CV settings

With sound and trying to find out the actual decoder type fitted by the factory. 
It could be ESU Loksond V3 7 I am attempting to find the data  for setting CVs - mainly the Cv5 & 6 ranges.

The Bachmann site is next to useless in downloading right now.

I could bring it home Wednesday night and check it for you, Sol.

The NCE might have a way of reading the decoder manufacturers' ID.

Maybe someone with an NCE can help here.

Found it using my NCE - it is ESU,  ver 59 whatever that is

Even the standard Bachmann decoders  EZ-36-554 are ESU but version 88.

I think that it's 3.5   Ask on the Loksound forum.

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NCE can read manufacturers ID codes.

Hi Ron,

ESU is NMRA compliant, so setting CV5 and CV6 should be identical between 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0. The version that comes up when NCE goes into programming mode is I believe the firmware version. All the manuals are downloadable from ESA (in fact they don't supply paper versions now). The other way is to check the various bits of hardware on the board with the photographs on their website.

Check the speaker - if it's 100 ohm it's 3.0 or 3.5. If it's 4-8 ohm it's V4.0.

Nigel

I set the CVs for the sound loco OK. My question was about attempting to identify the actual decoder and I got a good reply from the NCE DCC forum - extract follows


Manufacturers follow no standard with the use of version numbers:
- Sometimes the version number indicates a software version rather than a decoder model and the same model will have a range of version numbers.
- Sometimes multiple models will have the same version number and there will be no way of telling them apart by reading CVs.
- Sometimes multiple models will have the same version number and there will be other CVs that can be read to determine the version number.

Sol,

There are a number of differences between Lok V4 and predecesors that can be tested without opening the model, but the simplest is the volume control.

CV63 (I think) sets the overall volume in all lok versions, but the range of available values is 0-64 for earlier versions and 0-192 with Lok V4.

If you can set a value in CV63 above, say, 80 and it 'sticks' (i.e. you can read that value back subsequently) then it will be a V4.0, if the max you can set is 64, then it's an earlier version.

CVs 3 and 4 I believe follow NMRA standards in the earlier versions, but the V4.0 definitely does not (so is not strictly NMRA compliant1). V4.0 uses a different multiplier which can give timing or speed matching problems if used in consist with genuinely NMRA compliant decoders, exacerbated if one also uses the NCE Momentum button.

To illustrate another variation on information available from decoders.

With ZIMO decoders the values in
CV250 will reveal the decoder type,
CV7 will give the main software version number
CV65 will give the sub-version software number.

In fact, the sequence of values in CV250, 251, 252 and 253 wil indentify the individual decoder as all have a unique, read-only, identity.

Hope this ESU info is useful to you as it is important to know which Version you have if setting volume or using speed matching for consisting and may explain anomalies if you are experiencing problems.

Kind regards,

Paul