HST Motor & Dummy Address writing

[MarkNZ]

Hello everyone

**Noobie question alert!**

I've just purchased my first ever HST set from a local NZ online auction site. Both cars have a decoder fitted.

As i don't know the decoder address and I need to set them up can someone please confirm if both need to be on the track at the same time so they receive the same address?

Thanks

Mark

[96RAF]

That is the normal way to do it. Both should have the same address so that the directional lights work correctly. As you don't know the address and if your controller can do so then reset the decoders first by writing value 8 to CV8 to get them back to factory datum settings, but not all controllers can do this. Then write your chosen address.

 

The other way is to program the motor unit decoder then swap it with the dummy unit decoder and repeat the process as some decoders will not address unless they have a load on them such as the motor.

 

You may get away with programming the dummy on its own depending upon the make and model of decoder.

Rob

[MarkNZ]

That is the normal way to do it. Both should have the same address so that the directional lights work correctly. As you don't know the address and if your controller can do so then reset the decoders first by writing value 8 to CV8 to get them back to factory datum settings, but not all controllers can do this. Then write your chosen address.

 

The other way is to program the motor unit decoder then swap it with the dummy unit decoder and repeat the process as some decoders will not address unless they have a load on them such as the motor.

 

You may get away with programming the dummy on its own depending upon the make and model of decoder.

Rob

Thanks Rob, It looks like they are hornby 8 pin decoders and i'm using an Elite unit. I will try both and if that doesn't work I'll use the swapping method.

Cheers

Mark

[Froggie]

Hi, Froggie here,

If it's any help to you, I bought a pair of Zimo sound decoders for the Hornby HST and I had problems in getting the dummy car decoder to work correctly. I was advised by the reseller that it was probably down to there being no back-EMF being detected by the chip - there is a work-around by changing CVs - but the other solution is to put the dummy car decoder into the power car (my decoders were specifically labelled 'power car' and 'dummy'), set it up as you want and when happy, take it out and put it into the dummy car. Rinse and repeat for the power car chip.They worked perfectly well once in their respective 'ends'.

(This was using an ECoSII. In my case you cannot have two chips with the same address, but you give them two different addresses and then run them as a pair in a 'consist'.)

Cheers,

Phil