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Gaugemaster Advanced Prodigy address problems


paulbb
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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?

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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

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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

 

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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

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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 

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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.

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  • 5 months later...
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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 by Izzy
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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!

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