I have been adding sound to my Marklin loks with Loksound 5 decoders. These loks all have the 5 pole permanent magnet motor. I set the motor type to Marklin 5* High Performance motor with the Lokprogrammer. For most of the loks this works well, but for a few I observe jerking as the lok comes to a halt, and some hunting when the speed is changed. I make sure there is no binding in the drive mechanism, and the loks run perfectly before making the conversion.

I have tried the auto-tune procedure (CV54=0) but that makes it worse. Fiddling about with the many parameters is not really helping. Can anyone suggest a step-by-step procedure to tune these motors? Thanks!

Gopal

Hello Gopal,

I must disagree with Jean (sorry Jean). I have converted about 15 older Marklin locos that have the five pole motors with ESU LokSound 5 decoders. These are some of the best running locos on my layout. Furthermore, the sound from LokSound 5 decoders is much better than what comes from Marklin. (Note: I have many Marklin MFX+ locos, so comparisons are "real world").

In order to program LokSound 5 decoders, you will do yourself a big favor if you use a LokProgrammer. Using CVs and programming "bits" is not the way to handle sophisticated decoders.

The ESU web site has hundreds of projects for various locos. It's easy to choose a few as starting points and customize to your liking. These projects already have the motor setups and are "good to go". I, however, always do the BEMF autuo-tune procedure because each motor differs slightly from the next and the auto-tune procedure does a wonderful job in tweeking the right CVs.

I hope this helps. Let me know what loco you're having problems with -- I might be able to help.

Cheers,
Andry