Old Spike Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Hi everyone As you will notice this is my first post so I apologise for joining the forum and asking questions straight away. I did look for an area where I could introduce myself first but couldn't find one. Anyhoo As the title suggests I have just received a Zimo MX600R after reading good reports about it on this forum but can't make up my mind whether it is faulty or I am missing something obvious. I have a small layout that uses JMRI & DCC++. Up to now I have used a mixture of Hattons, Hornby & LaisDCC decoders and have not had any problems reading or configuring those using JMRI however when I try to read the Zimo decoder info. on the programming track the motor ticks twice and the headlight flashes at the same time but I get the message " no response from locomotive" To test my setup I have tried the decoder in two locos and have substituted the Zimo with a Hatton's which I can read OK. Have I missed something ? reading the huge Zimo manual there was mention of unlocking the decoder, I'm not sure if it was relevant to my decoder but tried it anyway but it has not helped, neither has resetting decoder with CV8 = 8. Your suggestion will be gratefully received. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete the Elaner Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Hi. I have several of these & find them more tweakable than most around the same price range. They should not be locked when new & I have not looked into how to lock them & what actually gets locked. I also use JMRI but with an NCE PowerPro. I have not heard of DCC++. I assume this is the DCC system? Can you read the decoder directly from that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIMorrison Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 Are you trying to use DecoderPro to read the chip? I have had an issue if I don’t use New Loco function which generally seems to work well, though it doesn’t always identify the chip correctly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Spike Posted September 23, 2019 Author Share Posted September 23, 2019 Yes, I am using the New Loco function of DCC++. DCC++ is an Arduino based system, I have tried entering CV values direct from that but again I don't get a response from the loco. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIMorrison Posted September 23, 2019 Share Posted September 23, 2019 I am not suggesting that you use DCC++, I am suggesting that you use DecoderPro which is part of JMRI Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Spike Posted September 23, 2019 Author Share Posted September 23, 2019 WIMorrison, my apologies, that is what I meant. (stupid newby mistake) I am trying to use New Loco in JMRI. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIMorrison Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 If it can read other locos using DecoderPro and it is only this one then looks like you might have a decoder issue. i posted in the forum a method to hard reset Zimo decoder when it isn’t playing correctly - this is not a simple cV8=8 reset which is a soft reset. Might be worth looking for it and trying it to see if it clears out the issue Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold RedgateModels Posted September 24, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted September 24, 2019 (edited) The MX600R does not read the Manufacturer ID correctly initially on my Powercab when running up on the programming track. Comes up zero from memory. If you then go on to read CV8 and CV 7 they read correctly. Might be an issue that is throwing DecoderPro too? Edited September 24, 2019 by RedgateModels Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porcy Mane Posted September 24, 2019 Share Posted September 24, 2019 It's a while since I updated my decoder pro but from memory the the last time I updated there had been no definition written for the MX 600 series decoder. I had to carry out adjustments on the MX600 using the MX622 settings. P Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Spike Posted September 25, 2019 Author Share Posted September 25, 2019 Thanks for your help guys. I have still had no luck with it so have returned to the supplier. Some good new though my long awaited Hornby TTS for Class 37 arrived yesterday so I have installed that in a Vitrains 37 with a baby boomer speaker and it all works brilliantly. Excellent train control down to a ridiculously slow crawl and so much sound output I'm going to have to tweak the volume down. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Spike Posted September 26, 2019 Author Share Posted September 26, 2019 I have just had this reply from the supplier of the Zimo 600R In the meantime we have tested your decoder and have successfully programmed it. However it will not read the address back when interrogated. If you program the decoder it will accept all commands. We have tested it in a locomotive with success. Once programmed if you select the locomotive for operation the decoder will operate normally. As a precaution we have tested all the other mx600R decoders on stock and they all operate this way. I have accepted their offer to program it for me but would be interested in your comments . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigelcliffe Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 I'd reject as faulty. A decoder should be able to readback its address, and if it can't readback address, what about all the other CV settings? If their entire stock is faulty (which the quoted text implies), that's the supplier's problem to resolve with Zimo. - Nigel 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
WIMorrison Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 Reject it - it doesn’t work as it should therefore fault, why on earth should you accept it, even at a discount? how will you know in the future it has changed the CVs correctly? You can’t trust it therefore a simple reject for a working and new replacement. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted September 26, 2019 Share Posted September 26, 2019 42 minutes ago, Nigelcliffe said: If their entire stock is faulty (which the quoted text implies), Or they don't realise they need a load on the motor outputs to read back when testing. How did they test them? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Izzy Posted September 26, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted September 26, 2019 Don't accept any of them. A good MX600R should have no trouble responding to readback. They program fine with the latest JMRI/Decoder pro version which has files for MX600 31+ firmware. I used to regard Zimo as the best available with cast iron quality but recent experiences with both sound and non-sound ones tends to suggest that unfortunately you can often get faulty ones these days. Of 6 MX600R's I bought a while back 2 were okay, 2 iffy, and 2 DOA. The supplier replaced all 4 of the faulty ones and was quite surprised when he tested them to confirm they were indeed faulty. Izzy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crosland Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 15 hours ago, Crosland said: Or they don't realise they need a load on the motor outputs to read back when testing. I have been given details of the test setup and confirmation that they were tested correctly. I hope I did not cause any offence, I was just surprised that a whole batch of Zimo would be faulty. Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Spike Posted September 29, 2019 Author Share Posted September 29, 2019 The retailer returned the decoder to me yesterday, programmed as I requested and it is now working OK. I haven't tried reading from it yet. I will leave that for another day when I have some more time and contact Zimo if there is still a problem. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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