paulbb Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 I have tried to reuse four 8 pin decoders taken from locos that were sold on a year or two ago. On the sold locos the chips worked fine. They are 2 Hornby R8249 decoders a Bachman 8 pin and a Lenz 1035. The Advance Prodigy unit that set the old addresses on these chips now seems unable to either read them, or readdress them. When I try to the read the address , I got lots of random values , typically '18' '36' '0127'. I have tried to reset the chips to the manufacurers defaults using CV8, alas to no avail. When I try to reset CV8 the next read returns no addresses at all.Seems strange that 4 DCC chips should all behave the same way. Could they ALL be faulty? The Prodigy itself is 6-7 years old and I have always found it takes a couple of tries to get the right addresses programmed, and the 'read address' function on it also has never been 100%. Is this unit simply a dud that should be replaced, or can chips have such a short life? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIMorrison Posted February 14, 2020 Share Posted February 14, 2020 Have you placed a simulated load across the motor pins, or even put a motor across them to provide the load when you are trying to program or read them? 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Izzy Posted February 14, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 14, 2020 Assuming that these are being used in a loco, (otherwise the steps Iain outlined above need following), I have always found that re-setting decoders back to default values using cv08 = 08 via my prodigy is best done using POM and turning the system off/back on - or taking the loco off the track- between the re-set and then trying to use the decoder at it’s new default values. Izzy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDMJ Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 Why not get the Prodigy checked by Gaugemaster? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulbb Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 13 hours ago, Izzy said: Assuming that these are being used in a loco, (otherwise the steps Iain outlined above need following), I have always found that re-setting decoders back to default values using cv08 = 08 via my prodigy is best done using POM and turning the system off/back on - or taking the loco off the track- between the re-set and then trying to use the decoder at it’s new default values. Hi Izzy , sorry what is POM ? Izzy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Izzy Posted February 15, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 15, 2020 Sorry for the acronym. POM is Programme On Main. I don’t think the Prodigy is faulty, often re-sets aren’t liked by decoders at times. Even with my Sprog & Decoder Pro there are times they take several goes to accept it. Some makes are worse than others too. Which is why I suggested doing it via POM in the manner I outlined. If that doesn’t work then maybe it has developed a fault. I also find that decoders often benefit from a ‘rest’ when changing cv’s. That they take time to digest the changes. A bit like computers benefit from a re-boot to clear themselves at times. I’ve had decoders seem to ‘die’, but leaving them 24hrs has seen them bounce back as if nothing had happened. Izzy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeg Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 I have had this problem with my unit and agree with Izzy you need to use POM to reset the decoders, I have had to do the reset 5or6 times before the default address 3 can be read, this has been generally when the loco/decoder has not been used for many months, they seem to go to sleep! or in one case became set to address 0000 by DC voltage spikes I was told. regards mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnDMJ Posted February 15, 2020 Share Posted February 15, 2020 10 hours ago, JohnDMJ said: Why not get the Prodigy checked by Gaugemaster? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulbb Posted February 15, 2020 Author Share Posted February 15, 2020 4 hours ago, mikeg said: I have had this problem with my unit and agree with Izzy you need to use POM to reset the decoders, I have had to do the reset 5or6 times before the default address 3 can be read, this has been generally when the loco/decoder has not been used for many months, they seem to go to sleep! or in one case became set to address 0000 by DC voltage spikes I was told. regards mike Yes Mike I have hadd the 0000 problem too. Thanks to you and others above for your kind advice, and I will certainly try the POM approach with the decoders. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
R300AML Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Same problem for me too - How do you actually reset the decoder? I'm new to DCC and I'm lost to know the process Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
R300AML Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 On my Gaugemaster prodigy advance I have Prog track READ, prog track Prog9 and main track Prog9. What do these mean? any help would be greatly appreciated Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Izzy Posted August 1, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) They refer to reading/writing the decoder cv's. Reading decoder cv's - Prog track READ ( need to use the prog track outputs) Writing cv's via the program track output - Prog track Prog9 (need to use the prog track outputs) Writing cv's 'on the main' - POM - which uses the full DCC track power outputs - main track Prog9 NEVER, EVER, connect both prog and main track outputs to the same piece of track, otherwise you will blow the prog track outputs. How do I know.........? Then it has to go back to Gaugemaster for repair...........embarrasing, just a bit.....ahem The reccomendation with new and newly converted locos is to check them first via the program track methods before trying them on main track power. The reason is prog track is low power to hopefully prevent blown decoders if something is not correct before exposing them to the full DCC track power Izzy Izzy Edited August 1, 2020 by Izzy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAF96 Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Often a controller reset can sort out awry behaviour. Then try decoder resets. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BokStein Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 4 hours ago, Izzy said: They refer to reading/writing the decoder cv's. Reading decoder cv's - Prog track READ ( need to use the prog track outputs) Writing cv's via the program track output - Prog track Prog9 (need to use the prog track outputs) Writing cv's 'on the main' - POM - which uses the full DCC track power outputs - main track Prog9 NEVER, EVER, connect both prog and main track outputs to the same piece of track, otherwise you will blow the prog track outputs. How do I know.........? Then it has to go back to Gaugemaster for repair...........embarrasing, just a bit.....ahem The reccomendation with new and newly converted locos is to check them first via the program track methods before trying them on main track power. The reason is prog track is low power to hopefully prevent blown decoders if something is not correct before exposing them to the full DCC track power Izzy Izzy The further recommendation is to run them in as loco 3 before you do ANYTHING to change things! Impatience often leads to disaster! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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