Factory fitted DCC chips

Depends what you mean by bit slow, its supposed to be a shunter. Probably hasnt changed that much to justify a new sheet.

Cheers, Simon

Any 'decoder fitted loco' will run a little slower on a given analogue DC voltage as the current has to flow through several diodes which drop a little voltage. (probably circa 2 volts) To be certain that there isn't a problem with the loco mechanisim you need to remove the decoder and run it on analogue DC and compare it's performance with a standard loco. (only recommended to experienced modellers/repairers)

Greg.P.

a) Speed on model railways is difficult to estimate. Most people run their trains much too fast, as true scale speed looks slow. 60 scale mph (100km/h) is about 10 inches per second (25cm/sec) in OO. That looks slow, because normally you're looking at the train from 300 scale feet or more - the length of a football pitch. Quite a distance. DCC fitted locos are usually programmed to provide a realistic top speed (which for a Jinty would be around 40-45 mph, right? That's about 6"/sec, 15cm/sec.

b) You can reprogram the engine so that its speed range is more to your liking.

c) What you need is a spec sheet and programming instructions for Hornby's version of DCC. This information AFAIK is included with Hornby's DCC controller.

d) Hornby is following NMRA standards. The chip contains "control variables", or CVs, which are user-changeable. Hornby lists them on its web site. If you need to know more, try nmra.org, and consider buying a beginner's book on DCC. You need to change the vales in CV 2 through 7 to change the Jinty's speed.

e) Follow Hornby's programming instructions (they come with their controllers.) If you are using a 3rd party controller, use its programming facility as instructed. All NMRA compliant decoders can be programmed; certain CVs are included in all decoders (eg, 1, which holds the locomotive's address -- this is set to 3 by default, and must be changed if you intend to run two or more DCC locos at the same time - which is, after all, the aim of the game.)

HTH

Look out theyre getting complicated again !

Have you something else that youre comparing it against. Suppose could try timing one tomorrow. Have a dcc and non dcc so perhaps compare speeds like that as well. But still think its a shunter with the same motor (type 7) and poss same gears as a Hornby j94. (yes I know they did locals as well as shunting)

Cheers, Simon

Thanks for your thoughts folks !

Chris

I remember the current proprieter of ZTC telling me that the original RP for the default address in decoders should be the manufacturer id which for Lenz was 3 and some other manufacturers copied that default and it became the defacto standard.

Chris

"Chris" wrote

I thought Lenz's ID was '99', Bachmann 101 and so on. It makes it very difficult to use that ID as the default address as some systems still use

John.