# Entering an engine #



## Mister Bill (Jan 30, 2014)

I have a new DCC on the way from an Internet purxchase, an Athearn.

I suppose it will have the engine # 3 assigned to it, right?

I have always had my retailer change the engine number to that on the shell.

I have Digitrax DCS 51.

Can I change the engine myself? How do you all do this? I have seen some go to a program somewhere, but I did not get the particulars.

If you can just point me in the direction, that is my wish.

Bill


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## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

here's a link to the manual
http://www.digitrax.com/static/apps/products/starter-sets/zep/documents/ZephyrManual.pdf
loco address programming starts on page 18 in that pdf file


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## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

I don't have that particular DCC system, I have an NCE power cab. Programming a locomotive is similar on all systems.

Since you said you have never programmed your locomotive before, I will assume you do not have a programming track. You will do what is called programming on the main.

The first step is to take all you other locomotives off the track, otherwise you will program them all to the settings of this one.

Put your locomotive on the track and go into your system into programming mode, programming on the main. Check your manual for how to do this.

Looking at the manual online it is section 16 Programming and Reading Your Decoder.
Subsection 16.2 Changing and Reading the Decoder Address is what you want to set the engine address (number). You can use either 2 or 4 digit addressing, depends on how many numbers you want to punch in when you want to select a locomotive. Typically 2 digit address are the last 2 digits of the engine numer and 4 digit addressing is the entire engine number.

Section 16.4 talks about OPS programming (or programming on the main).

Here's a link to the manual online PDF.
http://www.digitrax.com/static/apps/products/starter-sets/dcs51/documents/ZephyrXtra.pdf


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## DavefromMD (Jul 25, 2013)

WVGCA - the link you gave him is for the DCS50. In comparing the 2 manuals, they are different.


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## Mister Bill (Jan 30, 2014)

Dave,

Thanks, I will get the book and figure it out from here.

Also, thanks for reminding me about removing all other engines from the track. That would be a mess.

Bill


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Always a good idea to have a separate piece of track mounted on a piece of ply specifically for programming. You don't say if the loco is new or secondhand, if the latter the address may have been changed by the previous owner, if new it will be set to '3'.


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## Brakeman Jake (Mar 8, 2009)

Changing CVs with the DCS51 is easy,straightforward,just follow the instructions in the manual.


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