Restoring Sound on BLI Heavy Mikado

[Capt. Grimek]

I've just gotten my yard wired up and running but am waiting on circuit breaker order. My Broadway Limited Blueline Heavy Mikado (with a Digitrax 143 decoder installed at factory) has lost it's sound. When I press CVC 8 on my DT400 throttle I get a half of a whistle or bell and that's it. I presume I shorted the loco enough times that I've confused the decoder...can anyone give me a quick way to get sound back? I've tried looking through the manual and double clicking 8, etc. I have a friend who has JMRI and decoder pro who can come up next week and see what's going on, but wanted to see if anyone had a quick lesson/fix for me? Thanks. Happy 4th everybody!

[rrinker]

Per the manual, found here: http://www.broadway-limited.com/support/manuals/Final%20BlueLine%20Steam%20Manual%207.17.08.pdf, a reset is accomplished by programming CV8 to the value 8.

 This also happens to coincide with a factory reset on Digitrax motor decoders, so if you do this, everything will be reset to factory defaults - the soudns and motor controls. You shoudl then be able to operate everythign on address 03, or reprogram to the address you actually want. test in on 03 first, to verify the dound functionality has been restored.

 

                                     --Randy

 

[Capt. Grimek]

Hi Randy, thanks for the help. I have not changed the address to 03 yet and will do that. (Edit: )I re-read the manual (about using OPS mode) as per your link and will give this a go and get my buddy to help me if it's not responding. Thanks again.

[Capt. Grimek]

Just another thank you, Randy. You gave me the confidence to try my lst decoder CV programming and it worked like a charm. (sound is back).Have you found any more hassle with the Blueline locomotives' double decoder systems than with dual (mobile/sound) decoders? If they aren't, I'd like to consider more Blueline locos. I expected/feared the process to reinstall the sound and it worked fine. Will that always be the case with dual decoder DC/DCC locos?

[wjstix]

 When using two decoders (one for motor control, one for sound) it's never a bad idea to get the motor control one set the way you want, and then "lock" it (via a CV setting) so that it no longer recognizes any programming commands. That way you can send instructions to the sound decoder without worrying about inadvertently messing up the other decoder's programming. Generally, sound-only decoders and control decoders are set to try to avoid having overlapping CV's, but there are a few where it happens.