I mainly have Bachmann sound value engines and they are start, just where they left off when power is interupted for any reason. My question is how can I avoid that problem when adding sound decoders to my fleet of non sound engines, is it a decoder setting or some decoders do and some don’t. I do have one engine which has this problem but it needs new guts anyway.
Here is the way loksound V5 does it. It’s probably not a standardized procedure across brands.
13.2. Prime mover startup delay
Usually, when the sound is idling and you turn up the throttle,
the locomotives begins to move only after the Diesel engine has
reached notch 1. A steam loco will even release its brakes first and
fill the cylinders. Although this behavior is very prototypically, one
might not like it because it causes some delay.
You can disable this startup delay by simply deleting bit 3 of CV
124. This will cause the LokSound decoder to immediately start
moving when the throttle is turned up. However, the start up
sound will not be synchon with the motion anymore.
Or you can install a decoder with a keep alive and it won’t lose power.
No what I mean is when something happens to cause a compleat interuption in power like running a switch causing a short etc. and my DCS51 shuts down so I have to hit the power button again. In these cases my Bachmann will restart at the same trottle setting ect. like nothing had happened. These kind of things do happen. Once I was putting a car on a siding and it rolled to far causing a short as the gap was nearby in this case.
not sure this is your problem, but the NCE PowerCab will reset if there is short which takes several seconds for the PowerCab to cycle and restore track power which may just cause it to cycle again.
i put a lamp in series to limit the current which prevents it from cycling.
since the PowerCab has a limit of ~1.3A, the typical 1156 auto lamp won’t work. i found a T3 lamp that draws ~1A.
Well, there is probably a cv that could be changed in each decoder. A simpler solution could be to hit the “Emergency stop” button(assuming you use NCE) when you reboot the layout. This will send the stop code to all locomotives. [*-)]
Didn’t I say DCS51. If its a CV, need to know what it is, maybe I overlooked or misread the sheets on my decoders (mostly Digitrax also as they have more matches for older engines).
Sorry, I overlooked the system details. I can’t be much help with the cv’s, I don’t use any decoders other than ESU.
I guess decoder preference depends on what you run. I use Digitrax because it has decoders geared to older engines, the others do not that I have seen those other decoders can be used, they are not simple plug and play in 8 pin stuff.
OK, so you’re running your Bachmann engine, and it or something causes a short circuit that interupts the power. When the power goes back on, the engine continues like it was before. So your question is, is there a way to change that with a CV setting?
Unless you turn your throttle to a different speed, or change direction, when the power comes back the engine will do what the throttle settings tell it to do.
Some sound decoders will start a start-up sequence when power is interupted and re-started; some will do it while the engine is moving, some will delay the engine moving until the start-up sequence is complete. You usually can turn that start-up sequence off by setting a CV, which will depend on the decoder maker.
Thats what I was asking. With Bachmann sound value, that is the default. I have a couple of Atlas engines that have regular decoders that will eventually get changed to sound.
do these decoders have keep alives?
decoders continue to operate at the last speed command they received. keep alives may prevent them from shutting down when the command station power cycles. After a power cycle the command station is unlikely to know about any active decoders and resend speed commands.
is there a CV that specifies a timeout for setting the speed to zero when not receiving speed commands?
No but they do seem to have a bit of one for the sound for the Bachmann ones.
A lot of sound value loco’s use the ECONOMI sound decoder. Most have a keep alive. I would check to see if the keep alive plug is in place?
apparently CV11, Packet Time Out value, but 20 sec may be too long for this case
NB what they note at the end: set CV11 purposely shorter on locomotives with keepalives precisely to avoid the Energizer Bunny effect if signal is lost or unrecoverably corrupted.
For those following the tune, this implies that installed keepalive capacity might be only slightly ‘longer’ than the time set in CV11, as the decoder will presumably ‘execute a stop’ of whatever that timeout regulates ‘before the power runs out’ (or the voltage gets too low, etc. and causes mischief).