Recently installed a DCS A4X Decoder in a Kato RS-3. Went through all of the CVs and made sure it is set up for 4-digit addressing. Gave it a 4-digit adress on a Digitrax system, it answered back “good”. When reading back it reads back the address fine, but when placed on the run track it will not respond in any way at all. No light control, no running. Return to 2-digit address and it runs fine. Doesn’t have to be 03, any 2-digit address is fine but no 4-digit address. Someone said shut down the Digitrax and restart, but this didn’t help. Do you have any ideas?
Manually reset CV29 instead of relying on your DCC system to do so.
To tell the decoder that you want to run on a long address, program the value of 34 into CV29 and see if that solves your problem.
Don’t forget to then tell your DCC system to run on whatever long address is in the decoder.
TCS decoders are rather cumbersome to set for four digit address ( until you’ve done a few ).
The first thing I would do at this point, is reset the decoder back to its factory default settings by entering a value of 2 into CV30. This way you’ll be sure nothing else is conflicting.
If the address you want to program the engine is #127 or less, make no changes to CV29 - if the engine address is to be #128 or higher, you need to add 32 to whatever value is in CV29.
Ok, this is odd, but you have to do it … go get your calculator ! Now enter the desired engine number into your calculator ( lets use 2147 ). Now divide this number by 256 which will give you 8.368. You now need to enter the whole number ( which is 8 - not the decimal places ) into CV17.
Now you need to multiply the whole number ( 8 ) by 256 giving you 2048. Subtract this number ( 2048 ) from the engine number ( 2147 ) giving you a final answer of 99. This final answer of 99 will be entered into CV18.
At this point, you should be able to call up address 2147 and have complete control of your engine. I don’t understand why it needs to be so difficult, but once you’ve done a few, it won’t take long.
Mark.
I’ve never had to use your method of entering the address into CVs 17 and 18 manually – practically every DCC system made within the past 15 years or so calculate these values automatically when you tell them to program a long address, regardless of the decoder type.
True, they “should” set automatically, but something’s amiss with Ky Wrangler’s. I figured maybe the manual approach “might” help, or if nothing else, enable him to verify the correct values ARE enabled in CVs 17 and 18. I have a feeling he hasn’t added the 32 in CV 29 for a four digit address and that isn’t allowing the decoder to function properly.
Mark.
Again, this should be done automatically. The only decoders I’ve come across where Digitrax’s automatic 4-digit programmign fails are QSI - and that’s ,ainy because there is a long delay after the values for CV17 and CV18 are sent and whent he decoder can respond tot he next packet. I think this is probably a slight bug in their firmware - but the time is pretty much exactly the same time it takes the verbal readback to speak the long address. However - even with verbal readback turned off it has this same delay. The consequence if if you answer Y tot he Digitrax prompt to set the 4-digit address, the new CV29 packet is never seen by the decoder and needs to be set manually.
However - I do have a few TCS decoders, mostly T-1. I forget if the Atlas/Kato one I installed is an A4X or someone else’s Atlas/Kato decoder - I’m pretty sure it’s the one from TCS. All of them programmed fine on my Digitrax system just selecting Y for the prompt. A factory reset for sure, verify that it functions correctly on address 03, and then try the 4-digit address programming again. If you get an OK reading after answering the prompt, that pretty much means it programmed whatit was trying to and it acknowledged ok (if you have a Zephyr or Super Chief). Try hitting dialing up CV29 and reading it to see if it indeed has the correct value.
–Randy
This is a reply to the whole tree, not just rrinker. Thanks for your input. I had already checked CV29 and since you already have to have a 2 and a 4, with the 32, the total should be 38. That is the factory default as they come set up for 4-digit and I always check to make sure it is there. I have not tried the “manual” adddressing, as the Digitrax Super Chief usually handles this fine. I may try it, but now I have another issue. I think this particular A4X may be defective. I had left my loco sitting on a siding for a week or two and went in today to run it, but first I took it off to clean the wheels. It ran fine on an analog track after cleaning and I put it back on the layout, but it would not respond. This was with the address set to 04, and it had been running fine last time out. After fiddling around with it, I put it on the programming track to check codes and began getting strange read backs inlcuding CV29. I thought someone may have been doing some Ops Mode programming and scrambled mine, so I began setting them back to what they should be. The address read back 04 all along, but even after going through several codes, it still wouldn’t run. Finally I grabbed another loco and ran it just as a sanity check. Since the system was working fine, I decided to reset my address on the first loco to 03, now it runs fine. I am beginning to think this decoder must be flakey since it is brand new and has never done right. On the T-1s I have been able to program 4-digit OK, although sometimes I have to try different programming modes before I get one to work right. DCS decoders are supposed to program in any of the 4 standard modes. I assumed the early problems I had with the T-1s were caused by moving from a Prodigy to the Digitrax system and getting everything set up as it should be. I will try the manual programming route and if that doesn’t work, this baby is going back to DCS!