Hi All,
I hope you’re staying safe and getting a lot done on the railroads!
I just acquired a new Proto 2000 GP18. It has DCC but I don’t know what brand. I plan on consisting it so I need to program the start voltage down (it starts moving at 30). When I read CV8 the value is 8, which doesn’t code for any certain manufacturer. Any help? Should I just take the shell off and look at the decoder?
What system are you using? I use the nce power cab. If i go to program track menu and select 1 it will show me the decoder manufacturer number. Then I go online and check who makes it.
NCE Zendesk says BLI is 8, don’t know why that would be in a Walthers loco, edit I must have been having a senior moment when I read that, but it’s not there now.
but be that as it may, the relevant CV is 2 for starting voltage. What do you read there?
When you say it moves at 30, that is speed step 30?
The reason I was trying to find out the manufacturer is I wasn’t aware there was a standard. I thought that like sounds the CV numbers would vary. Thank God for the NMRA to keep this all standardized!
And yes, I meant speed step 30.
Seeing how there is no Manufacturer ID assigned to 8, you must be looking at the wrong CV. BLI is 38. The complete list is here.
V Start is CV2, and a good place to start. You should identify the decoder, which should be in CV7, after you determine the manufacturer. Knowing which decoder was installed helps a lot. Some OEM versions are lacking in features.
Be warned: Not all CVs are mandatory, so some features may not be available. If the decoder uses indexed CVs that can also get interesting.