Roco_DCC question

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone, first post_all HO

Have Roco 10761 master and locomaus purchased two years ago. Most of my locos DCC, but am having problems with these two: bli sw2 switcher (non sound), and Kato gp35 (also non sound). Installed NCE N12SRP in the bli and NCE D13SRP in the Kato. The Kato running great, except no lights. The bli will only go to half throttle forward or reverse, than die. Both units run perfect at dc. Am very dumb when it comes to DCC, all I have ever been able to do is pu***he “program” and “star” button to address each loco. Been to loystoys, tonystrains, and of course the manuals that came with the 10761 master and NCE’s, and I still cannot figure out DCC. Will appreciate any response concerning these two locos. The rest is hopeless.
Thanks

[cacole]

I'm not familiar with Roco DCC, but it sounds to me like you're pressing the wrong buttons. "Program" and "Star" are not the way to select a locomotive's address to run it using any of the other brands of DCC that I have had experience with. Go back and re-read your Roco documentation on how to run a locomotive on address 3.

All decoders that comply with the National Model Railroad Association's standards are set on address 3 as their factory default, so everything you have should run on address 3 provided you haven't changed something by pressing the wrong keys.

Try running your engines only one at a time on address 3 and see what the results are. If they all operate properly on address 3, then you need to learn how to program individual addresses into each one.

Also, go back to Tony's Train Exchange at http://www.tonystrains.com/tonystips/dccprimer/index.htm and download, print out, and read through his "DCC For Beginners" advice.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a decoder related problem. The lights are either turned off as a programming function or the conection between the lights and the decoder is faulty. The running problem sounds like the decoder is overheating and shutting down, thus it may need to be replaced..
Will

[Anonymous]

Hello Again,

The Kato gp35 changed steps from 128 to 28, (per link Tonystrains) and lights are fine. Thanks, but the bli switch is okay by heat, because it runs fine DC. Pretty sure I advanced program and screwed the poor little thing up. There is almost no information Roco DCC, here or out there. Works great for me, but am I the only one on earth Roco DCC? Seem's like it. Thanks you guys.
Good-bye
64cw

[cacole]

Roco DCC, an Austrian product, was never very popular in the US because it was so expensive compared to Digitrax, NCE, EasyDCC, and others that are made in the USA. I don't think the Roco DCC system is fully NMRA compliant, either, and that could be the source of your problems. Examine your Roco documentation and see if it has an NMRA DCC Standards conformance warrant. If it doesn't, it wasn't meant to work with US decoders even though you may have purchased it here.

We have a complete Marklin DCC system that was given to our HO scale club, and we can't even give it away because it works only with Marklin decoders.

[Anonymous]

Good point, there is no conformance NMRA and it was expensive. (Novenber, 2003) American systems you mentioned were not attractive to me because of their bells and whistles. Live and live on, I guess.

Thanks