Here are the symptoms:Locomotive addresses are not acquiring. The readback says the address is right, but when dialed up, nothing happens. When the decoder is reset to factory defaults, the engine works fine on 03, and even things like speed matching and momentum work. Key in to set the address, it turns into a paper weight.
Consisting isn't working, but only on some lokies. Key it in, read back CV19, everything looks fine, go to start it, nothing. Others work fine, although the headlight thing is screwed up. (next item)
Headlight function isn't working right. Acquire the locomotive address, hit -0-, the headlight flashes for an instant, then nothing. Doesn't work on individual engines or on consists. This happens on engines that do operate with their normal address (unaffected by the address problem).
I'm completely stumped. Tomorrow I'll start pulling things apart to try to isolate the problem.My question is, are these symptomatic of a decoder getting zapped, or do you think there's something in the system that's screwed up?
Note: There was a derailment that caused a short, but it was caught by the breaker pretty quickly. Also, the first engines that I noticed malfunctioning occured before the short...
So, are these symptoms of DCC in general, or do you think it's an MRC-specific problem? I'm worried that since the symptoms are occuring in some engines but not all, that a bunch of decoders have gone down. I can't afford to replace them right now (or maybe ever!).
Any thoughts?Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
Thanks for the input. Unfortunately, I've tried all of that. The system is plugged into a power strip, which gets turned off between sessions, so in effect it gets "unplugged" after each use. I checked it again this morning, and the same thing is happening.
Also, I checked the CV for addressing, and it's normal on the engines that are malfunctioning, and I've reset each decoder to factory settings, and reprogrammed them with the same disappointing result.
(For some reason, one of my two Intermountain F units came back to life this morning... it accepted it's address, was able to consist, but still no headlight... It's twin responds to address 3, but won't accept its own address...)
Also, one of the engines is addressed #23, so it's hammering 2 digits as well as 4. Ironically, 23 was consisted with 40 (this lashup was involved in the derailment) and 40 is perfectly normal, again, except for the headlight thing.
I'm going to isolate the system to a single piece of track, then test each locomotive I have and note the results of each. I'm just not sure when I'll have time to do that.
Thanks again.
Lee
I'm no expert; but could it be a problem with your decoders ? Just a suggestion.