I recently picked up a Piko center-cab Whitcomb engine, with their factory-installed DCC/sound system. It sounds very good, and hasn't done anything strange, though I have found it impossible to simply change the sound levels. The extreme bell clang is especially jarring. And, of course, there seems to be a dearth of info about this decoder. I sent an email to Piko, but I really don't expect to hear back from them until after Christmas. So, that's a long-winded way of asking, does anybody know what the cv numbers are for sound volume in general, and the bell sound in particular? The only included info is for address and momentum. Thank you. (and yes, I tried "search", but it seems to be broken--search error)...
Try this. Looks like it uses the Piko XP 5.1 Next18 interface decoder The link to the item is here and the download is on this page https://www.piko-shop.de/en/artikel/xp-5.1-next18-interface-33962.html#product-documents No promises it will work but what I found when looking.
Thanks for posting it. I'd found the same thing, with no info on modifying the sound settings. I did see I could purchase a programmer from Piko, and in theory I should be able to change those settings using their programmer. IF I wanted to buy a programmer just to do this.
BTW, here's a pic of the engine. I know a pic and a dollar will get me a cup of senior coffee at Dunkin Donuts on Thursdays, but still...
I did hear back from Piko, and they provided me with the volume cv settings, their defaults, and their operating ranges. I programmed them in using my trusty Digitrax DCS52, and--things got strange. The cv settings are similar in the way they are programmed to ESU, in that a pair of cv settings have to be changed in order to change the ones we need, because they are much higher numbers than the usual bunch we all know. I changed those cv's, then changed the ones I wanted changed. And it got weirder. The sound of the bell started out at 200, which is the default. Range is from 0-255. I set the sound level to 50, and gave it a try. And it got louder. What the H? I then put the engine back on the programming track, and discovered the value was 228, instead of 50. Well, that would explain it getting louder, I must have fat-fingered something. So, I set the level to 50 again, and--it set itself back to 228. After a lot of experimenting, I was able to reduce the sound to 129. Any lower value would cause it to jump back to 228 again. So, I can lower the sound by about a third, but no more, and the sound level is still painful. I then lowered the overall volume level so everything else was at a believable amount. The bell is still way too loud, though. I sent off another email to Piko, and it seems like they're scratching their heads, as well. The person I've been corresponding with suggested finding someone with a different DCC system, and try programming the decoder using that. I have a Lokprogrammer, and I'll try using that to set the individual cv values. It will do that, so I'll give that a go, and see what happens. Once I get this resolved (if I ever do), I'll post the cv settings numbers, and values, along with what I ended up having to do to take care of the problem.
Okay, as promised. I did hear back from Piko, and they suggested trying a different brand of DCC system to program. Since I am not near anyone that has any kind of DCC system, different from mine or otherwise, I decided to try something outside-the-box. I pulled out my ESU Lokprogrammer, and gave it a whirl using that. And it worked. So, if anybody else winds up with one of these, and wants to change either the system volume, or the bell volume, this is how you do it: First, set cv 31 to 16, and 32 to 0. This is similar to Loksound's programming in the higher cv numbers, and allows programming cv's 257-512. Then, the system volume default is 200. I set mine to 90, since my layout is in a small space. This lowered all volumes. The cv for the bell only is 291. I set that to 60, and life, and my tinnitus, is good. After setting the higher cv settings, don't forget to set 31 and 32 back to 0.
I have a LokProgrammer but have only used it with ESU products. So will it read and write to other manufacture's decoders? If so only directly by reading and writing CV's? Will it read the decoder type? Can you use any other of the programmer's functions or only reading and writing CV's? Thanks, Sumner
It will read and write any and all cv's, and you can use the "ops mode" cab control. It will not read other decoder types.
