ESU LokPilot 5 Nano DCC (59925) lighting question?

[NYC54]

I purchased a couple of the new Atlas GP-7 & SD-7 Silver series in the spring. I installed these decoders with no problems and I'm happy with these loco's except for one thing that bugs me.

When running these loco's if they stall (even for an instant) then the headlight goes out & I have to hit the headlight button on the NCE ProCab to get it to come back on. This happens to all four of these loco's.

Doesn't matter if they are running solo or in a consist if they stutter the headlights go out & I have to hit manually turn them back on. These are the only ESU decoders that I have and none of the other

Digitrax or NCE decoder loco's have this problem. If they stall then light automatically comes back on. I'm thinking it's a simple CV setting but not familiar with ESU so not sure what setting to fiddle with?

I installed the latest JMRI version 5.8 Decoder Pro but this exact ESU decoder is not listed. Any body have any ideas as to what I can try?

Thanks, Tony

[peteski]

Try this: when the loco loses power and restarts, instead of pressing the headlight button try to change the speed slightly. Will the headlight light back up?  I believe this is because NCE command station does not continuously sent the function status packets to the locomotive like some other DCC systems. But when you change the speed slightly, that will also trigger update of the function status.

There is a CV setting in the decoder which makes it "remember" function settings from last time it was running (instead of turning them off when the decoder powers back up).  It is called "persistent function". Set CV122=1 That way when the headlight was on when the power was lost, when the power is restored, the headlight will come back on.  Odd thing is that this setting (or even CV122) are not mentioned anywhere in the ESU decoder manual.

[carlso]

  Odd thing is that this setting (or even CV122) are not mentioned anywhere in the ESU decoder manual.

Most of the mfgr's are the same. I think they get the engineers, who developed the fool thing, to write the user manual instead of a person who actually has used one !

[peteski]

Most of the mfgr's are the same. I think they get the engineers, who developed the fool thing, to write the user manual instead of a person who actually has used one !

There likely are no dedicated technical writers working at any of those companies, like back in the day when manuals for computer equipment were actual written by people other than development engineers.  Back then manuals were more reader-friendly (not by much but still . . .).  Who knows, future manuals might be created by AI.

[GM50 4164]

I purchased a couple of the new Atlas GP-7 & SD-& Silver series in the spring. I installed these decoders with no problems and I'm happy with these loco's except for one thing that bugs me.

When running these loco's if they stall (even for an instant) then the headlight goes out & I have to hit the headlight button on the NCE ProCab to get it to come back on. This happens to all four of these loco's.

Doesn't matter if they are running solo or in a consist if they stutter the headlights go out & I have to hit manually turn them back on. These are the only ESU decoders that I have and none of the other

Digitrax or NCE decoder loco's have this problem. If they stall then light automatically comes back on. I'm thinking it's a simple CV setting but not familiar with ESU so not sure what setting to fiddle with?

I installed the latest JMRI version 5.8 Decoder Pro but this exact ESU decoder is not listed. Any body have any ideas as to what I can try?

Thanks, Tony

You'll need to enable the Persistent functions and Persistent speed using the ESU Lokprogammer. They're found under the Special Options tab of the programmer. I'm sure there are CV's which can be changed to enable these features but do not have access to my programmer at the moment. If you have a friend that has the programmer, they should be able to do this for you.

[peteski]

You'll need to enable the Persistent functions and Persistent speed using the ESU Lokprogammer. They're found under the Special Options tab of the programmer. I'm sure there are CV's which can be changed to enable these features but do not have access to my programmer at the moment. If you have a friend that has the programmer, they should be able to do this for you.

As I wrote in my last message, simply setting CV122=1 (using any DCC system) will do this without LokProgrammer.

[NYC54]

Update... I tried upping the throttle as peteski suggested but that didn't help any. However once I changed CV122 to 1 the problem is solved.
The first two I did on my programming track just to be sure then the last two were programming on the main.

I appreciate all the help!!!

Tony

[GM50 4164]

As I wrote in my last message, simply setting CV122=1 (using any DCC system) will do this without LokProgrammer.

Thank you Peteski, I knew there was a way without using the programmer but did not know what the CV was nor what it needed to be. I don't have my programmer up and running at the moment but I'm assuming the Persistent Speed would be close to the Function CV, maybe CV121 or CV 123. I'll try to remember to look the next time I'm messing with the programmer.

[peteski]

I'm glad it worked!