View source for Support - Motor Control

This support article will help you troubleshoot and diagnose common motor-related issues.

== Motor Runs Backwards of Indicator on Controller and/or Lights ==
For newcomers to DCC installation, a common mistake/issue is having the locomotive drive backwards of the expected direction after the installation. An additional observation you may have is that your directional headlights are opposite of the direction of travel. There are multiple solutions to this problem - The most important step to solving this issue is observing the direction of the throttle/controller with respect to the directionality of the locomotive's motor and its light functions. Assuming you have not done any CV programming, the headlight functions will always follow the direction in the DCC packet being sent to the decoder. This means that when your throttle shows "Forward" the 'forward' headlight will be on if F0 is on; likewise for reverse. 

If the motor control alone is reversed of the selected direction of travel, meaning the headlights are correct with respect to your throttle, the best and simplest solution is to swap the orange and grey wires to the motor. This will possibly require disassembly of the model and re -soldering the motor wires to the correct pads/wires/contacts. 

If the lights alone are reversed of the selected direction of travel, you should fist ensure that [[CV 29|CV29]] is not improperly configured. If [[CV 29|CV29]] is an even number (meaning the directionality of the decoder has not been reversed intentionally) you may have mistakenly wired the forward and reverse lights to the wrong ends of the engine. If you have done any CV programming, you may have mistakenly entered incorrect values for the lighting effect CV's ([[CV 49|49]] and [[CV 50|50]]). 

If BOTH the motor and lights are reversed of the direction of travel indicated on your throttle, the easiest solution is to reconfigure [[CV 29|CV29]] to reverse the directional conditioning of the decoder. Refer to the [[CV 29|CV29]] page for information and instructions on how to configure the direction. 

=== Version 5 Addendum ===
In WOWSound Version 5 , we have changed the behaviour of CV29's direction bit. For more information on CV29 in Version 5, click [[Diesel Version 5:CV 29|HERE]]. From our experience with CV29 the main reason to use Bit 0, the direction bit, was to solve the issue described above (where the direction of the motor did not match the direction of the lights due to a wiring mistake); however, the previous behaviour of CV29 which reversed ALL directional settings in the decoder, including the lights, would not solve this issue. 

As such, in Version 5 decoders, the direction bit of CV29 reverses the directional control of ONLY the motor. This means that you would no longer need to disassemble your model to rewire the motor and solve the problem.