Update on Cuda's PR3 and a question?

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

OK assembled PC experts and intelligentsia,

As you may recall, Ken has a PR3, with a PS14 power-supply. He has the latest version of DecoderPro installed and has successfully read CV’s on the PR3 program track from various Digitrax non sound decoders. He has never managed to read the CV’s from QSI or Loksound decoders.

So, I bring it home to try it out with my PC and sure enough I can read any, and all sound decoder CV,s that I want.

Why would the PC have anything to do with this? My working theory is that Ken’s PC is an older PC and either the USB ports are slower (USB1 v USB2 on my PC) or the USB is perhaps underpowered compared to mine?

Any thoughts?

2

And I think thats the common factor to most problems presented by Ken. They include Ken [:)]

3

Ken would be the first to agree!!

4

The somewhat obvious test would be to beg or borrow a laptop with a USB port, and test it at Ken’s house. Also, test a different USB cable - read on.

Never underestimate the problems cables can cause. I purchased a longer USB cable for my scanner because I wanted to change its location. The scanner would no longer work reliably - would sometimes (but not always) reset in the middle of scans or not register with Windows XP when plugged in. I tried changing USB ports and finally computers with no success. Finally, I replaced the USB cable, and everything was fine again. I’ve had similar experiences with IDE and SATA cables that were furnished with motherboards or purchased new, too. And I’ve yet to find a way to easily detect or test these cables that have subtle signal degradation - enough to partially screw things up, but not enough to instantly know the cable must be dead.

just my experiences

Fred W

5

Thanks Fred,

One of the things we did at Ken’s on Sunday was to replace the USB with a brand new one, to no effect. It is this replacement cable that I am using here at home without any problems at all. (So far worked fine on QSI, Lok Sound and a Heavy Tsunami)

Since my home PC is a laptop, I will plan to bring it over to Kens on the next visit. Personally, I am leaning towards the USB port on his PC as being the culprit.

6

If its an issue with his USB port, you could try a powered USB hub. That would eliminate the power issue with the USB port and leave only hardware/software/driver issues.

7

EDIT: I see the problem was most likely resolved on another thread, please disregard.

sorry