I just finished testing another locomotive with an Econamy 200 diesel decoder. The headlight (LED) comes on but quickly flickers (even with the loco not moving), and when I push the short horn blast button (#3) and release my finger, it continues the sound in short blasts and won't stop until I hit the button again. I remember this happening ahwile back, but I don't remember what I did to correct it. I'm sure it's a CV thing, but maybe something else. Any ideas?
Button 3 is a latching function, not momentary. You have to turn it on, then turn it off for a single short blast. Depending on your system, you might be able to re-map your function button to be momentary, but not many systems have that capability.
The headlight flickering could possibly be you have it set to dim ? Decoders use pulse width modulation for dimming and the pulses can be visible.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
My Lenz system lets me define every button as either momentary or latching, separately for each locomotive.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The headlight flicker might mean you've set the headlight to something like "firebox flicker" or one of the Mars/strobe light options.
F2 long horn and F3 short horn on an Economi should both only go as long as you hold the button down, not be latching. It could be your DCC system is set up somehow that it considers F3 to be latching whether the decoder is set that way or not?
Most functions are latching unless otherwise set that way - on the system side. The decoder can't control that. Even F2 on NCE is latching - it's the dedicated HORN button that is F2 without latching.
These two different functions for the horn on decoders drives me nuts - there's no point to it. Hold the button longer if you want a longer blast, and a quick tap if you want just a quick toot. It's always seemed to work tht way before they came up with the idea of separate buttons for long and short blasts, why has that changed?
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.