12-19-2009, 10:40 PM
I have not played with any of the diesel Tsunami sound decoders but I have five steam locomotives with Tsunami decoders I installed and I am working on two more installs right now. With my Digitrax DCS100 and DCS200 command station boosters I was able to program most if not all of the CVs using OPS mode programming. I was not able to read the CVs until I bought the Soundtraxx PTB-100 programming track booster. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.soundtraxx.com/access/index.php?p=ptb100.php">http://www.soundtraxx.com/access/index.php?p=ptb100.php</a><!-- m --> The Digitrax programming track power does not have enough current to allow one to read back what is programmed into the CVs in the Tsunami. I am not familiar with the Zypher but I would be willing to bet you will need a PTB-100 in order to read the back what is programmed into the CVs. I greatly suggest you buy yourself a PTB-100 if you want to be able to readback the CVs.
If you locomotive does not have any fancy features programmed for the lights ( mars light ect ) you could do a reset of the decoder which would put its programming back to factory settings. You would have to reprogram your three digit address though. To reset the decoder you can program CV8 to 8. Then turn off the track power and then turn it back on. The headlight will blink 16 times to let you know the reset worked and the decoder has reset to factory settings. If the headlight does not blink you will have to redo the reset. You can also program CV30 to 2 to reset the decoder to factory settings. Seeing as you do not know what is programmed into the decoder it may be best to do a reset and start from fresh. This way you are not working around any unknow values programmed by someone else.
You may also want to download and read the Tsunami diesel manual. It can be found here. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.soundtraxx.com/index.php?p=manuals.php">http://www.soundtraxx.com/index.php?p=manuals.php</a><!-- m --> This would be my biggest tip as I know it sure helped me understand the Tsunami and how to program its features. I picked a section ( like throttle CVs ) and palyed with them a little. Once I had a understanding of that section I moved on to the lighting CVs and so on. If you mess up when playing around all you have to do is reset the decoder back to factory settings.
I have found the Tsunami runs okay with the factory settings but with some adjustment you can make your loco run even better. The Tsunami also has a lot of neat features like the F11 braking feature. But these are more advanced features you can play with later.
Wayne Reid
If you locomotive does not have any fancy features programmed for the lights ( mars light ect ) you could do a reset of the decoder which would put its programming back to factory settings. You would have to reprogram your three digit address though. To reset the decoder you can program CV8 to 8. Then turn off the track power and then turn it back on. The headlight will blink 16 times to let you know the reset worked and the decoder has reset to factory settings. If the headlight does not blink you will have to redo the reset. You can also program CV30 to 2 to reset the decoder to factory settings. Seeing as you do not know what is programmed into the decoder it may be best to do a reset and start from fresh. This way you are not working around any unknow values programmed by someone else.
You may also want to download and read the Tsunami diesel manual. It can be found here. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.soundtraxx.com/index.php?p=manuals.php">http://www.soundtraxx.com/index.php?p=manuals.php</a><!-- m --> This would be my biggest tip as I know it sure helped me understand the Tsunami and how to program its features. I picked a section ( like throttle CVs ) and palyed with them a little. Once I had a understanding of that section I moved on to the lighting CVs and so on. If you mess up when playing around all you have to do is reset the decoder back to factory settings.
I have found the Tsunami runs okay with the factory settings but with some adjustment you can make your loco run even better. The Tsunami also has a lot of neat features like the F11 braking feature. But these are more advanced features you can play with later.
Wayne Reid