Hi,
Having ‘standardised’ on Digitrax DZ series decoders for most of my locomotives, I was wondering if the CVs controlling motion (namely Vstart, Vmid, Vstop and inertia) carry through and apply to operation when running on DC trackage? I’ve noticed they take a while to start moving, but I’m not sure if this is inertia or the chip ‘realising’ that it’s on DC. I know the momentum doesn’t work.
Thanks in advance,
tbdanny
The reason you see this effect is that it takes about 5V DC for the decoder to have power and power up its electronics. You’ll see this with all decoder manufactureres. Here’s a note from the Digitrax decoder manual:
8.0 Analog Operation of Digitrax Decoders
Analog operation occurs when Digitrax decoders are operated on DC or conventionally controlled layouts. Automatic analog mode conversion is a feature of most Digitrax decoders, which lets you run your decoder equipped loco on a DC layout without having to re-program the decoder. There are a few things you need to know about analog operation:
· Digitrax decoder equipped locomotives will not move until the voltage is above 5 to 6 Volts DC. When operating decoder equipped locos on DC power, increase the voltage quickly from zero to five volts for best operation.
· Some decoder equipped locos may not operate smoothly on conventional “pulse power.” The decoders should be driven from a quality smooth DC power supply when on a conventional layout. Some DCthrottles/power s
No, these CV’s only work with a DCC signal.