Problems reading CV

[Alsared]

hi

I keep getting repeated failures during reading CV's i have set up a seperate programme track connected to the e-link. the programme starts to read OK then will fail towards the end of the list, the message is 'error' repeating then unobtainable.

this is happening with all my loco's, its a new set-up. I assume that the number of CV's can be set from 1 - 225 which i assume can be set according to the info for the decoders. I am using Bachman, TCS and Digitrax N gauge decoders.

Any advice would be appreciated, i'm a newby to this hobby.

[Chrissaf]

Try it again, but this time with the layout track disconnected from the track output of the eLink. In other words ONLY the separate programming track connected to the programming output and no other connection made to the eLink track outputs.

.

Reason why. Reading CVs in my experience seems to be very fickle and prone to being upset by any electrical interference. The main track can act like an aerial picking up all sorts of noise and things. May not work for you, but this tip works for me.

[Yelrow]

Alserad, Chrissaf, as usual, spot on. The other reason to disconnect, is that  other locos on the track, have been known to be affected. I had one return to cv3. Sometimes, you have to apply gentle pressure to the loco. If these are all new locos, they will all be at 03. Can you read any of them. john

[Woody52]

Hi Alserad, when you say it starts to read OK, then fails then comes up unobtainable, are you taking into account that not all CV's are implemented on all decoders. Some decoders are very limited. If the decoder is recognised when you read it (Hornby for instance) the CV's not used will be greyed out. However where RM doesn't recognise the decoder it will try and read all the selected CV's comming up with various results when it doesn't get feedback. Sometimes if you try to write to a cv that is not implemented it will appear to accept the value you type. To check I always do a read back after writing to a CV If the readback is different to what you wrote then you can be fairly sure that that CV number is not implemented on that decoder. ALSO some older decoders were not able to be read, but you could write to them.

Hope this helps as I am not great at explaing things in text.

Peter.

[Alsared]

OK thanks to all, I have had some success with a new loco fitted with a Bachman chip, all the CV's were read and listed it did come up as an unrecognised chip but that didnt appear to be a problem. should the values have been saved in the loco listing info ?? when i went back to the cv page for this loco it was blank ?? is this correct ??

the engine runs OK but has limited speed control, it appears to have only 2 speeds, shunting @ 4mph & top speed @ 95mph with nothing inbetween, i'm not sure why this

I am struggling a bit with this the support info from Railmaster is quite basic.

[Smithy58]

I have found this to be a problem since upgrading to the pro version  I have totally disconnected to live rails next to the programming track and it seems to be working.  Bit of a faff if I have to do this will probably set up the programming track somewhere else to reduce background signal noise interference 

[Smithy58]

Another peculiar thing, when I have listed for the record of each loco the cv values, the loco starts to move in small steps periodically, has anyone else experienced this? I only noticed this because the loco had nearly reached the turnout, so I watched the next loco and it progressed slowly 2/3 mm at at time.

[poliss]

 All locos jump a little as they are being programmed.

[Smithy58]

Never noticed it before