Forgotten Loco Addresses

Woodie

Active Member
I shouted myself a Chrissie present this year. A NCE Pro 5 AMP (with power supply), radio Pro cab, and a basic tethered cab control, along with 20 basic (3 function) decoders. It has an iface for the pooter too, but that'll get plugged in at some stage later.

I was gunna plug in on to some track (and programming track) last night, however had to suffice reading the manual by candlelight. Had a storm go through, and it blew down a few power poles about 8 kilometres away. So didn't have any power for 16 hours. So plugging it in will have to wait till tonight. :)

But I digress......

The default (factory set) loco address is "3" according to the manual, and you set the loco address on the programming track. Then you can move it to the main track and do the rest, if you wish.

However, what, after say a while, you forget what loco address you gave that loco? How can you find it out, without having to step through from 1 to who knows how many on the cab, and try and drive it, to find out what it was?

Can you just put it back on the programming track and set it to a new loco address, and have the decoder retain it's settings?
 

Gary Pfeil

Active Member
Hi Woodie, how have you been? I have Digitrax, not NCE, but I think they have pretty much the same abilities. You can read back the value of all the cvs on the programming track, check the NCE manual. Most people use the cab # for the address, so remembering ought not to be a problem. And yes, you could just put the loco on the programming track and reprogram the address.

I keep an excel file for all my locos, I include the Road name, model or wheel arraingement, what decoder is in it, and address. I print one copy of it sorted by address and another by Road name and keep in near the layout. Primarily to use for selecting locos in hidden staging.

Gary
 

CalFlash

Member
That's why using the engine number is a good choice for address. Only problems are very low numbers and B-units that were often numbered xxx-B. For those I just use the actual number and add a (digit) 1.
 

MasonJar

It's not rocket surgery
If all else fails, you should be able to reset the decoder (see the manual) and then reprogram the address.

Andrew
 

Woodie

Active Member
Jeff,

Now I've got it all up and going, I think that's the only way. But using the loco number ain't always the easiest. And I can't even remember my own phone number, let alone 20 different loco numbers!!! Some are mosty letters. i.e. CB1 or S1 etc.

I'll get used to it I suppose. :)
 

baldwinjl

Member
We've done that. For now we have only an original Prodigy system, only 30 choices for addresses. We are not smart enough to write down what we do, so.....
 
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