I have read the digitrax manual describing using different speed steps. However, I do not speak Spanish so I’d like the leyman version. I have a Kato SD-70 with a digitrax decoder that I’d like to consist with an Atlas SD-50 with the stock Lenz in it (n-scale of-course). I have no problem consisting the decoders, just matching speed. Any tricks or ideas? I have tried adjusting CVs…
any help is appreciated
actually the digitrax manual is written in greek. i have been adjusting the cv#2 to get my locos to match speed with lenz, digitrax and mrc with great success. i’ve been adjusting the value until the loco just starts to move when the speed display is at 1. then i do the same thing with another loco. then i run them separated to see if they need any more adjustment. i’ve done this with 12 locos and i mued them all together without coupling. they ran for quite a distance before any of them caught up with another.
I have adjusted a brick engine until it just starts to tighten it’s rods and move at the very first click of the DT400 throttle wheel.
All of my engines need to be able to do this. One recieved an QSI upgrade and was able to do that without CV2 programming.
Next would be to put your candidates onto a stretch of track and run them close together. Find out of they start together or not at the first click of the throttle. The one that is “Lazy” is the one you need to work on with the CV’s.
Some engines are so far apart in mechanical ability that you cannot run them together very well.
Hmmm… well, I guess I’ll try cv2 to start. It just may be that the two are so different that there may be no hope. The Kato runs the same speed at 1 as the Atlas runs at 3-4 (on a Zephyr that only goes to 6). Is this typical of Atlas vs. Kato in n-scale? I only have 3 locos right now… 2 Kato SD-70s which obviously run identically and one Atlas SD-50 which I bought new about a year ago but was manufactured in ‘99. Are newer Atlas’ fairly equivalent in speed with Katos right-out-of-the-box? Can anyone help?
I’m glad someone brought this up even though it’s probably the most frequently asked question in this forum.
I’m wondering if I’ll be sucessful MUing my QSI equipped BLI SD40-2s with an Athearn Genesis SD75M I just bought using a Digitrax DH165A0/SFX004.
The issue here is “Regulated Throttle Control”, that really neat feature that QSI has that allow you to set loads and momentum and sound-of-power and acts like “cruise-control” on grades. I’ve been using the Quantum Engineer with an MRC Railpower 1370 for years now and It’s really neat to set the throttle load to 10 or so and then start the train moving forward with the motor laboring and the train just crawling, slowly accelerating to about 10 smph until I hit the load button and then reduce the throttle to idle, the train just keeps on moving. I then hit the dynamic brake button and get that lovely symphony heard on downhill grades that only a true railfan can love.
On DC I could not get my Athearns to MU with my BLIs. The Athearns take off as soon as you crack the throttle. The BLIs require about 1/3 pwr. just to come online and at least 1/2 throttle to start moving. Now that I have a Zephyr I don’t know if I’ll be able to actually sync them the way I want to without replacing the QSI system (which I love by the way) with Digitrax decoders.
Until now with the recent QSI upgrade chips, RTC only worked on analog because of litigation between QSI and MTH. They’ve apparently reached some kind of agreement and now RTC can be used on DCC. So I guess my question is, will I be able to set throttle loads on my QSIs and be able to run my Genesis with them on DCC? And if so, how?
Please help jkroft with his issue first.
Thank you,
cv2 adjusts the starting voltage to match another loco. but it does not change the starting voltage. if you have a loco that starts to move with 3 volts and another starts at 5 it will adjust the decoder to supply 5 volts when the other loco is receiving 3 volts at speed one so they will both start at the same speed.
CV2 is meant to adjust the voltage that the decoder sends to the motor at speed step “1” on your throttle. This is an important tool in every DCC user’s toolbox, and is one of the first three steps I undertake when I get a new engine.
Don’t be surprised to find that the setting for CV2 will change as a loco gets broke- in and worn, but also when hitched to a train. If the engine starts at speed step “1” when idling in the yard, how would that much voltage also get a 20 hopper consist lurching to a walk speed? It won’t.
You may want to ponder the following linked thread. It goes a long way toward solving consisting mis-matches.