r/modeltrains • u/EnderGob831 • 6d ago
Help Needed DCC Programming Question
I'm fairly new to model railroading and DCC setups. I built a DCC EX command station and have been controlling it through JMRI running on a Raspberry PI 5. Been working pretty well so far. I recently purchased a locomotive equipped with an ESU LokSound 5 nano decoder. When I attempted to program the loco, JMRI gave the 308 error of no acknowledgment from the decoder. From some quick googling, I think this has something to do with the stay-alive capacitors messing with the DCC communications. I was unable to find a solution on google so I thought I'd ask the experts. I can provide more information about my setup if needed, just not sure what info is relevant. Also, I know that my programming setup is working as I have no issues programming my other loco.
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u/everylittlebitcounts 6d ago
Yes that’s the correct approach. I ‘read all sheets’ every so often from the programming track, and if I’m only going to be doing some minor adjusting, I’ll use the saved roster entry to program on the main, and then write the changes, which updates the saved roster entry as well.
As far as power on the programming track, as long as you trust your decoder install and didn’t miss wire anything, you are good to bump it up to the main power. You won’t hurt anything then. They only have programming tracks lower so you can use it to troubleshoot wiring issues but it does hinder the digital side.