Zephyr DCS50 and non-DCC loco & acceleration question with DCC

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J

JE78

Member
I just got the DCS50 system and hooked it up tonight. First of all when I goto run one of my older non-DCC loco's it won't run. There is power to it and it will move if I give it a push but it acts like it has no power. It will also not continue to run the entire loop around the track. When I hook up my old transformer it goes without any issues at all, and has lots of speed and power. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

My second question is with the acceleration of a DCC loco. While I was trying to change the decorder address I ended up changing the acceleration under the operations mode. My one DCC loco takes forever to get up to speed now and i'm not sure how to change it back. Is there a default number for this?
 
You will probably find too many issues with trying to run DC locos on any DCC system, that it's just not worth the hassle. The only thing I can offer is to install decoders in all your DC locos.

As far as the acceleration issue, what decoder is in it? We need more detailed information about it.
 
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I have a DCS50, and I have noticed all DC locomotives run a lot slower than DCC equipped ones. That's true on any DCC system, not just the Zephyr.
As for your acceleration issues, CV3 is acceleration, and CV4 is deceleration.
You can change them both to a value of 3, and be good. In OPS mode, you will turn on the power of the Zephyr, push "Loco", the engine number, then push "Loco". Push "power" to turn the track power on, then push "prog mode" until "OPS" is displayed. Push "steps CV", push "3", then push "steps CV". Push "3", then push "CV-WR", then push "exit". Do the same for CV4, then verify it now accelerates normally, with just a slight lag.
 
bnsf971 said:
I have a DCS50, and I have noticed all DC locomotives run a lot slower than DCC equipped ones. That's true on any DCC system, not just the Zephyr.
As for your acceleration issues, CV3 is acceleration, and CV4 is deceleration.
You can change them both to a value of 3, and be good. In OPS mode, you will turn on the power of the Zephyr, push "Loco", the engine number, then push "Loco". Push "power" to turn the track power on, then push "prog mode" until "OPS" is displayed. Push "steps CV", push "3", then push "steps CV". Push "3", then push "CV-WR", then push "exit". Do the same for CV4, then verify it now accelerates normally, with just a slight lag.
Click to expand...

Thanks alot that did the trick.
 
I have a similar problem with my dcs50 too, my decoder equiped locos don't run very fast when the lever is push to full throttle. I have plenty of feeders and the track is clean. I have set my ds50 to full speed 99 and have checked my decoder settings. I am running an 4x8 layout in HO using DZ123 decoders. Can someone tell me what might be wrong?
 
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kchamp said:
...I have set my ds50 to full speed 99 and have checked my decoder settings. I am running an 4x8 layout in HO using DZ123 decoders. Can someone tell me what might be wrong?
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by "set the DCS50 to full speed 99"?

However, the DZ123 (and others) have settings for start voltage (so it moves at speed step 1), mid-voltage and maximum voltage. [CV's 2, 6 and 5 respectively).

Setting CV5 (Vmax) to 255 will give you race car type speed......

Be careful messing with Vstart (CV2) as setting it too high will results in the thing taking off at that speed.....

HTH, cheers,
Ian
 
CV5 is already set to 255 and they still run slower than they should. They don't crawl at full throttle but just don't run very fast.
 
I double checked everything but no luck, what else could I try that might help? I don't know if it matters but I'm running a Proto 2000 E6
 
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kchamp said:
CV5 is already set to 255 and they still run slower than they should. They don't crawl at full throttle but just don't run very fast.
Click to expand...

kchamp said:
I double checked everything but no luck, what else could I try that might help?
Click to expand...
Check CV6. Make sure it's set to "0". I've noticed some Digitrax decoders put out less voltage to the motor than others. I had a pair of Kato SD40-2's that were identical in every way, except one had a DH123 and the other had a DH163. The one with the DH163 ran away from the other one at nearly twice its speed. I swapped decoders, and the other engine ran away.
Most of the time, I run in the lower half of my throttle, so my "fix" was to set CV6 to 200, and CV5 to 255. This, along with adjusting CV5 to 120 on the other unit, allowed them to run at similar speeds, as long as I didn't exceed half throttle.
Plan "B", of course, would be to get a decoder with a higher output.
 


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