Hi:
I have installed a Digitrax DN135 decoder in a Bachmann 44 Tonner old style powered truck to use as a drive system for a Mack 15 ton switcher.
I ran it a few days ago and it ran just fine, albeit with occasional hesitation which has been the subject of another thread:
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/744/t/217567.aspx
Anyhow, today it is unresponsive. One LED will light when the power is on the track, but it will not move in either direction and the headlight will not change from front to rear when the direction is changed. Interestingly, when I was attempting to reset it, the other headlight came on for a while but it still did not respond to directional changes either. Then the decoder went back to the original headlight after another reset attempt.
I have carefully examined all the wiring. Nothing is broken. I gave a reasonably good tug on each of the wires that feed into the plug on the decoder and they are solid. I also checked each of the feeders from the trucks and the feeders to the motor and they are all attached.
The motor turns smoothly by hand.
I have tried multiple times to reset the decoder to the factory default settings but nothing changes.
The DCC system (NCE Power Cab) works fine with other locomotives.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Dave:
I had a similar experience with the same decoder in a Spectrum 2 motor 44 tonner. I found that one of the motors had, for some reason, all of a sudden developed a high amp draw and that cooked the decoder. The other motor was OK. Disconnect your decoder and try the motor on DC and check its amp draw. That may be your problem. I hope that it's not your motor since you've put a lot of excellent work into this project.
Joe
Thanks for the suggestion Joe. I will give it a try.
I converted the motor back to DC and it ran fine. It drew about .3 amps when stalled at 14 volts. At low speeds it draws about .05 amps when running free.
So, unless anyone has another suggestion I will try a new decoder and see what happens. Thank goodness it wasn't a sound decoder!
Glad to hear that it wasn't your motor. The second motor/truck unit from my old 44 tonner still works and I'm contemplating a project like yours. I'm going to be interested in following how yours goes.
David B
That's exactly what I had planned.
Update!
I decided to eliminate as many variables as possible so I started by re-reading the NCE Power Cab manual. The answer to my problem showed up very quickly:
When you want to select the default locomotive address '3' on the Power Cab, it is important that you only input the number '3'. Not '003' or '03'! I probably knew that before but it ended up with all the other stuff I used to know.
Bingo, no decoder problem.
So now I will have a couple of extra DN135D's to use in future critters.
Thanks for your suggestions.