Number of CV's on a loco chip.

[Nodrog1826]

Having had a problem with a loco yesterday as reported here...
http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?high=&m=261642&mpage=1#261695
It has set me wondering as to how many CV's there are on a loco chip, and more importantly what do they all do,
and do different chips have the same CV's for the same functions as other makes.

I may just be the most daft question i have ever asked...

 

[steve parberry]

Sadly not all chips are the same so its read the book for every make and model.....not only do you have cv to set but now also bits of data in the cvs...

Great when it all works but a bugger when it dont, it wont be long before the humble train set has more computing power than the Appollo rockets

 

[Cliff George]

Many of the CVs are standard between decoders because the NMRA have standardised some of them, see the list here: http://www.nmra.org/standards/DCC/standards_rps/rp922.html

Manufacturers do have their own specific CVs, particularly for sound decoders. They are not too difficult to understand as long as the manual is read thououghly.

 

[ntpntpntp]

Yes, as stated there are *some* CVs that are standardised by the NMRA but many more that are manufacturer- and decoder-specific.

This is why it's so much easier using a configurable/mappable software programmer such as JMRI along with your programming hardware ( be it a sprog, your command station or some other interface that the software can talk to). Someone has already done all the hard work of translating each CV into a user-friendly control on the screen so you simply have to change a slider, tick a box or choose a radio-button. You still have access to the raw CV data if you really want to see it to check against the manual or whatever. The software will save all the CV settings for you so you don't have to write them all down in case your decoder loses its mind or you have to fit a replacement. When you first buy a new type of decoder all you need to do is download the mapping definition for that decoder and off you go.

Where you can run into additional complications is with sound decoders should you want to actually load different sounds into it rather than simply change CVs: typically you then need to use the proprietary software/hardware for that manufacturer's decoder.

 

[Railway42]

Hi
As your loco is LGB I assume the decoder is LGB.
CV1 Loco address=3 CV2 Starting voltage= 5 CV50 Voltage setting for lighting terminals=5
CV3 Acceleration time=3 CV4 Braking time = 3 CV52 Control for front light terminal=128
CV5 Maximum voltage=255 CV9 Motor pulse= 0 =16kHz CV54 Hands-off function on/off, Load comp on/off
CV29 sets speed curve speed steps analogue runing CV57 Control additional terminal F2=15 F1 Operation mode pulse/ perm,
CV49 Voltage setting F1=5 CV58 pause time between direction change=0. F2 " " " "
CV51 Control F1=1 CV60 Load compensation maximum control=10. Sound function 1 on/off
CV53 Control rear lights=64 CV61 Load compensation control speed=5. Sound function 2 on/off
CV56 Voltage setting for additional terminal=5 CV62 Load compensation control intensity=255

I hope this is of some use to you I have only listed CV's on the LGB PC programmer.
Alan