DCC Decoder Tweaks You Automatically Make

[Sir TophamHatt]

Are there any tweaks you seemingly automatically make to decoders?

What make/type of decoder is it?

 

The only one I blanket do on all is turn DC running off; mainly because I'm a bit OCD about that sort of thing.

 

I heard there was a standard tweak for most Zimo MX range that you should change: CV9=51 and CV56=133 but I haven't done those to any of mine.

 

Discuss

[RFS]

I think tweaking CVs 9 and 56 are really aimed at locos with coreless motors and suchlike.  I've not got any of these, and my Zimo decoders are in standard Hornby and Bachmann locos where the default value for these two CVs seems to work absolutely fine. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

What made Lenz my long term standard choice was that no tweaking was required on current RTR. Fit, adjust CV's 2,3,4,5,6 to taste for speed, curve and accelerations, job done as far as motor control was concerned. Smooth, quiet, stable performance, no address losses or other 'weird happenings', no failures other than a few Golds very early in, all of which were replaced on warranty.

 

Zimo, (in the past for rather more money) reserved for the stubborn cases, typically older mechanism designs that had to be beaten into submission, by using the large suite of 'tweak' adjustments on offer. Smooth, quiet, stable, performance, no address losses or other 'weird happenings', no failures. (I have tried CTE also with equally good result, but the Zimo costs less for the same sophistication.)

 

Now that Zimo have an economy price decoder too, I will use whichever is available for least dough. (Attitude to DCC, it is a utility. I will take the cheapest route to the desired fine performance.)

[SRman]

For the vast majority of my installations, I tweak CVs 3 and 4, giving them much higher values than the defaults, so they more closely match all the sound-fitted locos in behaviour. I usually start off with CV3 = 25 and CV4 = 18, then further adjust if necessary from there.
 

I watch the starting behaviour and if it jerks from a standing start, I reduce CV2 to 0.

Occasionally, I adjust the top and mid speeds, but not as a general rule - the most recent one of these I did was a Janus diesel which seemed to have much too high a top speed for my liking.

Other adjustments come down to individual locos requiring them - as someone has previously mentioned, sometimes the BEMF settings need changing to suit particular types of motor.

[Sir TophamHatt]

Do adjusting CV 3 and 4 give it a smoother start and finish?

I have one train that almost coasts to a stop, yet another that stops pretty quick.

[Oldddudders]

Do adjusting CV 3 and 4 give it a smoother start and finish?

I have one train that almost coasts to a stop, yet another that stops pretty quick.

 

Yes, bigger values in those CVs makes the respective acceleration and deceleration more gradual. But have a care if you regularly run into dead-end roads - too high a CV4 can be embarrassing. I typically put about two-thirds the value of CV3 into CV4. 

[SRman]

Yes, I have misjudged stops on occasions too! That adds to the enjoyment of the challenge of actually "driving" the locos or units, for me.

[Butler Henderson]

Only having a branch line layout I always, using Decoder Pro, put on the full speed curves, drop the highest to around halfway on the speed sliders and use the auto setting to set the rest automatically on a constant alignment between that halfway maximum and zero. May reduce it further on some locos like 08s so that without having to think where to turn the Multimaus knob to, I can just ram it on full and the 08 crawls happily along.

[Chameleon]

I have a couple of Loksound v4 fitted locos. They have a long pause and a very slow start which makes them a bit sticky. What CVs should I tweak to get them to move off a bit quicker?

Edited February 24, 2018 by Chameleon