Decoder forgetting light settings

[AndrueC]

A couple of my decoders seem to have a problem enabling the lights on power on. It's not that they default to 'off' but rather that they don't set their outputs correctly on power up.

 

Thus to have the lights showing I have to toggle the headlight switch on my controller (NCE PowerCab). It's not a huge deal but I was wondering if it was a simple fix or a fault I'll have to live with.

[Ray H]

What decoder brand are they?

[AndrueC]

9 minutes ago, Ray H said:

What decoder brand are they?

You beat me to it. It's a Dapol Imperium Next 18. Interestingly it's on the power unit of an HST and the dummy trailer which has the same decoder type is remembering to power the lights up. So it's either a fault or mis-configuration of the that decoder. It is one of the few locos that was bought DCC ready with the decoders bought separately.

Edited March 21 by AndrueC

[Ray H]

We have a similar problem with one of the locos on the club's O gauge layout that's fitted with a Zimo sound decoder. We tried a few ideas out but as the only loco on the layout fitted with lights we eventually gave up.

 

I only asked the make of yours in case it was similar to ours and might have provided us with a solution to our problem.

[jpendle]

 

On 21/03/2024 at 03:44, AndrueC said:

It's not that they default to 'off' but rather that they don't set their outputs correctly on power up.

What do you mean, I'd have thought that the headlights on an HST are either on or off, in what (other) way are the outputs not correct?

 

Regards,

 

John P

[AndrueC]

35 minutes ago, jpendle said:

What do you mean, I'd have thought that the headlights on an HST are either on or off, in what (other) way are the outputs not correct?

I was assuming that as it's a toggle there was just one command being sent which implied that the decoder state was not being echoed to the outputs. However doing some research on DCC commands it appears that although it acts like a toggle on the controller there is actually separate on/off arguments so in that case it's probably just that the decoder is not remembering that the lights should be on.

 

I wonder if there's a CV setting that controls that functionality. Time to dig around for Imperium decoder information I suppose.

Edited March 22 by AndrueC

[Kaput]

ESU decoders have a setting for function memory (i.e. remember if a function was on or off between power cycles).

 

Haven't seen said setting on other decoders.

 

EDIT: Worth noting that due to how a Powercab does functions if you did configure decoders to remember a function's state, the Powercab won't actually show the function as on.

Edited March 22 by Kaput