Reading Locomotive CV's above 512

[Jazzonics]

Is there a way of getting Railmaster to read CV's above 512. I have several locomotives using ZIMO Decoders and even though l set the the range to 1024 Reading stops at 512, with the last 5 readings not corresponding to the CV description within my documentation. I can run the engines but several sounds and sound controls are missing because they use CV's within the range of 600 t0 800.

[Chrissaf]

Extract from Page 4 of the RM manual.

RM is designed to read / write the full range of CVs as highlighted above. If your Zimo can't be read, then there may be a bug in RM that is preventing the full range being read [bearing in mind that no Hornby branded decoder uses CVs in that upper range so there are few instances where reading these upper CVs is put to the test]. OR, there is an issue with your Zimo.

Some ZIMO decoders provide a CV that you can set to allow 'controllers' that cannot natively read & write the higher values to read / write them using CV numbers at a lower numerical range. The term in the ZIMO manual is referred to as 'pseudo programming' or similar.

In the first instance I suggest you deeply read your Zimo decoder manual to see what features are available for reading the upper CV range using alternative CV configurations. If that fails to offer a solution, then you could try using the inbuilt 'Help Request' function within RailMaster [accessed via the 'Help' page] to ask HRMS to comment.

See also, this previous 2017 thread that discusses reading a Zimo decoder CV266 which at the time could not be read using RM. The full CV range was added to RM in a later update. But this 2017 thread does describe the ZIMO pseudo programming technique for reading higher values. You would need to read your specific ZIMO decoder manual to find out firstly if 'pseudo programming' is supported, and if it is, which CVs are applicable to modify. Do note however, that the 'pseudo programming' technique did not appear to work for the 'user' in the example thread linked below. But that was in 2017.

Zimo CV 266 :: Hornby Hobbies

Off-hand I cannot tell you what RM version update included the full CV range capability. The current version is 1.74.2 so if yours is not this latest version than I suggest you update it [free of charge] from the Hornby site.

There are two other things you can try.

Double left click CV7 in the CV reading / writing screen. This should open a list of supported decoders. Make sure you select your ZIMO decoder if it is listed. With your specific ZIMO decoder selected, then try reading the >512 CVs again and see it it then works. Your issue may be a result of RM not knowing which exact ZIMO decoder it is trying to read. CV7 may be set to read a decoder that the database indicates has only 512 CVs.

A third alternative, is something I have suggested before to other decoder related CV issues that have provided working solutions to others, it might also work for you too.

1. Restart RM as a clean start.
2. Open the 'Locomotive Settings' screen
3. DO NOT select your loco entry from the previously configured list or any other loco either, but go straight to the CV Read / Write screen and open it.
4. DO NOT attempt to read any CVs whatsoever.
5. Go directly to the CVs in the 600-800 range you want to amend in the CV list.
6. Enter the values you want to set and start the writing process.

Basically, what the process I have described above does, is that it opens the CV writing utility in such a way that it 'side steps' any reference to the inbuilt decoder database and allows you to use the CV writing routines without any restrictions imposed by the decoder data in the database. For this to work, it is imperative that you DO NOT manually invoke any decoder CV reading tasks.

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