So, Randy, are you saying it is the NCE system, not the Paragon 2 decoder, at the heart of the problem? If so, why would the NCE system work correctly with a Paragon loco with QSI decoder and accept the long address 6207 without any problems?
Rich
Perhaps someone with a Digitrax system and a Paragon 2 loco could try Rich’s proceedure and see if the same problem happens?
Joe
Good idea. Any takers?
Rich
The RS2 worked correctly when programmed to address 6207. Only the Paragon 2 decoder seems to have issues with the address 6207. I do not believe this is a system problem.
David,
That thought had occured to me and I killed consist 6207 to be sure. It was a few months ago but I have deleted all E7 consists with no result (have 2 other E7s and they are the only locomotives I would have entered this one in a consist with.
As for throttles, I honestly dont know if that is the case or not but i will check. The E7 in question has only been operated from my pro-cab, and I only have one pro-cab. The rest are cab 05.
edit: also I might add that the original decoder was not tested on any address other than 6207. All testing since July posts has been on new decoder from BLI, because I was operating on te assumption that the original decoder was faulty.
Let me add a thought or two.
First, when I tested my Paragon 2 steam loco on my NCE PH-Pro, I tested it using the long address 6207 and experienced the same problem as the OP. I have never put that loco in a consist, or perhaps the better term for a steam loco is that I have mu’d it. However, I still checked CV19 to be sure, and the value was zero.
Second, while I do have two ProCabs, I have never used long address 6207 on any of my locos, so there is no chance that long address 6207 was present on another throttle.
Third, my NCE PH-Pro does accept the long address 6207 on non-Paragon 2 decoders without any performance problems.
So, it is my preliminary conclusion that the NCE command station/throttle is not at fault.
But your paragon 2 loco works on any address EXCEPT that one specific one. I still says it’s a system problem. Last time someone had that sort of an issue, thery did all the same stuff, sent the loco back for repairs, still had the same problem. System reset solved it.
Is it that difficult a task with NCE? When things go wonky the first thing I do it reset the decoder. If that fails, reset the command station as the second thing to try. We are dealing with computers here and their brains can get scrambled in some very odd ways. Both NCE and Digitrax are still using the same microcontrollers they were 15+ years ago even though there are newer ones with more memory that also run 10x as fast, and cost the same. There’s just not enough money in the system sales to justify the R&D time to modify the hardware and write all new code that, with more room and speed to work with, might be able to implement more error checking and cleanup to prevent some of these random issues.
–Randy
So even though other manufacturers decoders work on that one address, it is a problem with the system? And 2 different systems are having the exact same problem with the same decoder brand.
Here are the steps to reset the NCE PH-Pro command station to factory default, but the problem is that a reset will clear all consists, macros, and system setup parameters, but this would be a last gasp action in my view.
Rich
press prog/esc 5 times
press enter 16 times
display will say : reset system?
press 6 for Yes
press 1 to confirm
I started a thread on the NCE DCC forum over on Yahoo Groups.
Let’s see what the boys over there have to say.
Rich
I guess the other question is whether there are any other long addresses besides 6207 that can be problematic on the Paragon 2 decoder. For what its worth, the long address 6207 is programmed as follows: the high byte in CV17 is a value of 216, and the low byte in CV18 is 63. When I looked at CV17 and CV18 on the programming track for long address 6207, those CV values were present. I mention this because I do wonder if there is some peculiarity about either of these CV values.
Rich
What if I try reseting the decoder and then programming the long address using the CV values instead of the address programming mode? Ive heard of decoders only taking the directly cv defined address before and I wonder if this might be a similar issue.
Sure, can’t hurt.
Rich
Performed system reset. BLI E7A paragon 2 programmed to 6207 still only runs in reverse on 128 speed step mode. I will be contacting BLI monday to determine if there is something special about address 6207.
I will also try my other two Paragon 2 locomotives (SW 7 and 4-6-2)
Scratch the manual programming of the address using CVs, that didnt work either. I cannot get to the digitrax cv calculator to confirm the proper CV values.
Try this calculator
http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/cv29%20calculator.htm
Try long address 5951. That’s still 63 in CV18, but a different value for CV17, so see if it’s the bit patter of CV18 causing a problem. Use the windows calculator in programmer mode to get different binary values for CV17 and 18 to see if it has a problem only when certain bits are set, which would be a programming bug and there’s nothing you can do except use a slightly different address.
I still say it’s worthwhile to reset the system.
–Randy
I just tried the Digitrax toolbox and it is giving the correct values for CV17 and 18 - what are you getting?
In an earlier reply, he said that he tried a command station reset, but it had no effect on the problem.
Rich
Randy,
I did reset the system, with no change in the behavior with this locomotive. The address works with other decoder brands. Thank you for the suggestion on playing with the bit values to attempt to isolate which CV is causing the issue. I believe this is a good next logical step. Also thanks for the link to the calculator. Also I can access digitrax now, before I couldnt even navigate to the website, however those are the CV values that Rich and I got for Long address 6207. I will continue tomorrow after work.
Andrew
I have one other BLI Paragon 2. Same problem when programmed with long address 6207.
I changed the long address to 5951, as Randy suggested. Same problem.
So, the fault may be in the bit patterns on CV17 and/or CV18.
Rich