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programming Lenz DCC in locos


Peter F

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Hi all

 

I am new to DCC.

 

I have a Lenz LZV100 with LH100 controller.  I have fitted Lenz chips to the NEM sockets in 4 recent ROCO HO dc locos (SBB AE6/6, SBB Re6/6, SBB Be6/8; BLS Ae4/4).  I have soldered in Lenz chips to a very 2nd-hand Roco SBB Ee3/3, an older HAG SBB Re4/4, a Fleischmann SBB Ae3/6 II, and a Lima SBB RBe 4/4. All seem to be working, although the Lima with its old "Hornby-style" plastic motor bogie is still a bit rough.

 

Problems / Questions

 

(1) I have removed the motor capacitors from the older locos whose chips I have soldered in, but not from the newer ones with the NEM 8-pin sockets. Should I try to locate and remove these capacitors too?

 

(2) In one of the four newer "socketed" locos (the Roco SBB Ae 6/6) the head and tail lights are extremely dim compared to all the other locos. Any suggestions for a cure? (the bulbs are in the roof, with light-guides to the ends).

 

(3) The Lenz instructions refer to changing the CVs to suit "different types of motors". It apparently has preset programming for 5 different motor types. I am entirely ignorant of what this means. (By the way, in my HAG loco, with its very powerful motor, I am finding a big delay in its response to "slow down" instructions - ?).

 

Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks.

 

Peter

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(1) My philosophy here is to only remove the capacitors if there's a problem.  If the loco performs perfectly with the capacitors in, I'd leave them alone.  I suspect you invalidate the warranty by taking them out, and if you wanted to sell the locos on you wouldn't be able to advertise them as usable on DC.

 

(2) Are the lights dim on DC too? My Heljan class 33 has very dim lights - but that's how it's designed.

 

(3) There isn't more information available - you are expected to try the different types to see if a particular loco benefits.  I have a Hornby Britannia whose start speed is too quick even with CV2=0, but I found setting motor type to 1 (CV50=1) improved it. Otherwise I've not used this in any other locos.  (Your problem with the HAG might be the capacitors? Or CV4 set to a high value?).

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Further thought on your HAG loco. Set it running with function 4 active. That disables CV's 3 and 4 so you get instant response to speed step changes. Now assess whether it responds promptly to slow down commands. If it then does, that shows you that CV4 is set with too large a value for your taste.

 

Well, possibly, there is another characteristic that may come into play and that's the speed curve. Still with function 4 active try the loco increasing a speed step at a time (use 28 step, 128 step you will barely see the changes) and see if you get increases step to step all through the range. On one RTR model I own,  maximum speed - much over scale - was effectively reached by step 16. As a result on speed step 28 a command to slow down resulted in the CV4 delay being applied to 12 speed steps which pretty much maintained speed. So a command to slow down produced no apparent effect for some time.  After trimming CV5 for a scale maximum speed I played around with CV6, normally set at about a third the CV5 value, until I got full use of the speed step range. That needed an extremely low CV6 setting of about 15, instead of what I would have expected - roughly 45 for a CV5 of 140.

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