Hornby 153 bad performance under DCC

[TVR1707822112]

Hi all

I own a Hornby Class 153 (the ex central trains one from 2021 range) and have DCC fitted it with a Bachmann 8 pin decoder. When it ran on analogue it's performance at low speeds was always a bit juddery but otherwise OK and the crawl seemed like it was coming from a 5 pole motor as the 'cogging' happened quickly, then it was away and smooth. Since DCC fitting the perfomance under low speed has become dire, with the crawl being more like that of a 3 pole motor and not a 5, and remains very juddery at higher speeds. How could I fix this please?

Thanks and best wishes

[ColinB]

I have used Bachman decoders and yes I have noticed this effect. In fact there is a YouTube video shows exactly that. Try a Hornby or Zimo decoder and I think you will see the issue go away. I don't know if you can change CVs to fix it but I must admit I saved the Bachmann decoder for testing and replaced it with one of the other two I mentioned. Funny you would think all DCC decoders would work the same, but in my experience that is far from it.

[Rog RJ]

Some of the older Bachmann decoders displayed very jerky movement at low speeds. This could be corrected by adjusting CVs 53 & 54.

[TVR1707822112]

Thanks all,

Rog, what should i change them to?

Thanks

[Rog RJ]

There used to be a list of suggested values for a number of Bachmann locos on the Bachmann website but I'm not sure if it's still there.

There were no values suggested for any other makes so the required CV values can only be found by experimentation, raising or lowering values by 5 or 10 steps and observing the effect. Work only on one CV at a time until you are happy. I think CV 53 affects starting performance and CV 54 affects stopping.

[96RAF]

No one has asked yet - which controller are you using and is it up to date.

[Hipwell]

Had the same with my 153, although being from around 2010 I'm not sure if it's the same mechanism or not but with a hornby decoder it ran poor, I then fitted a loksound 5 and it still ran poor until I tweaked the back emf settings and its now perfect.

Sorry not much help as your using a bachmann chip but itl I think itl be fixable with some cv tweaking.

[TVR1707822112]

Thanks all. How do i change the back EMF please?

I use an NCE Procab (and extra cab) which is fully up to date

Best wishes

[Fishmanoz]

My memory is there used to be a doc on the Bachmann site that described the adjustment of CVs 53 and 54. Try a search on the site.

Try that same search on this forum as I also seem to remember I found it via a link on here in a post from years ago.

[rpjallan]

Have you removed the capacitor/s from the motor?

I only have one Bachmann decoder in a loco & until I removed the capacitors it was dire. Since removing them it is smooth as silk. I routinely remove all capacitors now on any DCC loco.