Percy’s Programming Problems

Next time I’ll know. Next time I won’t trust that setting the max and min output voltage CVs will properly govern the max and min output voltages. Next time, I’ll take my meter and check. Yes, another motor has been turned into a molten mess, or maybe a tangle. I don’t know, I’m not going […]

1120 Gets a new Decoder

Open house mania is not finished as I’m expecting another visitor in just over a week. So, I’m wasting as little time as possible in getting 1120 running again. The new connectors arrived from Mouser almost overnight, and I drove out to the Far East to pick up a LokSound 5 decoder from Intercity Trains […]

DCC decoders are too smart

My colleague, Darryl, came by my office at the end of the day on Friday. He’s been following my thinking about control systems for steam locomotives, and is considering doing some inventing of his own. His ideas have more to do with counting ties and trying to keep automated trains from running into each other. […]

Tuning an ESU LokSound Decoder

An unanticipated consequence of replacing #10’s decoder was that performance would degrade. It says right on the box that your locomotive needs to work flawlessly before you go installing decoders, but still, a certain amount of back EMF compensation is known to smooth out the occasional foible. The old Zimo decoder worked fantastic right out […]