Zimo CV 266

[Tarabuses]

I am using Railmaster v1.64 with Propack through elink.  I have Zimo MX664 sound decoders fitted to some locos and these are working properly.  My problem is that I need to adjust the sound volume which is CV 266.  It seems that Railmaster can only read/write up to CV 255.

Is there any way around this problem or is there any intention to increase the range of CVs accessible through Railmaster?

[Chrissaf]

Tara, welcome back to the forum with another post.

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Did you mean Zimo MX644 ?

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Extract below pasted from on-line Zimo documentation page 68

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Special procedures for DCC systems with limited CV range:

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Configuration variables #266 to #500 are used for the selection and allocation of sound samples as well as other settings. Programming CV’s in this range is no problem for high-level systems (such as the current ZIMO DCC systems) both in “service mode” or “operations mode”.

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There are however many DCC systems in use (some still in production) that can only access CV’s up to #255 or even worse to #127 or CV #99. For such applications, ZIMO decoders offer an alternative way of reaching higher CV’s via lower numbers.

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This is done with an initial “Pseudo-Programming” of CV #7 = 110 or = 120 or = 130 which increases the CV numbers about to be accessed by 100 or 200.

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For example: If programming CV #266 = 45 is not possible, programming CV #7 = 110 followed by CV #166 = 45 executes the desired programming of CV #266 = 45

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if neither CV #266 = 45 nor CV #166 = 45 is possible, programming CV #7 = 120 followed by CV #66 = 45 also leads to the result of CV #266 = 45.

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The initial CV #7 – “Pseudo-Programming” state – remains active for further programming (which means CV #267 is entered as #167, CV #300 as #200 and so on) until the decoder is powered down.

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ATTENTION: After re-booting the system, the “Pseudo-Programming” is lost, that is programming CV #166 is indeed accessing CV #166 again.

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See below to prevent this! The “Pseudo-Programing” can also be stopped without power interruption with CV #7 = 0 which means that the programming reverts back to the original CV #166. Using as an initial “Pseudo-Programming” CV #7 = 210 or 220 achieves the same results as above but remains active even after the system is powered down. This state can only be cancelled with CV #7 = 0, which is important to remember in order to program lower CV’s again.

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Following the above documented Zimo procedure should sort you out. You know what they say, if in doubt, read the manual.

[Tarabuses]

Thanks for those details and sorry for the error in the decoder description.  I will try "Pseudo-Programming" tomorrow and see if I can make it work. 

[Tarabuses]

I followed the instructions for Pseudo-Programming but there is no discernable change in sound volume.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way of reading CV 266 after changing CV7 to 110 and CV166 to the value required.  In fact reading CV 166 seems to show that it is that CV that is changing.

[AncientMariner]

Worked for me, but I had to change the value by quite a bit to get the required result. I can't remember the exact value.

 

AM

[Chrissaf]

In fact reading CV 166 seems to show that it is that CV that is changing.

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If you haven't power cycled the Zimo or written 0 to CV7 to exit pseudo programming mode, then I would expect that reading CV166 is in fact reading CV266. Since the instructions I gave had the following line in them:

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The initial CV #7 – “Pseudo-Programming” state – remains active for further programming..........

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Take AM's advice and use more aggressive value changes for CV266. As he says, it worked for him.

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OK, I don't have Zimo sound but I do have Loksound. I found I had to reduce the default 127 value for the volume CV to 40 to get a noticeable reduction in volume

 

[Tarabuses]

Due to holidays and other committments I had to put this problem to one side for the last month.  In the meantime I contacted the person who wrote the sound files and he was aprehensive about pseudo-programming working.

Before moving to Railmaster I used DecoderPro to program my decoders with a ZTC system.  I had decommissioned it after purchasing Railmaster but set it up again to see if I could resove my problem with CV266.  This has shown that my efforts to change CV266 by pseudo-programming had not worked but I was able to achieve the required changes with DecoderPro. Volume levels are now to my satisfation. 

Are Railmaster working on increasing the range of CVs which can be accessed?  Since sound decoders use CVs well in excess of double the 255 value it would seem that they should.  I don't think we should have to rely on pseudo-programming which, in my case at least, didn't work whether through my fault or otherwise.

[96RAF]

Two things:

I am a big fan of decoder pro and I would really like to see Hornby introduce something similar, RM being the obvious channel for it.

(I think Hornby sometimes misses the boat on such things whether by design or intent of the Board I dont know, but no doubt it is all driven by a marketing decision of yay or nay based on wooden dollars.)

 

In my opinion you should also lodge a request for extended CV support both in the RM wishlist thread on this forum and via a direct email pitch to them.

[RDS]

... RM wishlist thread on this forum ...

@Tarabuses

Search for the word 'Desirable' and it is the 2nd thread that is found.

 

 

[Tarabuses]

 I have added my request to the Desirable thread and have also sent an email to Railmaster support, as I had also asked them for help with this issue.

Is there any other wishlist or Hornby contact that I should use?

[RDS]

@Tarabuses

I think you have it covered, with the actions you have taken.

[Tarabuses]

I have had a quick response from Hornby Railmaster support. 

"These decoders should allow access to every CV using pseudo-programming, however we are implementing the ability to access all 1024 CVs natively from within the software and eLink."

Good news but no mention of when it will happen.

 

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[Peter Ruifrok]

 I promised recently that I would check if the latest version of RM (v.1.65 updated) would allow pseudo programming of CV#266 to reduce the sound level of my Zimo decoder. CV#266 has been set by the manufacturer of the loc to 80 and I wanted to reduce it considerably. I can inform you that it can't be done. I cannot change the value of CV#7 to e.g. 110 as suggested. I can write 110 but when verified it still shows 033 which is the chip manufacturers version (Zimo MX). The next step (changing CV#166 to a lower value) is possible. Its standard value is 049. I changed this to 045 (despite reading CV#7 still as 033) but did not hear any audible change.

[Chrissaf]

Thanks for the update Peter. Hopefully the planned update to RM to support 1024CVs natively will arrive soon. Hopefully not as long a wait as Loco Detection.