BLI NW2 Loksound Motor Control Trouble

[Ed Kapuscinski]

So I did the ultimate upgrade to my Broadway NW2: replaced the Paragon 4 decoder with an ESU Loksound one.

It sounds so much better.

But I'm seeing some very strange behavior.

As soon as I open the throttle to the first click it takes right off.

Then it takes forever to stop.

It feels like there are very weird settings in play. It's the first time I used this sound project so I thought it might be a setting issue.

But I just applied the decoder settings from an Atlas GP9 and it's still doing the same things.

Any idea what's going on?

Thoughts on troubleshooting steps?

I haven't seen this behavior from my other ESU installs.

Could I have made a wiring mistake or something?

[jwaldo]

I have to ask, how straightforward was the replacement? I am at my wit's end with the Paragon decoder in my SW7.

But as to the question at hand; the BLI switchers appear to have coreless motors, which require different motor CV tuning than the cored motors Atlas uses. Unfortunately I only know this because I'm still struggling to get low-speed performance out of an H-12-44 I upgraded to a coreless motor.  The correct settings can be automatically applied using a LokProgrammer, but I'm not fancy enough to have one yet.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ah. That explains it! I'll go barking up that tree.

As for how straight forward? Remarkably!

Here's what I did, but I used an ESU decoder instead of Soundtrax. Their adapter was very helpful.

Also, keep in mind that the decoder, by default, puts out 12v on the lighting circuits. You'll need to install a resistor or blow up your LEDs. Ask me how I know...

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Ah. That explains it! I'll go barking up that tree.

As for how straight forward? Remarkably!

Here's what I did, but I used an ESU decoder instead of Soundtrax. Their adapter was very helpful.

Also, keep in mind that the decoder, by default, puts out 12v on the lighting circuits. You'll need to install a resistor or blow up your LEDs. Ask me how I know...

/>

Kinda a dumb question, but why not just use a stealth NW2 with ESU decoder? No need to rewire the whole engine. Or was this from the 2023 release before stealth?

[peteski]

Yes, ESU decoders might not be very friendly to some coreless motors. BEMF parameters might have to be customized. Plus if there are RFI (Radio Frequency Interference filter) in the motor circuit, they might have to be removed/bypassed.

[Dwight in Toronto]

Yes, ESU decoders might not be very friendly to some coreless motors. BEMF parameters might have to be customized. Plus if there are RFI (Radio Frequency Interference filter) in the motor circuit, they might have to be removed/bypassed.

Agreed.  I went through the customized settings routine here on TRW, some time ago, when I retrofitted a coreless motor to a tiny Dapol N scale Terrier loco, and added a LokPilot decoder.  Several members helped me through it. 

Using LokProgrammer, on the Motor Settings page, there are a number of sample motor types with recommended values.  The “coreless” settings are at the very bottom of the list.  But these, in my experience, were only a starting point. 

Jim Starbuck posted some settings that had worked for him, and these helped me get a lot closer.  Extensive tweaking finally did the trick.  But LokProgrammer is essential … I can’t imagine doing it otherwise.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Kinda a dumb question, but why not just use a stealth NW2 with ESU decoder? No need to rewire the whole engine. Or was this from the 2023 release before stealth?

Yep. All three of mine predate stealth being an option.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Agreed.  I went through the customized settings routine here on TRW, some time ago, when I retrofitted a coreless motor to a tiny Dapol N scale Terrier loco, and added a LokPilot decoder.  Several members helped me through it. 

Using LokProgrammer, on the Motor Settings page, there are a number of sample motor types with recommended values.  The “coreless” settings are at the very bottom of the list.  But these, in my experience, were only a starting point. 

Jim Starbuck posted some settings that had worked for him, and these helped me get a lot closer.  Extensive tweaking finally did the trick.  But LokProgrammer is essential … I can’t imagine doing it otherwise.

YES! Thank you! I did some more googling and came across that very thread. I still have more tweaking to do, but just changing it to the coreless setting now has the locomotive actually running properly.

I'll hone in on perfect next.

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help on this.