Hornby Select - Viewing Previously Set CV's

[Stephen in Kerry]

Is it possible to see what CV's have been previously set in a loco, using the Hornby Select controller? I'm thinking of acceleration and deceleration, primarily.

I bought a pre-owned loco (with sound decoder) and would like see the current 'starting point' for those CV values, before I consider changing them.

[Chrissaf]

The Select does not have any CV reading capability at any firmware revision level and never will without a major hardware revision and update. The current hardware architecture does not have support for reading functions.

[Stephen in Kerry]

@Chrissaf Thanks for the speedy reply. Can you suggest any basic starting points for acceleration and deceleration CV's for Era 3 and 4 steam locos?

[Chrissaf]

Not my area of expertise, Rob and others can advise.

[Howbi]

@Stephen.........with most decoders you can download the User Manual which will usually show you the default values for the most common CVs. Then if your Select controller is the latest version 1.6 (or 2.0 if brand new) you can reset the decoder to it's default values; compare to the Manual to get the information required.........HB

[Stephen in Kerry]

@Howbie Thanks for that. I had already read up on re-setting the Select controller (it is version 1.6 and not 2.0 - although it was bought brand new from a dealer in Dublin last week). But, I may have misunderstood.

Are you saying that if I reset to default values, I am resetting each loco to its own default value - and not the controller's default values, which is what I had understood to be the case? I have the information sheet for the sound decoder

I'm also curious to know if there are 'accepted CV values' for certain types of loco, especially steam locos of era 3 and 4, to give more authenticity to their (loco)motion.

[Chrissaf]

To put Howbi's reply in different words. What he is saying is that if the decoder currently has factory default settings [no guarantee of this to be the case if purchased second hand] then the current values of the CVs such as CV3, CV4 etc will be as documented on the Decoder data sheet.

If you then write a value of 8 to CV8 of the decoder [something you can now do with version 1.6 and 2.0 Select firmware] you will reset the Decoder to its factory default and that gives you known CV value starting points as documented in the decoder data sheet. These may not be the same values as currently configured.

This is not the same as performing a Select factory reset, which restores the Select to factory condition and has no effect on any loco decoders.

My comment below not articulated by Howbi.

In your specific situation, this is not of any real benefit to you as you have no idea what CV settings the previous owner made to the decoder, thus a decoder CV8 = 8 factory reset may alter lots of other CVs as well as CV3 & 4 values the previous owner might have set up. This could potentially be detrimental to the operation of the loco and you would have no way of knowing what CV values to reinstate to recover the situation.

In my opinion, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Only try changing the values of CV3 and 4 if you are experiencing something not to your liking. At least then if changing the CV3 and 4 values makes things worse, you only have to experiment with those specific CVs to find their original values through experimentation and recover.

[Fishmanoz]

Stephen, why don’t you start by setting them to 15. I’ve picked this value as it is the default for TTS decoders so not an unreasonable value. Then if your loco is taking too long to get going and/or slow down, try reducing it to 10. If not long enough, increase them to 20.

If it’s a shunter, start with a very low value as you want instant response when doing shunting.

[Stephen in Kerry]

@Chrissaf and @Howbie - many thanks once again. Everything I've ordered is now in my 'train room'. All I need now is for the guy building the baseboard to keep his side of the bargain. The winter will soon be upon us - and I'm keen to get started.