I'm new to DCC. I bought a couple used Life-Like F7's with Digitrax DZ123 decoders installed. After a little clean-up on the wheels, they both ran fine. I went on vacation. Turned power off to the whole system. When I fired things up again, one engine still runs fine. The other one doesn't. No headlight, no motor hum, nothing. I cleaned the wheels and checked for loose wires. Still nothing. Now what ???
If you're using the correct decoder address and it won't run, try resetting the decoder to factory default values (CV 8=8). It should then run on the factory default of 3.
I do that on the programming track? (Using Digitrax DCS100 Command station)
Yes. No headlight could be a burned out bulb, if the loco owuld move, but no headlight and no control means either no power is getting to the decoder from the track, or it's the wrong address. Usual failure modes in decoders have the motor drive blowing out due to a shrot or overload - in which case the lights can still be turned on and off, or the light functions blow out due to short or overload or the surge that happens when a low voltage light bulb is used without a resistor and burns out instantly - in which case the motor drive still works and you can move the loco.
Since you have a DCS100, put the loco on the program track and read the address before resetting it. If it reads - well, try operating with that address. If it fails to read, then try the reset and see if it works as address 3. Or skip a step and just program int he address you want it to be - but if something flaked out during the storage time, a reset is the best thing to do.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
That did it! Thanks for the help. Any suggestion as to why it lost its address while powered off for a couple weeks?
COuld be "one of those things". The lifetime of the non-volatile memory used to store the configuration is not infinite, although a few weeks is way too short of a time for it to have lost its mind - I just got somelocos that haven't seen the track in over 3 years and they still all retained their programming. If you are absolutely certain the address you wer etrying was what it was supposed to be programmed as, keep an eye on it. If the same thing repeates itself witht he loco just sitting in the box, you may have a defective decoder. If it wasn't in a box and just sitting there loose, it could have simply been static.