I have an NCE decoder I’m trying to program w/ my Zephyr. Everything works OK, except it doesn’t seem to be taking 4-digit locomotive addresses. I can program the 4-digit address (3609), just like the manual says to, and it will even read back properly when I call up “Ad4” and press “CV-RD.” But during this evening’s ordeal, I also found out that if I called up “Ad2” and pressed “CV-RD,” it would also read back whatever was the last 2-digit address I had programmed. When I put the loco on the mainline, it will not respond if I dial up the 4-digit address, but will respond when I call up whatever was the last 2-digit address that it had. In other words, it was completely ignoring the 4-digit address and only using whatever the last 2-digit address was. I reset the decoder a few times and re-tried several times, but still could not make the 4-digit addressing work. Finally I called it a night and just gave it a new 2-digit address (09).
Do I have to set the “Ad2” value to 0? (I didn’t try that because I thought that would cause problems since 0 is the default address for non-DCC locos). The Zephyr manual didn’t mention anything about setting either “Ad2” or “Ad4” to zero if you’re going to use the other.
Any ideas on how to fix this? I might not check the forum again until the morning, but thanks in advance for any advice. If I can’t figure it out by Monday, I’ll call Digitrax and NCE and see if they can help.
Here’s what I did. Instead of pressing CV-RD when the AD4 address comes up, press CV-WR, and then type in the address you want your loco to respond to. Then press CV-WR again. This should allow your loco to respond to that address.
I noticed when I call up Ad2 on the programming track, it still reads back the last 2-digit address, but now on the mainline, it only responds to the 4-digit address and not the 2-digit address. I’m still scratching my head about that one, but at least it’s doing what I want it to now!
I believe the reason it does this is because you’re programming on the live track, just like in ops mode. In ops mode, you don’t press cv-rd, either. Maybe randy will give us his thoughts.
I believe that in page mode, there is less power output, and your decoder may not get the intended signal (instruction) while sitting on the main. Some controllers need a booster for page mode programming…if I have that recalled from reading over the past year or so. A little fuzzy…
I have plenty of NCE D13SRJ decoders, haven’t had any programming issues yet with my Zephyr. Following exactly the instructions shown int he Zephyr manual seems to work, as does programming them from my DT400 and from DecoderPro.
A 4-digit address is stored in CV’s 17 and 18. A 2 digit address is stored in CV1. Programming a 4-digit address puts values in CV 17 and 18, and changes Bit 5 of CV 29 (adds 32 to the value). It does not ‘erase’ what was previously stored in CV 1, so even if yor loco is set to run on address 1234, CV 1 will still hold a value, likely the default value of 3 unless you previously programmed a 2-digit address. It is the value of bit 5 of CV 29 that tells the decoder which address it should respond to.