ESU Loksound 5 changing settings by itself after storage

[Stefan88]

Wondering whether anyone else has come across this now that it has happened to a second LS 5 of mine.

 

First was an Austrian Cityjet EMU that had an LS 5 factory fitted and a (vastly) better sound project from LeoSoundLab uploaded. Bought very cheap on ebay, but issues were that the sounds were all over the place (for example multiple sounds on a single F-key like say horn and door closing) and motor sounds didn't match what the EMU was doing, plus it only ran very slowly. I managed to get a decoder settings file from LeoSoundLab that rectified all of this and it ran perfectly with all the sounds behaving as they should. After a few months not being run it was back to being all over the place, again a quick load of the settings file with the Lokprogrammer resolved it, again.

 

Dodgy decoder perhaps I thought, firmware had been updated etc.

 

Now after a couple of months out of use the same issue has struck another of my models, this time another Austrian EMU (class 4020). This was one I upgraded to sound myself, bought a brand new LS 5 decoder from a shop in Germany who loaded it with a LeoSoundLab project and had been working perfectly for 2+ years. It is coupled to a second dummy unit fitted with a LS 5 Fx (function sound decoder) also running the same sound project but loaded myself having bought a Lokprogrammer in the mean time. So as well as shooting off rapidly rather than the prototypical acceleration it had previously, the sounds were out of sync between the decoders (the dummy still playing sound correctly).

 

I didn't have a settings file for this one, and it wouldn't let me write the settings from the dummy as these are written for a LS 5 Fx decoder and this is apparently incompatible with a regular LS 5. So with the software opened twice, the Fx project loaded in one and the faulty decoder in the other, I manually copied all the settings and CVs from one to the other. Only flaw with this is that it didn't run any more presumably as some of the CVs I changed put all motor function to 0 being a function decoder, so to fix that I simply copied all the motor settings from the Cityjet settings file. This got it working again with all the sounds in sync, acceleration and top speed might not be right (Cityjet built in 2016 with Vmax 160km/h vs. class 4020 built in 1979 with Vmax 120km/h) but at least it all works properly again. I will be asking for a settings file for this one too in due course but saved the modified settings as a project file to save any future data entry.

 

These two models are the 'oldest' LS5s in my fleet, I have another 4 that are still behaving themselves and haven't been touched since buying/loading. Naturally no issues at all with all my Zimo decoders, or my LS 4s.

 

Has anyone else come across this issue with Loksound 5 decoders? Settings changing by themselves during periods of disuse. I haven't been able to find anything on this in English or German.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Stefan88

[Stefan88]

After a few hours just sat on the track with the power off the 4020 EMU has reverted back to shooting off like a rocket and stopping like a Formula 1 car, completely out of sync with the sounds, so I've requested a decoder settings file from the sound supplier.

 

Again, latest firmware has been loaded to the decoder. CV8=8 reset doesn't change anything other than the address.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Stefan88

[Hamburger]

Could be a problem with the flash memory, but in this case you should lose all settings and the model would not respond at all.

However, you can read a lot on the ESU forums of people having similar problems, and in most cases the problem was that they didn't follow the upload procedure correctly to set what the default values should be for that decoder.

When writing decoder data, a window pops up asking whether the old default values should be overwritten. If the project works correctly, the checkbox for it should then be clicked before writing.

 

 

[Stefan88]

Thanks, but the checkbox was already selected and has been on every upload I've done. A quick read of the first 30 CV's suggests nothing has changed. Another upload of the settings I saved yesterday has restored it to behaving correctly again for now.