Bill,

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Programming Paragon decoders was discussed in detail a while back on another list.?

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There was a long, technical discussion revolving on why they are hard to program on a service mode programming track.? The ‘gist’ of the discussion was that the capacitors needed to be charged in order for the decoder to respond as expected on the programming track.? If the capacitors are not charged, the small programming ‘bursts’ first charge the capacitors; ?once the capacitors are charged the decoder will begin responding as expected.? The solution was to keep the track powered, then ‘toggle’ it to ‘program’ immediately before starting the JMRI read/write process.? (This takes some practice to get the timing correct.)

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I’ve applied this to Paragon and other decoder brands with mixed success.? For example, it works with many TCS WOW decoders (on TCS motherboards), while not working with others

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Alternatively, you may want to try Ops Mode programming.? I find it fast and reliable.? I have nearly divorced myself from the programming track.? At most, I use the programming track to get an address in the decoder.? Ops Mode programming is used for all speed; sound or lighting adjustments.? JMRI maintains a record of my settings thus I find no need to read-back any CV values.?

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I frequently ‘copy’ my current program then work on additional programming in a ‘new’ roster file. ??If I don’t like my changes it is very easy to go back to the last ‘good’ settings.? I also keep separate files for things like higher volumes during an open house vs. an op session; different CV settings for use on a different railroad, etc.

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YMMV

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Ross

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