1st DCC install: semi-fail but learning

Hi Jay

Easy fix is to swap the motor wires over.

If you have any other mapping issues, the guys on the Loksound forum can give you the relevant CVs

The lights sound like a wiring fault.

Cheers

Forgot to mention that the headlight and taillight appeared to be directional. So after adding a resistor I checked both lights and they only worked with one polarity, not the other. I hooked them up to the motherboard anyway... but it seems to me they don't need to operate on polarity if the DCC board is going to control them. 

More about lights. The lights that light the can interior, one of them I hooked up to a battery and it popped right away. The other I added a resistor to (1k at 1/4 watt) and it BARELY lights very dimly at full power. 

DCC: cool except for wired motor backwards 

Sound: ok except I have no idea what buttons to press. 

Lights: FUBAR

Once I get this one going perfectly, I have a steamer with DCC that I'd like to add smoke and sound to. After that I've got another steamer that is straight DC that needs everything. So I guess you could say this SW is my Guinea Pig!

a couple answers:

you can either swap the motor leads or re-program the start direction of the decoder

pressing F8 shuts the sound off & on

LED's are polarity sensitive. most decoders use the + as the common ground. each light function is a negative pole.

you can reprogram a decoder for Rule 17 switching lighting: bright in forward (rear light dim), which reverses with direction.

hope that helps.

Chris is correct about the LEDs being polarity sensitive.  One other thing to be careful about is white LEDs can only withstand about 5 volts if wired backwards they will likely burnout if hooked up backwards even for a second.

CV 29 can be programmed to change the direction.    Simply add "1" to the value you are using.   I would say use 35 which "128 speed steps" at 34 plus 1 to reverse the direction.

As others have mentioned there are two ways to change direction with DCC decoders - flipping the orange and gray wires on the decoder's leads to the motor or using CV 29 to adjust for the alternative direction.  The latter is very easy to do  if you have one of  Jim Scorse's NCE PowerPro or PowerCab systems.  With an NCE DCC system locomotive addressing (long vs. short) and direction assignment changes doesn't require one to know the various CV29 settings - the system's hand held throttle  will walk you through the locomotive setup with a series of questions. 

If you have a Lokprogrammer, all ESU decoder programming is easy to do.  No CV's - just good graphics on screen.

I have two.  One built in as a programming track and one on the bench.

CV 29 bit setting changes are fine, but the lights will be backward if you reverse the motor setting.

For your LEDs, the blue wire goes to the (+) leg (the long one), and the white goes to the headlight.  The yellow goes to the rear light.  Green is Aux 1 and purple is Aux 2.  I always use 1 kOhm resistors as a default, but buy a resistor wheel if you want fine control testing.