Railmaster not reading in loco CV values

[Buschy]

I am new to DCC and Railmaster; model trains in fact... I have managed to connect Elink and install the software successfully but having trouble getting a non Hornby locomotive to run. When I place Hornby loco on program track and read-in decoder information

 

it provides the values for each CV but when I place the other loco on program track it only reads in the CV's but values are set to 255. I spent over an hour entering them all manually (over 200 of them), using the information that came with the loco's technical

 

manual but for some reason Railmaster didn't save them. When loco failed to work I went back in to select the same loco and click the get information icon they were still all set to 255. When I place this loco on the main track it just sits there. I can't

 

get it to make any sounds or move. Just the front light is illuminated. As soon as I place the GWR loco that came with my DCC Western Master train set it works right away. Any help most appreciated.

[Rog RJ]

You have got a DCC decoder in the loco you are having trouble reading, haven't you?

[gilbo2]

Buschy said:

...I spent over an hour entering them all manually (over 200 of them), using the information that came with the loco's technical manual but for some reason Railmaster didn't save them

You do not need to write

all the CV's manually, they will be set to a defualt value to start with which should enable operation through the loco base address "3". I suggest;

1) Clean your programming track and loco wheels, checking all wires are secure.
2) Reset the non-hornby

loco by writing 8 to CV8.

Now, try reading CV1, hopefully it comes back as "3".

Then put it onto the main track and see if it works by controlling it with loco address 3.

You can then move onto changing the address to your preferred loco

address once everything is working. ie by changing CV1, but nothing else.

Finally, I'm assuming you can read the CV's on your Hornby loco?

[St1ngr4y]

On another recent thread, I stated that I had discovered that you must have a motor attached to the output (grey & orange) wires of the decoder otherwise you cannot read or write CVs. In the process of this discovery, one of the decoders I tried, gave

 

255 values for every CV I tried to read. So maybe this is your problem. Are you able to check the wiring between the decoder and the loco motor?

Ray

[Fishmanoz]

All CVs reading 255 is actually an error telling you it can't read them at all. And if it can't read, it is unlikely to be able to write, so you won't have got anywhere with that either.

 

So yes, do check all connections from clean track, to clean

 

wheels, to pickups making contact with wheels to all wiring correct including orange and grey to motor. After all that, apply some gentle pressure to the loco on the programming track and see how you go. Let us know.

[Buschy]

Thanks for all the tips. I will have another crack at it tonight. I think track is OK because Hornby loco runs fine on it.

 

It is strange, because when I tried to write the values to the new loco it's front light would come on after each value had

 

been received as a form of acknowledgement.

[Buschy]

I ended up getting hold of a handheld controller and it found the Broadway locomotive right away, address 3. Up and running, making all kinds of noises to is less than 10 minutes. I can only conclude from my own experience that it must come down to a compatibility

 

issue. I really hope it gets resolved or the process at least simplified from end user perspective as I'm REALLY keen on using the software to control everything rather than walking around and pushing buttons on a remote.:) I think the next loco will be a

 

Hornby because no issues running the little one I have with RM. The process I went through to get it rolling down the track was effortless.