CV lock

[Nodrog1826]

Daft question do the Massoth chips CV lock, lock everything, or can you still change the loco address.

Just asking this question as a hypothetical, since adding function chips, and locking the settings.
If I ever decide to re number my fleet, however unlikely will I have to dismantle and do the function chip as a separate item.

Could set the loco and function chip to the same locking settings, but I can see potential problems if you accidently change CV's with the same number on both chips.

 

[muns]

Gordon,

The idea of the locking is so that you can access each decoder separately without the need to dismantle. Obviously it only works if all the decoders have the feature!

Lets say you have a Massoth eMotion LS decoder and a Massoth 8FS decoder in the loco. The lock mechanism on Massoth decoders is deemed unlocked if CV15 matches the value in CV16. Each different type of Massoth decoder has a different default value for CV16. In the LS decoder CV16 defaults to 144, and in the 8FS CV16 defaults to 137.

So if we wish to lock both decoders from programming you can set CV15 to any other value apart from 144 & 137. Normally you would use a value of 0.

To be able to read CVs from the 8FS you would first set CV15 to 137. This would unlock the 8FS and lock the LS allowing the 8FS to respond to CV read and CV writes.
Likewise setting CV15 to 144 will allow access to the LS decoder and not the 8FS.


So you could do the following....
Unlock the LS decoder (CV15=144) [Locking the 8FS in the process]
Change the loco address.
Unlock the 8FS (CV15=137) [Locking the LS in the process]
Change the loco address.
Lock the 8FS (CV15=0) [Also relocking the LS].

Note: If you have more than one type of decoder in the same loco (i.e. 2 x 8FS for example) - it is best practice to change the programming lock in one of them to a different value so you can unlock each one individually.



Another method is to use a little known feature of most Massoth decoders (I am not sure if this is available on other manufacturers decoders) is the "Program on Main Programming address". This allows each decoder to respond to Programming on the Main requests using 2 loco addresses, the first driving address and this programming address (which MUST be different). You will have needed to change the values (CV107/108 - its a long address).