What are the signs of a bad decoder?
My locomotive will move, I can turn the light on and off, but there is a buzz coming from the motor and the rear headlight will shine at half power when moving forward. When I had no decoder and dcc power, the motor would make the same buzzing sound, and the lights would be on. I have checked for shorts and anything I can think of.
Please help if you can,
AK
How about some information? Loco brand, scale, DCC controller. decoder brand, are you trying to run a decoder equipped loco on DC? If you are trying to run a loco on DCC with no decoder, the motor is going to buzz. DCC contollers send pulses for control.
It sounds like you need a primer concerning DCC.
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/nswmn2/DCC.htm
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Do you mean to say that you are running a DCC equiped loco on DCC and it's making these noises? How old is the decoder? It may not be a 'silent drive' decoder. If that's the case it's going to make noise no matter what you do. As for the problem with the rear light, some decoders do that for some reason or other. I have a few that the rear light stays on full brightness no matter what but the decoder operates normally in all other respects.If your decoder was fried the loco wouldn't run at all. If you have one that suddenly fries while in operation the loco will put any Alco to shame for a couple of seconds.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
More iinformation would help us advise you. What scale? What brand and type of decoder? What type of DCC system?
As already stated, the engine would not run at all if the decoder was fried. As far as the light is concerned, it sounds like the decoder is programmed for "Rule 17" lighting wherein the headlight and/or backup light dim when the engine is operated in the opposite direction. This can be cured by CV programming, so you need to delve into your decoder's instructiions to change this. And all this assumes that you have a DCC system that can program decoders.
Sounds like this loco had issues to begin with . Putting in a decoder won't solve mechanical problems . Like someone else mentioned, if the decoder was fried, the engine won't move . You didn't say what the brand is & i'd best not guess.
anthonykaz What are the signs of a bad decoder? My locomotive will move, I can turn the light on and off, but there is a buzz coming from the motor and the rear headlight will shine at half power when moving forward. When I had no decoder and dcc power, the motor would make the same buzzing sound, and the lights would be on. I have checked for shorts and anything I can think of. Please help if you can, AK
INFO:Bachmann GP-40 HO scale worked perfectly before decoder install, no noise
Dynamis controller
MRC AD350 6 function decoder
The manual says that it follows Rule #17, so that will not be an issue.
I hope this helps you
Thats your problem! Rip the MRC decoder out and put in a TCS,NCE,or Digitrax silent drive decoder. You realy dont need a 6 function decoder if your not hooking up ditch lights. If you do do ditch lights than go with the NCE decoder. They seem to have the best ditch light software. Another thing you might consider is a decoder with Back EMF for realy slow speeds and motor control.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Yep, the problem is the lousy MRC decoder. Take it out and put a real decoder into the locomotive and your problems should all be solved. A TCS, Digitrax, NCE, or Lenz would be a much wiser choice of decoder.
cacoleYep, the problem is the lousy MRC decoder
While this very well could be true, is there not some way he can test something to be sure it is the decoder, rather than something that got mis-wired?
davidmbedardA great way to test is to take out the MRC decoder and put in something worth while.
Yup, that would be correct. And it is probably likely that the decoder could be the problem. But if the existing decoder is not the issue and he has some other problem, then he has paid for something he doesn't need. The OP asked for help. When he finally got to the point where he said he had the MRC decoder, the default answer became that the decoder was the problem.
All I'm asking is that if he had said that he had a NCE, TCS, or Digitrax decoder, would he have received the same advice, or would there have been some investigative advice? If the advice would have been the same, then fine. If not, he did not receive a good response from the people here who are supposed to know.
If you have control of it with DCC e.g. Runs forward and reverse on command, lights turn on and off, the decoder is not burned.
If your motor made noise before the decoder, it will make noise after installation. The decoder just runs the motor instead of the track running it. Can't comment on the quality of MRC decoders except that I've never had the need to own one. There has always been something else with more features for the same or less $$.
Martin Myers
davidmbedardThat isn't fair. You didn't completely quote me.
Sorry, I didn't include this statement because I was trying to be unfair or fair. I left it out to save space as I was not responding to that portion of the response. Yes, checking with a multi-meter is good advice. But checking what, where? I looked at the instructions for the decoder that was used, and it requires the user to make the connections. It is not the plug-in variety. To me it appears that there is room for error with the connections. But that is as far as my knowledge of problems extends.
I again ask the question, if the decoder was some other brand would the advice be to replace the decoder? Or is the answer still to check for shorts? If that's the answer, then that's fine.
I got the stupid thing working, just a small short on the bottom of the pc board of the decoder to the frame. A piece of electrical tape on the bottom fixed the problem.
Thanks for all of your help