Kestrel757

Oo I can post more than twice. The DCC website is slow, but I think I might have found the answer. The main manual, which is the same as the printed one provided with the decoder, is a little vague. THis is mainly as it gives the description for CVs 33 to 42 without explaining them. However I found on the website a supplementary manual for lighting control, which explains that the default for the green cable is on F1, etc. So I now understand that by default if the interior lighting is DCC enabled, it be on one of the buttons F1 to F4. I am hoping that because the lights are on with the blanking plate, off with the decoder it is, but does not explain why it did not worked when I tried it before. Just to be sure, I can use ANY of the drop down descriptions for assigning a function as long as it says on/off (latch) I see from CV47 I could program the AUX to come on with F0 too.

The switch is simply an on-off switch for end and interior lights. My reference to DC is that this is how you turn them on or off in DC operation. In DCC operations, they have to be on, as per the manual, in order to be contolled by the DCC controller. Sorry for the confusion. Newbie question, when (if!) I find the colour of the wire connected to the interior lights, do I need to set any CV to control said lighting? As mentioned earlier I am having difficulty making sense of manual. I have found elsehwhere that other Bachmann units that are already DCC fitted, DMU in this case, use F8 for interior lighting. (PS this might be last post today if still limited)

Apologies for delayed response, as a new registree on the forum I'm limited to two posts a day. Some good news I have managed to get the end lights to work (f0), but I can not find the function to work the interior lights. (They work with the blanking plate in). I've been through F1 to F28 and none work, unless I've misprogrammed it. Not sure if I need to change a CV to map a function, still trying to get my head around the vague instructions both for the DCC card and the train itself. All the leaflet talks about is underbody switched for DC operation (I have checked it's on) While I'm about it, can railmaster programme trains/locos so the marker lights are on at one end only?

The testbed does have a motor. I did hear about the decoder needing a load so I did put the 4tc and a loco together on the prog track. Nothing in the documentation for the decoder says requiring a motor though. I have definded a loco, and also tried to reads CVs directly (possible to do on prog track without defining a loco). The lights are interior, which is not turned on by pressing F1 to F12 (they keys on my keyboard) or F0 by defining a box in the loco definition. Lights on/off are selected as a dropdown box on F0, although having the description does effect the functionality (I know this as when I first programmed a loco I assigned lights to F1, but that just turned the engine sound on which is what I should have assigned to F1)

This might be a newbie user error type question: I have recently puchased a 4-TC EMU (which is motorless, so effectively 4 carriages) and installed a Zen Black decoder. When I read the CVs, the values are all zero although there are various numbers in the status/string column. Resetting and writing values has no effect. When I switched the unit to the main track, I could not turn on the lights. I gave the decoder to a friend who had a testbed, and he could sucessfully read and write CVs, suggesting the decoder is fine. I reinstalled the decoder into my 4-TC and again when I attempted to read the CVs, the values were all zero. I reinstalled the blanking plate to check lights worked, which they did. Because the lights work with a blanking plate, and my friend could read and write CVs on his test cart, suggests to me there might be a compatability issue between the decoder and Hornby Railmaster, but looking at other post, it appears people have successfully used the Zen decoder. I can read and write CVs on the locomotives I have. Any suggestions on what I might have done wrong, or ways to solve it?