Consist CV19 changes with no reason on HM7000 sound 8 pin

[Fabio-380194]

Hi, I'm Fabio from Milan,

I have a white Roco z21 and I use RocRail.

It's my third HM7000 and I had no problems with the first two.

However, with this third one (a 8 pins on a Roco DR044) I have the problem that every two or three days (random... more or less after 5/6 hours of work) the CV19 (Consist Address) changes from 0 (default value) to x (where x changes everytime)! independently!!!

The first few times I didn't understand why the DCC control was non working while via App was OK... and I had to reset the decoder.

Then investigating I discovered that the cause is the changed value of CV19 which activates a consist 'randomly' and so it doesn't respond via DCC to his original CV1 value

PS: it happens on the main track (where I have 15 locos) only on this decoder, neither the other two HM7000 decoders change in this 'mysterious' way

Thanks

Fabio

[96RAF]

This is not something the test team has seen before.

Is your sound profile at the latest revision state.

As you know consisting does not work in the app yet, only in DCC mode.

I can only suggest a reset of the decoder by writing value 8 to CV8.

Edit - reported to the test team. It is believed you have already made direct contact to HM customer care and the matter is being investigated.

[Fabio-380194]

Hi 96RAF, thanks for your answer!

• yes I reported to HM customer but I was wondering if anyone else had the same issue
• the sound profile was reloaded 3/4 days ago, so I am confident that is the latest revision
• meanwhile I'll make a 'hard' reset with CV8=8 via DCC on the programming track and let's see if the CV19 change again (now I was changing only CV19 resetting it to 0)

[Britannia Builder]

Hi Fabio

This is a very interesting problem and you did well to spot that CV19 had changed. I have experienced loss of DCC control a few times in the past (none recently) and I had to reset CV8=8 to correct it. I checked that the address in CV1 had not been corrupted but I didn't think to look at CV19, which overrides CV1. I shall certainly do so if it happens again.

I suppose it's possible that it's a hardware fault in your particular decoder, but it seems to me more likely that there's a software bug in there somewhere.

Regards, John

[Britannia Builder]

I've just had an occurrence of this CV19 corruption problem that Fabio reported above. I was running my Duke of Gloucester with the new SD066 profile under Railmaster DCC control when it stopped responding to the throttle. I had to power down the track to stop it. Interestingly it still responded to sounds, which I guess is how a consist works - CV19 for the throttle, and CV1 for the sounds? I then used the app to read all the CVs from the decoder, and sure enough CV19 was set to 16 as Fabio reported earlier. I've no clue as to what might have caused this CV corruption - the loco was running normally beforehand, and I hadn't been using the app at all. Resetting CV19 to 0 cured the problem.

Incidentally there's a minor bug in the app CV editor for CV19 - it isn't possible to set the CV to 0 from the slider or keyboard, but it can be zeroed with the reset button.

Regards, John

[96RAF]

13 hours ago, Britannia Builder said:

Incidentally there's a minor bug in the app CV editor for CV19 - it isn't possible to set the CV to 0 from the slider or keyboard, but it can be zeroed with the reset button.

Apparently it is a known bug and is being worked. For now please use the reset button.

[96RAF]

The other thing to note is whether this CV19 bug is associated with any particular sound profile and/or a particular address range (say 116 to 127), to try to establish a pattern as presently it is very random. There is a similar bug where CV2 is randomly given a high value and upon start the loco races off at that speed value. 

[Britannia Builder]

My DoG SD066 profile was only installed a week or two ago and so is presumably the latest version of the software. The address in CV1 is 6 - I don't use long addresses or high values. The other instances of loss of DCC control that I experienced were all nearly a year ago, on a Bachmann 3MT Tank running the Black 5 profile, but I don't know if these were CV19 corruption - I did a CV8=8 reset to recover. I rather thought that the problem had been fixed in a software upgrade, since the Bachmann has been trouble free for such a long time after 3 or 4 failures in relatively quick succession. I have a power bank in the Bachmann but not in the DoG. I'm using Railmaster; Fabio is using Rocrail. I don't use the app for train control, so Bluetooth isn't connected when the problem occurs.

The only common factor that I can see is that the loco is in motion (under DCC control) at the time that control is lost. I wonder if the decoder is susceptible to some random glitch in the power or the DCC signal which causes it to write random CV values? My CV19 corruption was a value of 16; Fabio mentions a value of 16 but also other seemingly random values.

Have there been other reports specific to CV19, apart from Fabio's and mine? And how common is the corruption of CV2?

It's all very puzzling, but not too serious as long as you have an emergency track power off switch close to hand! Knowing now that it's CV19 that needs resetting saves having to use CV8=8 and then laboriously reset all the other customised CVs.

Regards, John

Sorry - this is an edit of previous post, changing CV19 to 16 rather than 4. I tried to edit the post but seem to have created a duplicate.

Mod note - your previous unamended post hidden from view to avoid confusing folk.