jpendle

Hi Iain, I've got at least 4, all retrieved from Dapol N Gauge CL68's. There should be some more lying around somewhere, I've fitted 10 MX618's, I'll be keeping a couple but I don't know where the other 4 have got to. We arrive in Manchester on Aug 9th. Regards, John P

How many do you need? I'll be in the UK in August and could pop some in the post if you like. Regards, John P

Hi, Does the loco move and can you control the lights at address 3? When you program the loco does it judder? Acknowledgement pulses from the decoder should cause the loco to move a little when it's being programmed. CV's 17 & 18 are reading back 255, 255 or all 1's, that's not right either. Have you tried reading back any other CV's, CV29 should never read 255. CV 8 should read 134? Regards, John P

Hi, I run the Z21 maintenance app on a Mac Mini using Codeweaver's Crossover software. It costs $60 here in the US but that's cheaper than a Windows PC 😀 Regards, John P

Hi, I wonder if it's the RCN-213 issue? There's some ambiguity in the original DCC spec which means that you sometimes need to add 4 to the accessory address to get it to work properly. e.g. Your digitrax module has an address of 4, but the Z21 would need to send instructions to address 8 to get it to work. If you have the Z21 Maintenance app on a PC you can change the accessory bus addressing to get around this. Regards, John P

Really? This is the first model from Revolution that I had any issues with, I've 4 Pendolinos, 3 CL92's and all of their modern wagons and all have been excellent. I agree that the interior lights are too bright so I'll be turning them off on mine, mine also needed a good hour of running in in both directions but all in all I'm very pleased with it. Regartds, John P

It's not an MX616N, it's too large, it might be an MX620 or MX622. To make sure, stick it back in the loco and read CV250, an MX616 will read 195, an MX622 will read 192 or 233, an MX620 will read 201. This is all on page 5 of the Zimo small decoder manual. Regards, John P

I honestly don’t know! I’ve been working on the assumption that the measured response is a combination of decoder and loco characteristics. If I had a decoder tester I’d use that to try to work out if it’s the decoder or the loco. Regards, John P

Hi Keith, Why is it important for you that you get a straight line when speed profiling your loco's? Has it led to any issues? Thanks, John P

Hi, I'm using Zimo decoders in N Gauge locos with iTrain and the speed curves which I see are very similar. There's always a curve at the low end of the speed table and then a straight (ish) line until the loco speed maxes out, then its all over the place! THis is without any adjustments to CV's. I usually set Vmax to around 120 to eliminate the top end. I then find that there's no issue running under automatic control. iTrain compensates for the fact that the speed table isn't a straight line,. and I would have thought that Traincontroller would as well. Regards, John P

As Iain's spell checker tried to say, if they are both Zimo then it can be done relatively easily. 😀 The first think to do is read CV8 and find out what's been fitted to each loco. Regards, John P

I thought it was Nickel Silvery. 🤔 Hat, coat, etc. John P

Very common here in the US, but it's usually two vehicles at a time. John P

I use DPDT switches on my Tortoise motors. You need to make sure that the common pins on the switch are connected to the Tortoise and the other 4 pins should be connected to the 12V supply. If you look at the instructions that come with the Tortoise then it describes on the second page how to cross wire with DPDT switches. Regards, John P

On my model the lights only flicker when it's moving, when its stationary they stay lit. Regards, John P

Hi, I have a wild hypothesis. Could this behaviour be related to how the STOP button is configured. i.e. whether it turns off track power or sends an emergency stop? Regards, John P

I use a Woodland Scenics Hot glue gun on my XPS baseboards. I used 1” thick XPS. Be careful if you are tempted to paint it, rattle can paint dissolves it pretty fast. Regards, John P

And indeed it does. CV112 & CV113 control the fade on and fade off time for the lights. The defaults are 400ms and 200ms respectively. Setting both to 0 should make the lights turn on and off immediately. The fade in/out time is the value of the CV times 8ms. I’ve never seen one of these before so I’ve learnt something new today. Regards, John P

What kind of decoder are you using, the CV's for lighting effects will vary by manufacturer. Regards, John P

You can change the steering (throttle) sensitivity. It may be that the new app has different defaults. Regards, John P

This sounds like you are using POM, so if the loco is on the programming track then it won't be seen. That's why I asked before for you to give us a step by step account of what you are doing so that we can work out what you are doing wrong. If your loco is on the programming track then from the CV programming screen that Iain shows you need to select Program Track. After that you just select the CV that you want to read or write, YOU WON'T NEED TO SPECIFY THE LOCO ADDRESS. Regards, John P

Hi, I have a Z21 and I used a Tam Valley Hex Juicer with two of its outputs connected to the two rails in the reversing loop. It worked without any issues. My old layout didn't use any form of occupancy detection. Regards, John P

Hi, We need a blow by blow account of what you are doing, the Z21 and the app work fine and I can read CV's with mine. e.g. Put loco on prog track Select CV programming Select Manual etc etc As the NCE is on another layout have you made sure that your programming track connected to the Z21 is clean? Regards, John P

That's right it has. You can now create a mimic diagram instead. Regards, John P

Hi, They're just general purpose diodes in a SOD-80 surface mount package. They are used to switch between head and tail lights depending on which direction the loco is running. Dapol use them in the same way on some of their loco PCB's. Regards, John P