I think I have a big problem. I’m relatively new to DCC and recently acquired an MRC Prodigy Advance2. While replacing cars on my layout while holding my cab, it seems I accidentally programmed a consist. My loco on address 1 is not responding anymore. When I press “Loco” and enter “1” like I did since the beginning, the cab displays “Consist” at what appears to be address 1. If I increase the throttle, nothing happens. I read the instructions in MRC’s manual to clear the consist. I pressed “Consist” 3 times to get the “Consist: clr” on the cab, then pressed enter and entered 1, the cab goes back to “Consist 1”. I tried to reprogram my loco at address 1 to address 16 on a programming track. I can read CV values. CV 17 and 18 seems to display 16. But when I put my loco on the main track and enter 16 for the loco, nothing happens.
What decoder is it? Might be easier to just reset the decoder if it has a reset option. Then it will be address 3, but you cna then set it to whatever you want. Unless the cab number is 1, it’s probbaly easier to set the address to the cab number instead of using 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Easier to remember, anyway - just read it off the side of the loco.
Reprogram the locomotive to 0003 and start over. Don’t do a consist unless you are running two or more locomotives in a consist. Use the Loco button on the upper left to run a single locomotive.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Reprogram the locomotive to 0003 and start over. Don’t do a consist unless you are running two or more locomotives in a consist. Use the Loco button on the upper left to run a single locomotive.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
By the way, how do I set a loco address more than 3 characters long with the Prodigy Advance? The MRC manual says CV17 and CV18 are “Extended address - upper & lower bytes, 4 digit address” but you can only input a 3 digits value for a CV. And what should go in CV 1 which is the short address?
And they say Digitrax manuals are ambiguous…ok, after reading the Advanced^2 manual, I think what they mean when they say enter 0-9 is to use the number keys and put in whatever sort of address you want - not that you cna just use 0-9. So if you want to make the loco address 1234, just put in 1234 at the Addr prompt. It will take care of CV17,18, and 29 for you.
Your original loco address was 1, that doesn’t necessarily mean your accidental consist number is also 1. I’d follow the instructions on setting a CV and make sure 19 is set to 0. If you accidently created an advanced consist, resetting the system or the cab won’t undo that, it’s programmed in the decoder.
Randy is correct, just inter your locomotive address 4001 or what ever. If you error just put in 0s until it’s back to 0000 and start over. The four digit address will program the number in the display.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
As for your controller coming up in Consist that’s one I haven’t been able to get mine to do. No matter what it always comes up with the last locomotive in use. Make sure you have your Big Boy as the last locomotive number on the display when you turn off your Prodigy, it should say the Big Boy address when turned back on.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Randy is correct, just inter your locomotive address 4001 or what ever. If you error just put in 0s until it’s back to 0000 and start over. The four digit address will program the number in the display.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Don’t program CVs, just enter the address when the cab prompts for Addr. CV1 is the short address (1-127, or some variation depending on the system). You should not have to monkey with CV1, CV17, CV18, or CV29. The system does it for you based on what digits you put in for the address when asked.
ANd you cna just keep hitting numbers until you get what you want. Suppose you want 4001, but hit the 1 twice by accident. The display should do this:
0004 (press 4)
0040 (press 0)
0400 (press 0)
4001 (press 1)
0011 (oops, hit the 1 twice - so now just start over)
If you’re going to be doing a lot of programming I would suggest getting the MRC USB computer adapter and use JMRI Decoder Pro software. It’s a freebee download and it has drivers for all DCC decoders. Randy put me on to it and it works great. That way you don’t need to go searching for CV info on all the different decoders. It also saves all the data for each locomotive/decoder address for reprogramming.
The adapter is a bit pricy but worth every penny ($50), and I’m a tightwad. There is a slight learning curve for Decoder Pro but if an 80 year old can conquer it anyone can.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
Thank you guys. I will look into the USB adapter. Not that I’m planning to do a lot of programming but there are things I would like to change, like the master volume on the Paragon 3 decoder in the Big Boy. I put back the Big Boy on the programming track, selected “Prog Prog read” and then tried to get the value of CV133, which is supposed to be the master volume and is set at 128 in the factory settings. Well, the cab read back a value of 10, which doesn’t make any sense. The value is supposed to be 0-255 with 255 the loudest. It’s definitely very loud when I put the loco on the track. I then tried to read other CV values and some made sense when compared to the factory settings but others didn’t make any sense. So, yes, I think I will just program the loco address for now and will get the USB adapter. I am already aware of some of the functionalities of the JMRI java application. I’ve been a programmer for over 25 years, so I know a thing or two about software. I would like again to thank you, guys. Specially the suggestion to check if the decoder could be reset. That’s what put me back on track, no pun intended! And by the way, I did try the “hold delete for 2 seconds” to delete a loco address for the cab when CONS 0001 was displayed. That seems to have taken care of it. I was able to enter “Loco 1” and it would stay at “Loco 0001”, not “CONS 0001” like before. Yay!
