Setting Or changing CVS with Railmaster

[Culp]

My Railmaster software is temperamental about changing cvs. Any advice?

[rpjallan]

Can you elaborate a bit? What controller are you using with Railmaster? What decoders are you using etc?

[Culp]

Hi I’m using Hornby Elite with Railmaster and as far as I know both have up to date software. My current problem is with a Loksound Decoder, but I get it with different ones. It’s not consistent and it does work on the same chip sometimes. Usually the value I’m trying to send doesn’t change colour and the system can’t read to check if it’s stored it.

[96RAF]

It is well known that some sound decoders and/or those fitted with stay-alives can take more power than is available on a Programming track. There has been previous discussion on the DCC forum by the late Chrissaf about a work around, but you can often change CVs on the main using the Elite stand-alone in programming Operate mode where the full track potential is available. This requires you send the address of the loco you wish to change values for in order for only that decoder to be affected.

[P-Henny]

Immediate improvements in CV reading / writing reliability can be obtained by cleaning the contacts areas under the springs in the Elite 'PROG' output terminals. In conjunction with stripping back the PROG wires to obtain fresh clean shiny copper and reterminating them on the Elite.

The easiest way to clean the Elite spring contacts is to trap a thin strip of abrasive material under the terminal springs and gently work it back and forth.

The issue is that the PROG connections pass very little current to keep the contact areas electrically clean and grime can build up which interrupts the current flow. The same cleaning methodology should also be applied to the rails of the PROG track and the loco wheels. After a thorough cleaning as per above, my Elite CV reading / writing reliability with Railmaster was much improved.

[Culp]

Thanks. All good advice. I’ll try the suggestions