NMRA RH October 2018

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JMRI Programming A step by step guide to DecoderPro Ian Watton Part 1 Several months ago I hosted a meet of the Kent and East Sussex Group at my house, one of the items I had on show was programming DCC locos via JMRI DecoderPro. If you’ve not used this software I highly recommend it, not only is it free, but the capabilities far outweigh any dependency on handheld DCC system where programming is required. It really comes into its own when programming sound decoders, CVs (configurable variables used to control functions/operations in the decoder) which can stretch into the hundreds and combinations of which CVs are required for which sound/light combination, run into the thousands. So here is a guide on how to make the most of DecoderPro. JMRI DecoderPro can be downloaded from their website: http://jmri. sourceforge.net/ In order to program a DCC Decoder you will need an interface unit between your PC and your DCC System. The likely cost is £45 to £70 for those systems that don’t have a computer interface already, in the case of Digitrax, the LocoBuffer (£60) enables so much more than just programming and the NCE PowerPro, Digitrax DCS240, ESU Ecos, and many other systems have the computer interface in place already - so no cost at all. The SPROG Programmer (http:// www.sprog-dcc.co.uk/) currently £65 comes complete with a power supply. This is the system I have - a SPROG IIv4 with JMRI version 4.12 on my PC. This version of JMRI will only run on Windows 7 and above, as it requires Java version 8 (a problem I found when hooking up an old laptop running Windows XP - it couldn’t cope!) 26 ROUNDHOUSE - October 2018 So having installed the SPROG IIv4 and reading back the COM port it’s attached to (the install DVD explained everything), it’s time to start DecoderPro. The first screen is the Preferences which gets Decoder Pro talking to the DCC System. Follow the on-screen advice for System manufacturer and System connection, and press save when done. From the above image you can see the PC has detected SPROG as being connected to serial port COM3. Once saved, this information is retained each time you load up DecoderPro. Next it’s time to put a loco on the programming track and ‘read’ the decoder’s information into DecoderPro. I have a dedicated test track for just this purpose, which is independent of my DCC layout (the benefit is that I cannot accidentally program any other locos at the same time), however you may not be as fortunate as me, and whatever setup works for you is fine. Put a loco on the track and we’re ready for the next step.
To add a new loco click on the ‘New Loco’ button, you’ll then be asked to select your decoder from the list, or to get DecoderPro to ‘read’ the decoder automatically. In this example DecoderPro has successfully read the loco’s decoder and returned the decoder’s manufacturer, type of decoder and loco’s address as currently programmed in the decoder. In this case the address is 716. We can change the Roster ID to something meaningful (I usually change it to the loco’s description and running number). It is possible to change the loco’s address on this screen so let’s do it! Enter a new number in “Active Address” then click on ‘Write’. save it to the decoder. With Lenz (the system I have on my layout) it takes at least 12 key presses on the handheld controller to achieve the same result. The same method in Decoder Pro is used to make complex changes. And we will look at that next. Click on ‘Open Comprehensive Programmer’, one of the tabs available (shown above) is the Function Map. This gives details of what function is attributed to which output wire or operation. What is a time consuming process with Lenz, becomes a doddle with JMRI. Everything is displayed on screen. The first step we need to do is ‘Read Full Sheet’ to see what is already programmed in the decoder. Having done this, the default positions on the sheet change from a yellow background to clear background and the ticks may move around. I have multiple output wires/ operations configured to function 1, 2 and 6 (This loco has working ditch lights that flash for grade crossing simulation and there are dimming capabilities for all lights). In the example below I want to change the operation of functions 3 and 4, so that F3 operates the Ditch lights and F4 operates the Dimming. For Function 3 click in the box to select Dim and deselect Ditch, and repeat this process for Function 4. DecoderPro changes the background of the changes made to yellow, so you can see which operations have change to be made. Now click ‘Write changes on sheet’ and wait until everything stops flashing on the screen. The loco may move too on the programming track whilst this is happening (It does at least show things are happening!). If any of the columns stay Red then the programming has been unsuccessful. However, in our example everything worked fine and the background returned to clear. As you can see the changes have been made with 5 clicks of the mouse and none of the stress of a proprietary DCC system! Placing the loco on the layout and selecting F3 now switches the Ditch lights on and F4 Dims the headlights. When you write changes to the decoder all the boxes that can be written briefly turn red then flash yellow as the changes are accepted. If I put the loco on my layout now I would be able to run it as #455. As you can see we only needed 4 mouse clicks to change the running number and Ian Watton . . . In the next part of this series we’ll look at adding another loco to DecoderPro’s roster and programming a sound loco. October 2018 - ROUNDHOUSE 27
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NMRA RH October 2018

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