Testing my newly wired track, with my new DCC 45 tonner, I didn’t quite have it on the track when it went through a turnout. It reset the Powercab. The PC recognizes the loco, but it no longer moves. Using programming track mode, the loco twitches as the PC interrogates it but that is all.
The Bachmann forum says reset CV 8 to = 8. Mine is 101. I cannot reset it on the programming track. Do I need a resistor across the rails, like the Digitrax Zephyr? Or did I fry the decoder with one derailment?
I will say it ran better on DC. At low speeds on DCC it buzzes or used to buzz. No, I did not have a DC and simultaneous DCC set up.
What is “101”? If you put the loco on the programming track and have the PowerCab, you should be able to select the CV option, enter 8 when it asks which CV you want to set, and then enter 8 as the value.
The power cab allows me to change it 8 on the programming track but when I cycle the power CV 8 is still 101. The headlight does nothing when the power returns. Previously I had successfully changed the loco addy to the cab number - 51. Do I need to change it back to 3 to do these changes?
It’s a factory decoder, so probably Soundtraxx (not a sound decoder)
I did read the manual but it’s not working like the manual says it should.
Out of the box, the loco addy was 3. It ran fine on DC and still runs on DC
Last I knew, the onboard non sound is a low end Lenz decoder in all Bachmann with DCC onboard. Not a Tsunami. The Bachmann rep at the Bachmann forums answered that question there a few years ago in a forum the way I posted it. Yours may be defective. Just a guess. Did you try more than once to reset?
Here is the stock PC board. A shrink wrapped decoder should be soldered to the copper contacts.
Based on recent posts in the forum, I assumed that is what Bachmann used, so I could be wrong. I have not taken the lid off to look inside, yet.
Indeed they are. CV 8 is the manufacture code and should be 101. They go on to say: “You can reset this decoder to factory default settings by setting configuration variable 8 (CV8) to a value of 8 using any NMRA-compliant DCC controller.” I have tried this multiple times without success.
After I tell the NCE controller to set CV8 to 8 and push enter, is there something else I am supposed to do besides power of off on?
Solved! That’s the good news, the bad news is I have no idea what I did differently. I tried a few more times without success. Nearly all the loco roster is DC but I did buy a 4-4-0 Spectrum after the recent thread. The plugs between the tender and the loco are a little fiddly but I got it running. I reprogrammed the engine number and ran it around a circular track I had set up for Christmas. It derailed at a turnout and the NCE flashed off and on. Now it didn’t run either.
I did the CV8 reset and when I pushed enter, the loco gave a brief buzz and quiver. That was new. I powered on and off, nothing at the new address but when I selected 03 I had a running loco.
Put the 45 T back on the track, did exactly the same thing I did going on a dozen times and it too quivered and grunted when I hit enter. Off/on and now it worked at 03. I’m sure I tried it at 03 before on my previous attempts.
During my struggles, I scrolled through Program on the Main and Soundtraxx appeared on one of the screens. So it isn’t a Lenz after all. The only thing I can think of is maybe I didn’t press firmly on enter after I reprogrammed the CV8. Seems unlikely that I would have done so repeatedly.
I do know for a couple or so years SoundTraxx has been marketing a non sound decoder so it sounds like your 45 ton has that. I am assuming new from the factory.
Would not surprise me that Bachmann has gone to a better non sound decoder. Over the last few years I have read many complaining about the Bachmann with DCC, non sound on board in different forums including the Bachmann forums.
Here’s a list of the CV8 manufacturer numbers. I did not realize that that ID would not necessarily indicate the decoder maker (versus the seller, such as Bachmann).
Most decoder manufacturers use the reset CV to hold the manufacturer code. You can reset the decoder with the CV but it will show the code once the power is cycled. 101=Bachman.
Programming CV 8 with 8 does not change the value of CV 8 to an 8. It is an instruction causing a WRITE operation instructing the decoder to return to a factory default condition. If the decoder follows the NMRA decoder reset standard then a value of 255 is placed in CV 8 until such time that the decoder has successfully rewritten all CVs to their factory default condition. If all is as it should be you should never be able to read CV 8 with a value of 255. In the case of a Bachmann manufactured decoder , you will read CV 8 = 101 before decoder reset and after if reset is successful.
