Hi everyone.
My DCC system is a Prod-Adv. After 5 years of running it, I just got this problem for the first time ever. I was running a loco, towing a track cleaning car only, and after a few runs around the layout,I shut it down and took a break for about an hour. I later went down to try to start the loco, but it wouldn't start," nothing" it acted like the decoder lost its address. I looked at the cab, it displayed the correct address, but f11 was also displayed. I have never seen f11 displayed on the cab before. would anyone know what has happened, and what does f11 mean?
Thanks to all who reply
Sam
F11 just means function 11 is turned on. What it does depends on the decoder installed in your loco.
Just because the cab displays the intended loco address doesn't mean the decoder didn;t actually get scrambled. Do you have another loco with decoder you can try to verify that the system itself is working properly? If another loco runs fine, the next step would be to do a reset on the one that doesn't run, specifics will depend on what brand of decoder it is. It should then run on address 3, if it works, you cna reprogram it back to the desired address. If not, you may have a problem with either the decoder or the loco.
If another loco also fails to run, you've got a problem with the system somewhere.Verify that the track power is on and not shorted. Take everything off the track, and try setting a quarter on the rails, you should get a short indication. If not, there's something up with your system, either the track power is turned off, or it's not putting out any.If the quarter test works, try just the loco in question, no other cars (especially the track cleaner).
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Thanks Randy,
Yes I ran another loco from that cab and it worked fine. I then tried to run the loco that wouldn't start on address 3 and "bingo", ran like a charm. I then reprogram it back to its old address and all is fine. Thank you for that.
Since it seems like it did indeed 'loose its mind" I would recommend doing a full reset on it, lest you be surprised by something else acting wierd with it. It might appear that only the address got scrambled, or even just the one CV that controls which address is used - CV29, but that would be more odd than other CVs also getting slightly scrambled.
Or someone snuck in while you were away and started pressing buttons not knowing what they were doing...