Scale Speed control

[GWR Greg]

I have just recently decided to use Scale Speeds on railmaster. I previously had this off, setting a maximum speed via CV5. The first loco I reconfigured after "ticking" scale speeds on was R2918 steam loco fitted with Bachmann 36-553 decoder. I reset CV5 to the default of 42(Max is 63), checked that the profile for R2918 was correctly selected from the Railmaster file. The maximum speed is set at 50mph with cruise at 40mph. The loco did not run at 50mph max speed or 40mph cruise speed. It was well in excess of these. In order to obtain a max speed of 50mph and cruise of 40mph I had set set CV5 to 30. However the lower the speed the less accurate the scale speed became when for instance set to 25mph it was more like 37mph. I have a measured length of straight track to carry out timings I checked and rechecked my list of scale speeds and the time it should take to cover the measured length of track. Does this mean that scale speeds only work near accurate if one is using standard Hornby decoders, which do not have a CV5 setting?

 

[96RAF]

Greg

One would think that if RM supports a decoder (any decoder) then they would have an algorithm to speed match that decoder and not rely upon a user having to knife and fork the settings.

 

i.e. if RM can read that decoder and identify it by make and model then it should have the background data for that decoder.

Rob

[GWR Greg]

I have now reset the rest of my fleet. The same procedure applied to them all. Again no Hornby decoders mostly Bachmann and Hatons with one Lens and one Zimo. None run at scale speed  say 20mph  is much faster like 35mph and 10mph is actually 20mph!

[David12]

I have found exactly the same situation with my entire loco/DMU fleet that are fitted with non-Hornby decoders. Like you, I have had to "knife and fork" every Hattons/Bachmann decoder and Railmaster configuration, whilst every Hornby DCC fitted motive power runs at perfect scale speed. Yet another Railmaster "feature" I have come to live with.

[WilliamDavid]

While I find most of my Bachmann locks need tweaking, some of my Hornby locks are out too.

On my layout I have an A3 and the Princess Elizabeth. Running at 60mph, the A3 is much the slower.

I have quite a few A3s which have different speeds from each other. I find that if I set any one with the settings of another, the speed reflects that setting.

Conclusion, the Railmaster settings are all over the place.

[96RAF]

The problem is you are asking a software application to command a speed based on pre-set (in the application) parameters for each loco, but without the benefit of any live feedback that will tell the software when the set speed has been established.

 

The long awaited loco detection system may be the answer if and when we get it as RM tells of using such a system to calibrate scale speeds yourself.

 

Until then it is a case of 'knife and forking' certain files in the RM folder as has been explained on several posts within this forum based upon hand timing of circuit laps.

Rob