There are many different CVs that have been defined to control operating characteristics of your locomotives. Your decoder manual has a complete listing of CVs that are available with specific decoders, what they do and suggested values for each CV.
Programming these CVs is simple:
1. Be sure that only the locomotive you want to program is on the programming track.
2. Press the PROG Key to enter programming mode. The DCS50 will display one of the programming modes available. Digitrax recommends the Paged Mode when you are using the programming track. As you press the PROG Key repeatedly, you will cycle through the following choices:
PAGE
PHYS
dir
OPS
Once the mode you want to use is on the screen you can go to step 3. For example, to use Paged mode stop pressing the PROG Key when the following screen appears:
3. Press the CV Key and you will see P followed by the last CV number used by the DCS50. The "P" indicates that you are in paged programming mode.
4. Enter the CV number you want to program. For example, if you want to set up acceleration which is controlled by CV03, use the keypad to enter 3.
5. Press the CV-RD key to to read back the data value currently programmed into the decoder for the CV selected. Your screen will show something like this:
The numbers will flash for a few seconds as the DCS50 command station reads back the data value in the decoder. The "d" means that you are looking at the CV's data value that is programmed into the decoder, in this case the CV value is 0.
6. Use the numeric key pad to enter the new CV data value you want to program into the decoder. For example if you want to program the value of 2 for CV03 which controls acceleration, enter 2.
Note: If you do not want to read back the CV's data value as described in step 5, you can simply press the CV Key again to go directly back to the data entry mode. In this case, the display will show "d" followed by 3 digits. When you see this display, use the key Pad to enter the new data value you want to program.
7. Press CV-WR to write the new data value selected to the CV. The display will flicker while the command station programs the decoder and the display will show the data value programmed.
8. To program another CV, press the CV key and enter the CV number you want to program next and repeat steps 3-7 again.
9. When you are finished programming, press the EXIT key to resume normal operations.
Programming Notes:
1. Check your decoder manufacturer’s manual for factory settings, recommended CV value ranges and for instructions on resetting the CVs to factory settings.
2. It is good practice to record the changes you make to the CV values for each decoder/locomotive combination. This will allow you to profile each locomotive type for programming similar locomotives.
3. Resetting your decoder CV values to factory settings can eliminate some problems caused by inadvertently changing a CV value. In many cases, this means setting CV8 to a value of 08, but your mobile decoder might use a different protocol.