Jim

16 hours ago, Simon Bendall said:

 

50mph max loaded and empty.

Thank you Simon!

cheers,

Jim

17 hours ago, BR traction instructor said:

Grampus is certainly there...

 

BeRTIe

Many thanks, I must of missed it,

Cheers, Jim 

Much thanks for that info.

That Barrowmore site is very interesting.

I couldn’t find diagrams for Grampus, Clam or Rudd but very interesting never the less.

I’ve bookmarked their site!

many thanks,

jim

I have tried for a while to find out the speed of “Rudd” pway wagons.

I’m thinking, although air braked, they have a wheel base of 12 foot so perhaps restricted to 45mph?

I can’t find anywhere on line that gives speeds of specific rail vehicles.

Any info would be great.

cheers,

Jim.

On 20/12/2019 at 12:32, arff999 said:

Hi Jim

Can you please explain how you did it .

John.

 

Sorry for the delay in answering.

I connected them in the same way as the signals.

Use the three raised connector terminals on the top of the sensor.

If you want to lock a LED indicator on,  after the train has cleared the sensor and go out when the next sensor in advance is cleared by the train, connect the nearest terminal of the first sensor to the second sensor using the terminal closest to the fist sensor.....

hang on...my waffle MCB has tripped!

I’ll post a picture.

It shows a sensor and a signal sensor. They are identical in the way they operate so the wiring linking them is the same.

In that diagram, the sensor on the left will “stay on” until the train clears the one on the right. 

What I do want to find out is, how to lock a sensor for a home signal to several other sensors on signals on different routes. So have three wires from different signals connected to one sensor.

13 hours ago, RAF96 said:

Ask David Palmer at TT direct. He is very helpful. sales@dcpmicro.com 

 

From memory of their catalogue there is another sensor that works together with other sensors just like their sensor signals. 

Thanks, I’ll do that.

Ive worked out how to link them now but I’ll ask about the sensitivity of them.

jim

Hi,

I’ve just installed some train tech st10 sensors.

Im using them to illuminate LEDs on a panel.

Im very impressed by them but have a couple of questions that you may be able to help with.

The first question is the sensors’ sensitivity, in outside curves with a stopped train, the sensors “loose” the train, worse with Mk1 coaches.

I was wondering if you are able to adjust the sensitivity to enable them to detect a higher chassis.

The other question is how to lock one sensor with another in advance, so the LED will stay illuminated until the train reaches the next sensor, just like their similar sensor signals.

Ive tried linking them as per the signals in their instructions but couldn’t get it to work.

Any ideas will be great.

cheers,

Jim

34 minutes ago, Chris White said:

As I understand it no. The Dapol signal requires an AC supply of not more than 14 volts or a DC supply of not more than 12 volts. You could derive a suitable DC supply from a DCC track bus but you'd need a special circuit to do so. DCC is a high speed pulsed waveform not normal AC and most standard rectifiers aren't fast enough to reliably convert it to DC.

Many thanks.

I’ll order a Gaugemaster AC power pack. They’ve got two AC outputs so one can go to the CDU and points and the other to the signals. 

I’ll run a power bus for signals to make life simpler.

cheers Jim 

On 01/06/2019 at 11:52, mwrosebury2000 said:

I use passing contact switches on Dapol signals and I have fund that the trick is to throw the switch nice and slow. If it gets out of sync then I just throw it fast. I don't think it gives it enough time to energise if you do it quick.

Hope that helps.

 

Mark

Many thanks.

I’ve ordered a Dapol stop signal and a Dcc concepts lever to experiment with.

Can the signal get its power from the DCC track bus?

If so, that would make wiring so much simpler, only having to run the yellow wires back to the lever frame.

cheers Jim 

24 minutes ago, Jim said:

Thanks for the advice.

cheers

jim

If I operated the Dapol signals using the passing contacts on the cobalt levers, would I have to hold the lever over until the signal arm finished it’s movement? 

Jim

20 hours ago, Chris White said:

C Parkstone's Railway and Dapol Signals DCC Concepts.

 

Personally I'd have thought you'd only want to connect to one of the passing contacts rather than splitting one of the Dapol wires to go to both. The Dapol signal toggles on each momentary switch closure so one pulse should be enough. I guess if the signal is in motion it ignores a second pulse?

 

Don't forget that because the Dapol signal simply toggles it could get out of correspondence with the lever position. This can of course be addressed by moving the lever part way just until the signal changes then returning it to its starting position.

Thanks for the advice.

cheers

jim

Hi, I’m hoping that this is the best section to ask this.

I’m currently using Cobalt levers to operate my point motors. I’m operate them purely by passing contact analogue to keep things simple.

I’m now at the stage of fitting signals.

I want to operate them in a similar fashion, just by using the passing contact wiring cobalt levers.

Im assuming the signals will have a solenoid rather than a motor.

I would much appreciate some advice on what signal kits are available. I’ve looked up the Dapol ones but don’t know if they can be used by passing contact type operation.

cheers

jim. 

Right...

with the help and advice from you guys and my new Lokprogrammer,

I’ve sorted my v5 and v4 compatibility issues....

probably...!

I had set the acceleration CV3 on the V4s to 252 giving a nice slow rate. 

On the v5, I set CV3 to 252 but that didn’t have the same slow rate. It was similar to a v3.5 on max CV3. On this forum a suggestion was made about setting cv23 to 127. That seemed to match the V4s performance. 

The other issue was the speed steps weren’t matching.

After hooking up the Lokprogrammer I noticed the speed curves were totally different even though I had set the V4’s cv6 to 0.

I have programmed all the locos with v4s and v5s to true “linear” acceleration, using the Lokprogrammer.

Then that was it..the v5 is now performing like the V4s.

I’ve learnt so much about decoders from you guys and using the Lokprogrammer 

so many thanks guys,

jim

24 minutes ago, Hamburger said:

For altering 'sound slot settings' you mostly have to program CV 31 = 16 and CV 32 = 1 in advance. This is also shown in the programmer.

The V5 has about 2.000 CVs, but only CV 'numbers' up to 512 are being used.

So the decoder has to know which 'group' you want to change, this is being done with CVs 31 and 32.

 

Many thanks!

jim

4 hours ago, Hamburger said:

Hi Jim,

 

CVs 59 and 60 are remnants of the V3.5 programming where it was just possible to alter the sound speed of the driving sound only.

 

Since V4, every sound can be pitched individually.

CVs 59 and 60 were just kept for 'historical reasons' to make it easier for the old boys being used to the 3.5.

They were never 'really' needed because there are new CVs for that.

 

For the V5, eight years after the last V3.5 had been produced, it was obviously decided to finally get rid of CVs 59 and 60.

 

So, open your programmer software, open or create a project, go to the 'decoder' settings (left column), scroll down to 'sound slot settings', select slot 1 and you can see the successors for the old CVs 59 and 60.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for that!

Ive found the section to alter the pitch of the sound.

When I change values I can’t see how to update the decoder.

Ive tried with simple ones like volume.

Cheers

jim

8 minutes ago, cravensdmufan said:

Or something stronger by this evening!

 

Will be following your progress with interest.

I’ve got a bottle of single malt ready for later...!

My plan is to create a realistic acceleration curves to match the v4 and the v5 locos.

I intrigued to see if I can alter the “max diesel sound”. On the v4 it’s cv59 but, that doesn’t seem to exist on the v5.

The sound I use is excellent but I just lower the value to 100 from 128 on the V4s as it sounds a little high pitched.

I suspect that on the v5, cv59/60 are only changeable at the initial programming stage.

jim

I’ve just received my Lokprogrammer.

I'm starring at it in trepidation, stroking my beard wondering what utter chaos I’m going to cause myself!

Another mug of tea I think!

jim

15 hours ago, wiggy1 said:

 

Yes.

 

And you will be able to receive sound files over the interwebnet as well to blow to a decoder you have. (v4 and v5 only)

Wiggy.

Cheers Wiggy.

jim

Hi,

I’m really thinking of getting the Loksound programmer.

Can you guys confirm that it will be able to program v3.5, v4 and v5 decoders?

Cheers

Jim

13 hours ago, Hamburger said:

My advice is:

 

Load down the free LokProgrammer software from the ESU website, available in English, and install it.

No hardware needed.

Play around with it for a while.

Without the hardware you surely can not damage anything.

Go through all the settings.

You will get an impression how things work.

You can example define a speed curve and then read all the values of that curve.

Acc/dec times are shown if you change CVs3/4.

And so on . . .

 

Excellent,

That sounds like a plan...!

jim

4 hours ago, Jim said:

All very true and I hope we can learn more..but I have £221 worth of loco and decoder that I can't use with the rest of my loco fleet.

I’d just like to add, yes I was and still am a little frustrated, which came across in a couple of my comments but, I don’t want to be negative about the v5. It’s here and it’s not going away.

It’s kind of interesting looking into the guts of the decoders and understanding more about how they work.

I’m toying with the idea of buying a programmer so I can learn more and experiment....and then be committed to Loksound decoders..!

I’m sure our community will learn more about how to use these new decoders and what more they have to offer.

Jim

55 minutes ago, blueeighties said:

Immaterial though really Jim isn't it when you have wrote off the new V5s within hours of install.

It's a new piece of electronic kit. It has been upgraded and improved from previous versions. Are we all still using V3s due to 'incompatibility' issues with newer versions? No, I thought not. Once we understand and become competent with them, every upgrade has offered significant improvements. 

The kit will perform fine, however as always, we need that period of getting used to, and understanding how the new technology works, and how to get the best out of it both from a user and programmers point of view. 

A bit of patience is indeed a virtue.

 

All very true and I hope we can learn more..but I have £221 worth of loco and decoder that I can't use with the rest of my loco fleet.

6 hours ago, Richard Croft said:

I feel like I’m misssing something, I’ve got v5’s in most of my models now with mainly Legomanbiffo sound and the acceleration is slow and smooth in all of them. I’ve got a lokprogrammer so I can adjust the settings easier than using CV’s but I haven’t had to anyway.

 

Richard

The v5 is a good decoder as was the v3.5.

I think the issue is the available timing between each power step.

On the v4 you could set this quite long, so taking two minutes to get to the max power setting.

I think with the v5, it’s the same as the v3.5. The maximum time you can set between power steps is something like 0.9 of a second.

if you set the v4 to this then they would probably match in a consist but, that would then mean adapting all the other locos back to a v3.5 type of acceleration which some find a little quick even set at the highest values.

If Loksound fix this with a software upgrade the v5 will be a great decoder, just need a programmer unit then!

Jim

I’ve been fettling with my v5 today.

Im sure the v5 has many features but the huge intrinsic issue is the lack of slow acceleration like the v4 “bug”

Brian from Howes was excellent and suggested some ideas about the acceleration.

he gave me cv values 68-93. Excellent stuff!

It did slow the loco’s acceleration by reducing the speed in each step but that caused the power steps on the controller being different to the rest of my locos and accelerated quickly after the midway point to reach the max power value and the braking rate was uneven. So unable to use in a consist.

It reminds me of messing with v3.5s.

I think the speed steps in the v5 are too coarse.

Until that gets fixed I’m keeping clear of them.

I'm a little worried the Hattons 66 will be using them.

jim

Well,

I’ve been trying all day.

The v5 for what I need a decoder to do  is no better than a v3.5.

It seems the “bug” in the v4 was what I really liked about it, prototypical acceleration. I just can’t achieve that with the brand new v5.

I can’t sync the speed steps either even though I can match the max speed.

I can’t change the max diesel sound to stop it sounding like an angry wasp.

I don’t think I’ll be buying any of these retro-stepped decoders from anyone again. 

I will ask what decoder then ask if they do anything else, otherwise, that’s me done.

jim