I installed a Loksound Select #73432, version V1-R1 with the FM 6cyl 28D prime mover sound in a Walthers H10-44 (formerly had an early QSI decoder in it). Everything seems to work well until the engine simply stops. The amp meter goes from .07 ma to .20, 30, etc., when I return the speed to zero and the meter returns to .06 or .07. The motor is fine and does not bind at all. It seems to be something with the BEMF settings. When the stoppage occurs, if I do the "automatic adjust" routine (CV54 to 0 and press F1) the engine takes off and reprograms those CV's. However, the engine then does the same thing, sometimes as much as 30" during operation and other times just a few minutes after beginning to operate it. When I put the engine on the Lokprogrammer and reload the CV's, it works fine again. Aggh! Any suggestions?
On a different topic, on my old MRC controller F14 does not do anything to stop the "cold start feature" on the prime mover, which is very irritating. The F14 on the programmer does not to seems to affect it either, even though F14 is supposed to disable the cold start feature. How can I disable this unwanted feature?
To start with the second part...I don't recall the exact CV, but if you review the Loksound instructions / website, there is a CV you can program that will turn off the cold start feature.
For the main question...it's unlikely the motor is actually 'locking up', at least, not unless it did before. It sounds like the decoder may be overheating, or there may be an intermittent short in the engine somewhere.
If this is one of the old Walthers FM's, the motor was originally grounded to the frame, and that has to be changed when converting the engine to DCC. If that's the case here, could be somehow the motor isn't completely isolated, and is grounding to the frame sometimes.
Another possibility is if the decoder was a "hardwire" installation, you or whoever installed it may have inadvertently heated up the decoder when soldering the connections and damaged it. I had a decoder just recently that I believe I did that to - engine would run for a little while, then stop dead - still making engine sounds, but not moving. If I shut off power for a while and came back later, it would run for a minute or two then stop again. Luckily I was able to return it under a 'goof proof' type warranty and get another one.