Speed Matching DCC Model Railroad Train Engines with Accutrack Speedometer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ย. 2024
- Explanation of how to speed match different engines so they will all run the same speed for a given throttle setting. This allows you to consist any of your different engines together because they can all be made to run the same.
Without a doubt this is the best video that I have ever viewed concerning speed matching. Last December I wasted an entire day trying to speed match locos, five hours later they were still a mess. Now I can easily match two or three locos in roughly 30 mins. Life is easier now.
+Carl Lakes Carl, again, thanks for such a great compliment. Glad this method worked out for you. Cheers, Kevin
Good informative video. You need to remove the annoying music.
Thanks for the feedback on my video. Cheers, Kevin
I've learned more about operation and "modern" model railroading from your videos than I have from hundreds of dollars in books. Thanks, Looking foward to more, Joe
Joe, Wow. Thanks for the super great compliment. Glad to hear you find the videos informative. I've got another ops session coming up soon.
Can't wait, your layout is very well designed, think your ever finish it? Or will it be like mine, every time I think this is good, I change my mind.
Joe, thanks. I don't know if it will ever get finished or not. Up until now, I seems to switch scales, era, or prototype every couple years. I've modeled the Joint Line in O and N scale both as KCS, ATSF, MRL, and PRR just to name a few. I suffer from the other scale/layout/era/prototype is better than whatever I was currently working on. I haven't had this layout even two years yet so it will be a while before its finished.
Thanks for making this video. I just got an accutrack speedometer and followed your tips. It really worked well.
Cheers, Daryl
+dgp2012 Daryl, thanks for the great feedback. Glad to hear you found the video helpful. Cheers, Kevin
Hi Kevin - Just a word of thanks for this video that nicely explains how to speed match using the Accutrack MRT speedometer. I have used your method on several locomotives and I am pleased with the results. Thank you for the great information. Mike
You're welcome. Glad to hear that you found the video useful and this technique has worked for you too. Cheers, Kevin
great tutorial Kevin... thanks for sharing... it's something i need to do to all my motive power... thanks for sharing
vinny
Vinny, thanks. I never bothered doing this when I was in N scale. I found that most of my engines were Kato and Atlas and most of them ran pretty well together right out of the box. Still a good idea to do in N scale, I just never got around to in. In HO there seems to be a larger difference in how engines perform. Without speed matching I would be a lot more limited in building up consists and helper operations wouldn't work well at all.
HO Scale Model Trains & Colorado's Joint Line Layout you are right as far as my locos go.. they seen to run well together right out of the box... basically the only change i do is the slow speed...& still have to bring a few of them down a bit more... thanks for all your info
vinny
Very Helpful Video.. Learned allot.. And Still Learning I guess no matter what your Current age is, your always Learning something new an different.. Absolutely one of the Greatest Videos I have seen since starting back in Model Railroading..
Thanks so Much. Please Do more Videos Like this..
You're welcome and thanks for the very nice compliments on the video. Glad to hear you found this video useful. Hopefully you'll find some of my other videos useful as well. Cheers, Kevin
I have watched other vids from CJL and find the. to be of great help and aide in my modeling. Look forward to more from you guys at CJL
+David Muse David, thanks very much. Glad you hear you like the videos and have found them useful. Cheers, Kevin
Thanks for this helpful video. Just starting to use JMRI and this is a great way to learn the art of "Speed Matching".
+David Muse Thanks for the feedback. Glad you found this video useful. Cheers, Kevin
Well done, thanks much!!!
Not a problem. Glad you enjoyed the video.
Thank you for taking your time to make this video. I really appreciate seeing how this works. I hate to be "that guy" but wanted to say that your background music, although very nice, was overwhelming you a tad. Made it hard to hear ya.
James, thanks. Glad you enjoyed the video. Understand about the music. I try to make it soft enough to not interfere with my voice over, but sometimes I still get it too loud. Cheers, Kevin
cool nice to see another way of doing this...nice vid
Thanks. Glad you found this technique useful. Cheers, Kevin
Excellent video on scale speed matching for Locomotives
Thank you for the compliment on my video. Cheers, Kevin
Hey thanks for sharing this technique, I've never seen it done this way before.
Deryk
Deryk, you're welcome. Hopefully some guys find this technique useful. I've been doing my speed matching this way for a few years now and can't imagine doing it any other way.
Super helpful, thanks for sharing!
+BArailsystem Glad you found the technique helpful for you. Cheers, Kevin
Very nice video, very helpful, easy to understand well done thanks!!!!
Thanks for the complement. Glad you enjoyed it.
That is all well for HO and N scales but how about a speedometer for G scale !
Love it. Have ordered the speedometer
Glad to hear you found this video useful. Cheers, Kevin
Nice video. I use a similar method for my NCE layout. The main difference is I run on 28 steps and my sMPH is double the throttle reading. ie: step 28 is 56 sMPH, step 5 is 10 sMPH etc. Thanks for sharing.
Good idea. Thanks for sharing YOUR technique.
very informative, like it
Thanks
Great info video.
Thanks
Thanks I liked this video and now I need to connector from Digitrax so I can use Decoder Pro
Shaun, since you're using Digitrax the PR3 is the way you'll want to go. It allows you to use it independently of your layout as a stand along programming track or it can connect to your Digitrax Loconet and use it to control parts of your layout.
I saw that on their website. I just need to save money to get it. I didn't realize that u needed a link to use decoderpro until I saw a video about it
thanks for sharing this technique
You're welcome. Hopefully you'll be able to use it. Cheers, Kevin
Another fine tutorial Kevin.
Question. onece you have speed matched your locos, do you need to fine tune when you use consist units? Thanks again.
Nope. Once the engines are speed matched you can consist them together without any other adjustments. Just consist them together using your DCC system and you're all set. Thanks for the compliments.
I think I've followed your instructions precisely, but after I click on "Write changes on sheet", absolutely nothing happens. I mean, the diesels continue to run at the same very high speeds as they did before I changed the speed settings on the speed table. JMRI is making me crazy. ...Roy
+N-Scale Union Pacific Evanston Subdivision Roy, can you write any changes to your engine with JMRI or just not the speed table? If nothing is working, then something not right with the set up of the PR3 or other computer interface. If everything else works, then look to see if the decoder type your using have a pull down on the speed table page that allows you to select a user defined speed table. If not, type just adjusting the VMin, VMid, and VMax to see if your engine responds to those changes. On some of my engines I just adjust those settings rather than the whole speed table and get the engine matched for all the speeds anyway. Hope this helps. If not, you might want to contact Big Bill Graham over at TH-camModelBuilders. He's a bit of a JMRI guru. Cheers, Kevin
You mentioned decoder pro ,is there a particular one , i looked online and seen several , I want to use exactly what you're using, I'm brand new to this DCC stuff, but sense i' ve been watching your vids religiously , i'm kida getting a hand on it, I have not purchased anything dcc yet, currently im still dc and i'm starting my track planning , i want to do cajon pass bnsf. thanks for your vids, they are such a tremendous help!!! your layout is awesome!
Decoder Pro is a free software program available from JMRI. Thanks for the compliments on my layout. Cheers, Kevin
Great video, great info, found the background music distracting.
Thanks for the feedback. Cheers, Kevin
this works with esu decoders also?
It seems to me that if you don’t get the speeds matched very precisely before MU operations you could severely damage the motors of both (or all) the locomotives in the consist. I want to try this but I’m afraid I’ll mess up my equipment.
In this video you say that within 1or 2 scale mph is close enough, but are you risking damage if they aren’t perfectly matched to each other? Or is the some wiggle room.
In my experience even engines that are not speed matched will not have their motors damaged in any way regardless of how differently they run. They will not run very smoothly when coupled together, but the wheels slide on the track pretty easily. If one engine is running a bit fast or slow, its motor should be fine. Cheers, Kevin
I was wondering what command controller do you use for your layout?
+James L Coble I used a Digitrax Radio Super Chief DCC system to control my layout. Cheers, Kevin
Ok thank you for letting me know.
Not sure if you can help me? I have a scale trains et44ac a Kato sd80mac and an Athearn Genesis SD75i the et44ac has a loksound v4.0 from factory and my sd80mac and SD75i both have loksound select directs in them. Now I seem to have them running pretty well forward and reverse. With all 3 facing the same direction. But say I want to run one of them backwards in a consist or 2 of them they seem to either push or pull on eachother and I get a lot of rail grinding? This is really starting to annoy me p.s I don't have a speed tunnel. I have tried adjusting speed steps nothing worked best results have been adjusting CVs 2 5 6. Thanks.
First I'd try to identify which engine, or engines, are running at different speeds when running in reverse. If you can, set up a loop of track with 2 engines on it facing opposite directions. Start both of them going the same direction so one is traveling forwards and one is traveling in reverse. Set them both at the same speed step, like 50 or something, and see which one is running slower or faster. Compare each engine to each other this way. Hopefully you'll identify the one engine that is running too slow or two fast while in reverse. Adjust the reverse trim (I think CV 66 - Forward Trim = 128 (Default) and CV 95 - Reverse Trim = 128 (Default)) to speed up or slow down the engine in just one direction. You don't want to change your regular speed curve if you have all three running well together forwards. You just want to make one or more of the engines go either slower or faster when it is in reverse. Different decoders do this differently but for LokSound I believe these CVs multiply all data points in the speed table (either CV 67 to 94 or CV 2, 5, 6) by a factor of n/128 (where n is the value in CV 66 or CV 95). This results in the overall speed curve to be adjusted up or down without the need to adjust the speed table points again. CV 66 and 95 can hold values between 0 and 255. A trim value greater than 128 will result in a higher speed, a trim value less than 128 will result in a lower speed. A value of 128 maintains the original scaling factor of 1 and will therefore have no influence in the speed curve. Hope this helps. Cheers, Kevin
Thanks for your guidance here, I appreciate your instructions. But (hate to be negative, but it is why I write ) the soundtrack you have playing in the background makes it impossible for someone like me with bad hearing to understand what you are saying. I know it's cool for almost everybody else, but I could do much better without it.
Thanks for the feedback. Cheers, Kevin
How much is it to buy that programming program? Nice video.
That's the best part, JMRI Decoder Pro is free! You can download it from jmri.sourceforge.net/. You will have to get a computer interface as well. NCE and Digitrax both have them. ESU LokSound has their own software for their computer interface, but their decoders can still be programmed with Decoder Pro. I use the Digitrax computer interface (PR3). This is a completely stand alone programmer that will work to interface with a programming track regardless of what DCC system you use to run your layout. You can also use it to link your layout's Digitrax LocoNet to your computer if you want to control portions of your layout with your computer.
the info is good but as I am in the UK and not using HO 1:87 but OO or 1:76 it would need some sort of adjustment to get correct sMPH, as much as I do like your video (the first of yours) I find the music never ending very annoying as I want to hear you clearly but got to try and strain to hear you talking (yes older and not as good as slightly deaf) but other wise cant fault they way you present your video
Thank you for the feedback on my video and the background music. Cheers, Kevin
Isn't that Accutrak great? Best $60 I've spent in the hobby.
Agreed.
What's with the stupid background music that almost DROWNS OUT what you're trying to say...??
Please get rid of the music. Very distracting
Thanks for the feedback. Cheers, Kevin