F0 off by default?

[CaptOblivious]

So, in at least some of my trains—maybe all of them, it's hard to be sure, F0 is off by default. That is, when I first put them on the tracks, I have to hit the F0 button on my throttle before the headlights lights will come on.

 

Is this something with the decoders, or with the throttle? Is there a way to set whichever it is so that F0 is on be default?

[disturbman]

Just a thought: Isn't it more accurate for F0 to off by default? After all when trains are stored in yards they don't have their (head)lights on. I don't have any layout or even DCC train with lights for the moment but for me it's sounds quite normal for the light to be off at first. The engineer allways need to put them on when he wakes up his ride.

[CaptOblivious]

Just a thought: Isn't it more accurate for F0 to off by default? After all when trains are stored in yards they don't have their (head)lights on. I don't have any layout or even DCC train with lights for the moment but for me it's sounds quite normal for the light to be off at first. The engineer allways need to put them on when he wakes up his ride.

 

Good point, hadn't thought of that. My first thought whenever I put train to track is "geez, the lights aren't working, what's wrong now!?" which is clearly the wrong attitude :D

 

Now I have to check if its all of them or just some…

[Martijn Meerts]

All decoders I've seen/used have F0 OFF by default, that includes factory installed decoders as well.

[mrpig]

After reading this I thought, strange, my lights always come on.

I use a digitrax system and remembered that decoder pro has a utility to monitor loconet, so I had a play.

The command station is storing the function settings for each loco in flash memory. When I select a new loco the system reads its memory first and then issues a command to restore all functions to the last known setting. The only time this does not happen is if I purge the memory.

 

So it looks like it is also system dependent.

 

Did I say how much I love decoder pro  :)

[CaptOblivious]

After reading this I thought, strange, my lights always come on.

I use a digitrax system and remembered that decoder pro has a utility to monitor loconet, so I had a play.

The command station is storing the function settings for each loco in flash memory. When I select a new loco the system reads its memory first and then issues a command to restore all functions to the last known setting. The only time this does not happen is if I purge the memory.

 

So it looks like it is also system dependent.

 

Did I say how much I love decoder pro  :)

 

This would explain quite a lot of the strange behavior I sometimes get, not just lights acting inconsistently. I think I will purge the memory and see what happens…thanks!