# Removing Momentum from BLI Locomotives



## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

I'm trying to remove the momentum effect from my BLI Paragon 2 DCC locomotives so that they can be run under computer control (TrainController software). One is diesel and the other steam. I've tried programming CV3 and CV4 to zero, but there still appears to be a substantial momentum effect.

I've done a Google search and didn't find anything that directly addresses this. I did see somewhere that turning off BackEMF might be necessary. I've tried that on one of my engines and then my locomotive wouldn't run. Further reading in the BLI technical manual suggested bumping up the KickStart number, but the locomotive still wouldn't move. At that point, I reset the locomotive back to factory defaults to restore it to running status.

I've tried this a couple of times now, but same result (no success).

Has anybody else removed the momentum effect from their BLI locomotive? If so, how did you do it?

Thanks!

Mark


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

I use TCG software and I leave the BLI decoders as is. In TC, I adjusted the acceleration and deceleration to suit while using the advanced speed calibration feature. I run 5 trains on a small congested layout and the BLI deceleration was causing potential collision problems.


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

Thanks for the reply JerryH. Would you be willing to share the values you use in TC? (A screen shot of your computer screen is probably the easiest.) I've tried the advanced speed settings, but maybe I haven't moved them far enough. I also don't trust that the speed profiling is working right with all the momentum in the BLI decoder.

My problem in TC is that my trains are always overshooting their brake markers. So if there's another way to fix this than removing the momentum from the BLI decoders, I'm all ears.

Mark


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

I had the same problem. I will see if I can get a couple of screen shots for you later today. Which BLI locos do you have? I will try to pick a similar one.


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

JerryH said:


> I had the same problem. I will see if I can get a couple of screen shots for you later today. Which BLI locos do you have? I will try to pick a similar one.


Thanks! I have a Mikado steam and SD9 diesel.

Mark


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

These are Paragon 2
https://goo.gl/photos/hsuTgHsRsJqugFmS8

https://goo.gl/photos/D1J86AiKVH21vBhL6


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

Thanks JerryH, but the URLs aren't working for me. Google says something about the page not being found. Perhaps there's a permission problem or you need to make the images public??

Mark


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Why don't you contact BLI?


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

I'll contact BLI later today or tomorrow and see what they say. Just wanted to check in with all the knowledgeable folks here and see if someone has already solved this problem.

Mark


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## JerryH (Nov 18, 2012)

If you read the BLI tech manual, they have a ton of CV's and many of them interact so tweaking them can be quite complex technically. JMRI is what I use if I want to change CV's.


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

I've submitted a question into BLI Tech Support on how best to disable momentum on their Paragon 2 decoders. Waiting to hear what they say...

I'll post the solution once I get their response and have a chance to verify that it works.

Mark


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

I got a response from BLI Tech Support this morning. Here's their response:



> Hello Mark,
> 
> We will be happy to assist you with that.
> 
> ...


I'll give it a try tonight when I get home from the office.

Mark


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## Mark VerMurlen (Aug 15, 2015)

The settings above do turn off all momentum. However turning off Back EMF makes the engine run poorly at very low speed. With Back EMF on, the engine will crawl along at very low speeds. With Back EMF off, quite a bit of throttle is needed to get the engine moving and then it won't crawl along at all.

I don't want to give up the slow speed crawl, so I'm going to have to live with some momentum in the DCC decoder. I've started playing with brake compensation in TrainController and I'll continue to tweak it and see how that goes.

Mark


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