Fixing the test bench for DCC-EX and Roco/Zimo

In various past posts, I mentioned that I could not configure Roco engines with a Zimo decoder through DCC-EX and JMRI - even though it just worked fine for a Piko loco ... Overall, the DCC-EX command station wasn't very stable.

I thought that the wiring on the test bench could be the issue. Because of the rotary switches, it could be that the track 1 and 2 were actually connected to each other, or something like that.

I made one change by disconnecting the rotary switch for track 2; therefore track 2 is now directly connected to the programming track of the DCC-EX command station.

 

 

The green and blue wires come from the DCC-EX command station, whereas the red and black wires come from the rotary switch for track 2.

And it's now working as a charm! I need to find a better solution since now I cannot connect track 2 to the ESU LokProgrammer or the AUX.

 

MÁV V63 005

 I purchased this engine for my Avala and Drava formations. It came in DC and found a DCC Sound decoder from the Hungarian brand DigiTools that I ordered from Vasútmodell.

 

I found that the "extra" piece needed to be glued again by the buffer on the left side.

 

It wasn't easy to remove the body. I did follow the instructions; there are no screws or pieces to remove; it was just stuck and I had to force a little, but no damage was done!

 It took me a while, a long while, to figure out that the decoder was going underneath the main board. It was my mistake since it was actually written in the manual, but looking at the black plug from above, it seemed logical to put on the top rather than removing screws to put it underneath. Anyway ...

 

 

Everything works perfectly on this one (different from my PKP EU07). However, I cannot find out how to change the address from 3 to something else ...

 

PKP EU07-433 - part 1

I purchased this PKP model for several formations for the Ost West Express. It's a brand I didn't know about and from what I could read, they might have some issues during the manufacturing regarding lighting.

In any case, I got the model and only realized later on that the same store - modelcenter.pl - has the related decoder. But it was too late. Later on, as I was looking for a sound decoder for my MÁV Class V63, I found this vendor: digitools.hu. I bought two sound decoders, one for the PKP EU07 and one for the MÁV V63 from this store: vasutmodell.com.

 

 

As it turns out, the speaker is already installed. You can see the 2 black wires right above the decoder going underneath the main board. Under the black wires, it is written SP- and SP+.

I tried to change the DCC address with JMRI, but DigiTools does not have profiles in JMRI, even though it is a recognized manufacturer by the DCC standards - CV8 = 75. I tried to use a NMRA generic profile, but it didn't work.

I then tried to use the engine with the default address #3 and the engine did response to DCC commands. And the sound did work which confirmed that the speaker was indeed installed at the factory. That said, there must be a short somewhere because the DCC-EX would reboot and restart after a couple of seconds. Thankfully, everything is protected with DCC Concept modules.

More investigation required ...

A better way to set a long address on a Roco engine

 

In a previous post, I described how to manually set a long address to a Roco engine that is equipped with a Zimo decoder. I found an easier way with DecoderPro from JMRI ...

The model

But first, let's have a look to the actual model. It's the reference 73880 and represents the BB 522307 from SNCF in its "En Voyage" livery.

https://www.roco.cc/en/product/236491-73880-0-0-0-0-0-002002-1/products.html

Some pictures of my model:

And the links to all the manuals:

• Functions on the decoder - link
• Sounds on the decoder - link
• Operating manual - link
• Spare parts - link

The decoder & JMRI

I installed DecoderPro from JMRI a while back, but never really got to it. I launched it because I'm curious on how to properly program a Zimo decoder. While I didn't go into the full configuration, I found that setting a long address was actually quite easy. 

Here are the steps:

• Launch DecoderPro and click "New Loco":

• In the new window, click "Read type from decoder":

• The software automatically detects the type of decoder and pre-selects the possible options. I was not sure which one it was so I chose the one that seemed to be the generic one "MX645 version 37+":

• In the new window, it's very easy to provide a long address and click "Write":

The ECoS

Now switching to the ECoS, it shows the correct address; so much easier than the previous method:

Sadly, I'm not certain the decoder supports RailCom because there are no icons, so I need to do this manually which is a bit tedious. I used another BB 22200 from Roco to adjust the engine profile:

And voilà!