I asked a similar question headed mixing decoders, but will try a different header.
I have two locos same manufacturer, one has a Digitrax decoder the other a NCE. Is there some way to make them run better together. When I try to speed match them running under the individual addresses I can make them run even but when MU’ed they one takes off while the other just crawls.
Please advise.
You may have all ready done this but what I do is pick the loco I want in the front and adj the CV’s to get the loco to the operating characteristics that I want. I then put it on the track and run it around with the next loco behind it. I adj the second locos CVs to match the original. I figure I have it when I can run two locos starting 2 inches apart and they can make two trips around the track and stay within the 2 inches. I have an ABBA consist that I matched in this way and it works for me. I can tell when one loco is not matched in a consist because the cars at the end of the train surge… Hope this helps. I use all the same kind of decoder but the process should still work with different decoders.
Terry[8D]
scubaterry, I did just that but when they are MU’ed they operate very differnetly.
John - Well Hmmmmmmmm? I don’t know what to say. Have you tried swapping the lead loco. MU it to the other one. No idea if that is valid but I would give it a shot. Also if it were me I would write down the CV settings for all the locos involved. That way you can go back and verify they didn’t change somehow. If the decoder has a lock feature set the lock to ensure it doesn’t change. I have had locos hauling butt down the track and all of a sudden its like it ran into a brick wall. After that it no longer responds to my throttle. I put it on the program track and the address is now 03??? Weird gremlins at work. If you figure it out let me know. There is no reason why two different decoder brands should not work together? Maybe as a last resort swap out one to make both the same brand?
Hey I just happened to think of something. Maybe one decoder is a high end job that has a load compensating feature and the other doesn’t. The high end decoder would adj to the load but the other one might not be able to??? That would not be evident running by itself but would when MUd??? Just talking out loud. Maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in.
Terry[8D]
Question Spidge,
do you have a way to read CV29 in both locomotives? This may be helpful in determining the answer.
Ah, just maybe thats it, the old half voltage in reverse CV. What should this be?
Well I have installed a Digitrax in both units now and they still gave me a hard time. After speed matching them I MUed and had the same results, the one noisy unit would not start moving hardly at all. So I adjusted the BEMF to 10 and wow what a difference., they now run great together. Gotta love that kind of technoligy.
John glad you figured it out. Technology is a wonderful thing.
Terry[8D]
I think you’d find that BEMF shouldn’t be used when consisting (MU’ing) locos. In fact what might have been happening may be that when the Digitrax decoder was placed into the consist it dropped it’s BEMF and started playing differently to the NCE equiped loco (which wouldn’t have BEMF) and thus differently to the speed curve you originally set.
Because I regularly run consisted sets of locos I don’t use BEMF decoders - I rarely need to speedmatch them as well - provided the speed is within 5% they will work together OK.
Tim