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Locked Can't find decoder

 

I bought two diesel locos from estate sale: Athearn and Broadway.? Both run great at address 03, but neither JMRI nor Power Cab can find the decoder.? So I can't even reprogram the addresses.? I have ~ 12 locos that work fine so it's not user error, wiring, etc.? How do you find an unidentified decoder?? Power Cab, Power Pro, JMRI downloaded May 2019, Lenovo laptop with Windows 10.
 

Dan,

If you know what decoders there are in there (maybe after opening the locos up), then getting online to find the documentation for them shouldn't be too much of an issue. Whether JMRI can *find* the decoder in its list of known ones is then irrelevant as you can use the single CV programmer (unless you stumble across a type that's virtually impossible to program unaided, the ones with thousands of (indexed) CVs are a pain).

But when you say that a Power Cab cannot find the decoder, I do get confused. A Power Cab has no knowledge of decoder types and won't look for it; you'd have to do that by hand. So that sort of leads me to thinking that when you say they can't *find*? the decoder, you're actually having trouble *reading* the decoder. And if that's so, then maybe you're not using the programming track? You need to use that in order to read any CV. Writing them CAN be done blind (Programming on the Main or POM) but with two decoders on address 3 on the layout, both will get programmed at the same time. So tkae one loco, put it on the program track, and try again - if that was your issue.

Good luck! If this doesn't work, give us more precise information on what you are doing.
Wouter


On Fri, 14 Feb 2020 at 16:01, Dan in NC <dkoenigshofer@...> wrote:
I bought two diesel locos from estate sale: Athearn and Broadway.? Both run great at address 03, but neither JMRI nor Power Cab can find the decoder.? So I can't even reprogram the addresses.? I have ~ 12 locos that work fine so it's not user error, wiring, etc.? How do you find an unidentified decoder?? Power Cab, Power Pro, JMRI downloaded May 2019, Lenovo laptop with Windows 10.

 

Dan,

Are you getting any value for CV7 and CV8 in JMRI or the PowerCab? These are
the keystone of identifying the decoder. It sounds like the decoder might
not support readback which will foil any external attempts to id the
decoder. Failing that, you would have to look at it and try to figure what
is the vendor or model of the decoder.

-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team
www.jmri.org
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org
www.cnymod.org
www.syracusemodelrr.org
Robert Schworm
 

JMRI keeps a large collection of manufacturers and their decoders. ?If this is a decoder JMRI does not know about....well.......

In that case, take your decoder and identify what it is . . look at it if you have to. ?Find the owner's manual or contact the manufacturer or look for a pdf on line. ?Use your NCE/Digitrax throttle and set it up by hand.

When working - - -document your settings!!

Bob S
PennsyNut
 

Robert: Since it's not clear if you are on a programming track or not. You need to be on a programming track. Set one loco at 03 and try to read the CV's 7 & 8. Those should give you the manufacturer and decoder ID. Go from there as has been suggested. Contact the mfgr and get whatever documentation they may provide. Most have stuff online in pdformat. If not, they may give you something else, such as paper. Push come to shove, open the loco and see if you read anything on the decoder itself. If all this fails, come on back to us.
Morgan Bilbo, PRR fan
 

Thanks Morgan.? See my response in the string on BLI SD-40.? Appears at least one other guy is having same issue.

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