I finally got my Digitrax Zephyr out of layaway at the LHS today. I got it hom, hooked it up at put my Atlas SD26 w/ sound on the tracks. Having run on DCC many times before on other layouts, this system is pretty much the same as other Digitrax ones. I selected the SD26’s default adress, 03, and it botted up and ran great. I then read through the manual a bit to see how to change the adress. I follow the steps but get a “d nd” erorr message when trying to reprogram. Any ideas? I’d like to set it to 4622, it’s road number.
So next I tried my Atlas Conrail GP38 that came factory equipped with a dual mode decoder. This engine has never been run on DCC so I moved the decoder from the DC to the DCC plug and placed it on the track. The system could not locate the engine, and since I thought it was also on adress 03 (the SD26 wasn’t on the track during this time) I got the “d nd” erorr message again.
Any suggestions? Should I try programing on a dedicated programing track instead of the main? Anything I should check, like dirty track ect.?
If you’re getting d nd you aren’t programming on the main. To program on the main you need to hit Program until the display says PO for ops mode. Also make sure you’re already selected address 3. You should also be able to program on the program track, but changing to a 4-digit address may not fully work. The QSI decoders need a long delay between being sent the values for CV17 and 18, and the change to CV29. Easy to resolve, after going through the usual address programming steps, press CV and enter 29, then enter the value 38 and hit CV WR to write the change.
Thanks Randy, but I’m still having trouble programming it. And the GP38 still will not respond. I should’ve mentioned this earlier, but I’ve never programed before, only just run trains on DCC. The manual isn’t exactly clear on how to set an adress to an engine that apparently doesn’t have an adress.
Many of the Atlas dual mode decoder engines came with a default address to the last two digits of the loco. That is if your GP38 has an engine number of 1212 the default address of the decoder will be 12. Put your engine on the main and try that approach.
To program a 4 digits address with the Zephyr, use the programming track.
Here is the keystroke sequence:
Press the PROG key the display will read PAGE, this is what you want.
Press the LOCO key and the display will read Ad2.
Press the LOCO key once more and the display will read Ad4, this is what you want.
Enter on the numeric keypad the address number you want to use for the loco.
Press the CV-WR key to write the CVs
Press the EXIT key and you are done.
That is all there is to it.
A “d nd” means there is an open circuit on the programming track “or the lack of it I presume” and no current draw is detected by the programmer.
OK, there’s two things going on here. Both caused by decoders that can be flakey.
The sound unit has a QSI decoder. If the Atlas manual is simialr to the one that came with the sound equipped Trainmaster, there is a section that shows the values that need to be programmed to change the address. The automatic address programming in the Zephyr won’t fully change the address. I don’t know if it’s here anymore since it was originally ont he old forum software, but I had posted a step by step as to which buttons to press on the Zephyr to do this - although the road number I used in the example was from a different loco. I will try to find and repost this later on when I get home.
The non-sound unit probably has a Lenz-sourced decoder. These are known to have a problem where they do not put enough of a load on the program track to ackowledge the commands (hence the d nd). With your Zephyr there should have been a large resistor along with the loconet tester. Connect this resistor across your program track and you will probably be able to program that loco using the steps outlined above. It MIGHT work for the sound loco as well, but normally you do not need this resistor connected for other kinds of decoders.
Randy, I have 4 of these Atlas dual mode Lenz decoders equiped locos. They were all programmed with a Zephyr on the programming track without any resistance across the rails, but your suggestion can only help. I suspect Jonathon is not using a programming track.
The Zephyr took care of CV17 CV18 and CV29 without any input from me. Programming a QSI sound decoder is a different matter.
To program any sound equiped loco I always use a Power Pax booster between the Zephyr and the programming track.
To program a QSI equipped sound engine like the Atlas SD26, I insert the Power Pax and follow these steps to program a 4 digits address with the Zephyr.
Press the PROG key the display will read PAGE, this is what you want.
Press the LOCO key and the display will read Ad2.
Press the LOCO key once more and the display will read Ad4, this is what you want.
Enter on the numeric keypad the address number you want to use for the loco. 4622 in your case.
Press the CV-WR key to write the CVs
For an engine number of 4622, the Zephyr will write a value of 210 into CV17 and a value of 14 into CV18. The value of CV29 will remain at 6 and you will have to program it yourself.
Here is how:
Press the CV key you will see P followed by the last CV number used, it could be something like P018 the P is for Paged mode and 018 for CV18, this is just an exemple what you will see may differ and is irrelevent.
Enter on the key pad 29 to reach CV29, you may hit CV-RD if you whish to read the actual value of CV29 it will probably be 006.
Enter 34 on the numeric key pad and hit CV-WR to write the value into CV29.
Press EXIT and you are done.
With Digitrax SoundFX decoder I found I had to program CV17 CV18 and CV29 individually in order to program a four digits address.
Try it straight up, no resistor. I’ve been able to program BLI locos with my Zephyr WITHOUT a booster. You just have to do the manual editing ov CV17, 18, and 29 as described. The steps inthe manual for setting a 4-digit address won’t work with a QSI sound decoder. FWIW, it won’t work using the address setting with a DT400 throttle, either. The QSI just needs too long a delay between CV values. The manual method should work fine. To help it along, run the loco on the main and hit F8 to mute the sounds before placing it on the program track.
I don’t have any Lenz decoders, but the newerones seem to program fine with no special considerations. It’s just those old cheap ones that seem to give trouble, and not just on Digitrax systems. Bachmann also uses a really low end Lenz in their cheap locos that come with DCC. I’ve had no problems using the automatic addressing of the Zephyr to program Digitrax, NCE, and TCS decoders.
I came across this site that allows you to put in the loco number you want and hit the calculate button to determine the proper numbers for CV17 and CV18.
I’m sure that there is some formula to figure it out but the CV calculator page makes it easy.
Ok, after hooking up a program track I got the SD26 to program no problem (turns out I was trying to do programming track programming methods with the engines sitting on the main! D’oh! Should’ve read the manual closer…). When I got the GP38 to “program” I really meant to run. I typed in 94 and sure enough it began to move (number is 7894). So I put it on the programing track and programed it to 7894. It said it was sucessfull, but when I put it back on the main and adressed it, it wouldn’t move! So I tried 94 again and sure enough it moved. So I programed it to 7894 AGAIN, and now it doesn’t respond to 94 or 7894. Help!
The decoder must have the longer address enabled. Your loco will whisper all sorts of sweet promises into your ear, as will your DCC system, but they mean nothing unless you take the step outlined by me and by jalajoie…tell the decoder to enable the extended address. When your system tells you it accepted the long address, it is lying. You must re-enter Ops mode and program a value of 34 or 38 into CV 29. Then, exit the programming, dial up the intended address, and you will be amazed to see that we are both quite right!
Now that you have confused the decoder, do a full reset, acquire it on address 03, redo the long address, go into ops mode and change CV 29, exit and enter the new address on the dial, click your knobs, and away you go.
The question is, does it have a reset option? Some Lenz decoders use setting CV8 to 8 as a reset, but I don’t know about the older ones. However, it’s likely only the address is scrambled, and when programming on the program track it doesn’t care what the old address is. My guess - it’s currently set to 78.
To set the address to what you want, 7894, put the loco on the program track, press Prog until the display reads PAGE, press the Loco key untilt he display says AD4, key in 7894, and press CV WR. Now press CV, and key in 29. Hit CV-RD and see what it says. My guess - NOT 34 or 38. If it’s not, key in 34 if you do NOT want to also run this loco on a DC layout, or 38 if you do, and press CV-WR. Now you can press Exit and try it on the main, it should respond to 7894 now.