCab instructions discuss short addresses 1 - 127.

I w

9

When you use the Power Cab to program the address, it looks like you can program both, but the written instructions regarding loco address say short OR long not AND. I think if you set a short address then a long address, you end up with just an long address. 114 is not a long address. 0114 is.

Using the reset decoder option on the Power cab is incorrect, as Randy pointed out.

I would like to know what happens to locos, sitting on the layout, for a couple weeks or months, everything is unplugged and it ran fine when you turned it off. Now it needs a reset. No possibiity of a power surge. It happens to me too.

EDIT Paul’s link said you also need to change CV 29 for a long address. I am not sure about this but I think NCE does that automatically when you choose the long addy. I usually end up messing around with CV 29 so I’m not really sure.

10

I only referenced that link regarding short and long address ranges and the “0” angle. I would bet that the PowerCab allows selecting long vs short and entering address numbers w/o having to directly change CVs; i.e., the NCE systems translates the English throttle commands and does what is needed with CVs behind the scenes. With my PowerPro 5A I do not need to use CVs directly for manipulating addresses.

11

Henry,

You are correct that it’s an even/or for the short/long addresses. I just press “1” for yes for the short address to get to the long address and activation. Once I have that set up I then go to CV29 and change the value to include both 128 speed steps and disable DC operation - with the occasional need to reverse direction. I then add Rule 17 lighting for any switchers.

If I ever have to perform a decoder reset, I use the decoder manufacturer’s reset values, which are usually either CV8=8 or CV30=2. I think QSI is the lone decoder that requires 3 different CV values for a reset.

Tom

12

Only one address, the hsort address or the long address, can be active at a time. Both can be programmed into the decoder, but CV29 determines which is actually active.

The various address ranges for systems:

Digitrax: 1-127 ALWAYS short, 128+ long

NCE : 1-127 short OR long (selecting between them involves the use of the leading 0), 128+ long

Lenz (the real pain): 1-99 always short, 100+ always long.

The thinking, I suppose, is that sinze Lenz is German, and German locos, oif they have numbers, have 6 or 7 digit numbers so using the cab number is not really practical, also figured who would even have more than 99 locos. So they put a simple 2 digit display on the throttle and called it a day.

Most decoders, regardless of the design of their brand’s command station, can handle any of the combinations. You just have to make sure to follow the correct programming option. For NCE, to have 123 be a long address, it has to be in CV17 and 18, not CV1, and CV29 set to use the long (or ‘4 digit’) address. The address programming menu should make it clear to select a long or short address.

–Randy

13

Thanks for the reply’s. I guess I never thought much about the why’s of programming addresses on my Powercab before unitil this loco lost its address, things are so automatic with it. But now after playing around with it, at the point in which it asks short or long, whatever you press becomes the active address on any other system.

Being a Katy modeler makes it confusing as the MKT had a lot of single and double digit diesels. For the single and double digit ones I do have to add either ones or zero’s.

I wonder if I should go back to the single and double digit locos and enter them as short addresses and keep 0003 as a long?

Thanks

SB