I can't seem to get my Bachmann 44-tonner or Atlas C420 to respond to my MRC Prodigy Express System. The Bachmann engine has a factory installed decoder while the Atlas engine has a drop-in AMD4. All took place on my programing track.
Am I doing something wrong with programing the engines, or is there a problem within the locomotives? Any information will help.
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You need to supply more information. What were you doing when you had your problem and what have you tried to solve the problem.
Joe
The Bachmann decoders can be tricky. The TCS should not be a problem.
Does either loco run on the default address of 3? If not, stop here, something else is wrong. The factory installed Bachmann should be ok, but sometimes they mess up the installation The AMD4 install is pretty straightforward as long as yuou followed all the instructions to avoid shorts. You should always test on a program track first, or use a resistor like shown in the MRC instructions since the PE doesn;t have a program track. This prevent damaging the decoder if it's wired wrong.
If they DO run on address 3, the next step would be to change the address to somethign that makes sense, like the cab number. The Bachmann decoders are notorious for programmign problems and sometimes need a 1K resistor across the rails. The TCS decoders, while I don;t have any N scale ones, the HO ones I use have always worked without a problem, asusmign it's installed correctly. The TCS decoder should program a new address simply by following EXACTLY the instructions given for programming an address in the PE manual. Skip all the other stuff for now and concentrate on getting the address. The other neat-o DCC features we can get to after we have this much working.
-_Randy
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I was trying to program the engines on the programing track, the bachmann engine to address #5 and the C420 to #130.
However, after trying some numbers for the 44-tonner's address, I got the bachmann engine to respond on #9350, and after some rewiring on the C420, got it to run on the default address of #3. Now to put in new addresses for the engines.
The problems are taken care of, so I'm sorry to bother you.
If Bachmann decoders are really that stubborn, I may just use the default address (I have heard that you can really only get the most flexability through Bachmann's control system). I will consider putting the resistor on the programming track since I plan on getting other Bachmann engines, so any help will do.
For now, though, I do have the two engines running. I used the 44-tonner's default address, and rewired the AMD4 in the C420, and got them both running.
Again, thanks for the help!!