Decoder Reset Help!


C

chadmichaels

Member
I bought a couple used loco's im the third owner of one of them, heres the story..one unit runs great, second unit i cant get to budge or light up..is there anyway to reset the decoder to 03 with out knowing the current address? By the way you'll have to give me step by step instructions..im kinda dumb when it comes to DCC.

Just got my Digitrax Zephyr today and been playing around with it. I guess this will be my first true test!
 
Well, this really varies with the type of decoder and if you have to enter hex or decimal values. As a general rule, entering 2 in CV 30 or 8 in CV 8 will reset the decoder to the factory default. However, if the engine doesn't even light up, it may be a power problem rather than a decoder problem. Have you taken off the shell and physically inspected the decoder? It would really help to know what kind of engine and what kind of decoder you have.
 
Jim,

After prying the shell off the Kato SD90/43MAC I see there is no decoder in it..(told ya im a dumb a$$ when it comes to dcc) there is a harness I believe (factory) and it has the holes for the plug in type of decoder but they are empty as shown below...
002.jpg


On another note, Why does the Kato SD40-2's have yellow headlights? Is there a easy way to change these?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Chad, you can use the Digitrax DH1651P as a a "drop-in" decoder. You can find information about how to do the install at http://www.digitrax.com/prd_mobdec_dh165ip.php. It's not hard, just a little fiddly. As for those yellow headlights, they were used because Kato thought they looked more like incandescent lights, something most modelrs don't agree with. You can get replacement LED's at http://www.moreleds.com/mrhookup.htm. If I remember correctly, the Kato units had the LED's soldered directly to the light board that fed a light pipe. All you have to do is unsolder the existing LED and solder in a new one. You need to make sure what voltage the old LED was using since most of the new ones are 1.5 volts and you may need a dropping resistor. There's information on that site about this issue.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top