I have an Atlas gold Dash8-40C with QSI sound that has worked fine for months but all of a sudden it has started behaving erratically. The wheels and track are clean and I have no problems with my other 6 locos. Whether at slow speeds or fast, it suddenly slows down and/or speeds up without touching the handheld or it jerks along in a very unrealistic manner. Has anyone seen this problem before? I am thinking the decoder is bad or has been corrupted somehow. Should I try resetting to factory defaults? Do I need to remove the shell and look inside for something strange? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
It can't hurt to re-check the wheels first. It's usually the problem. The reset to default would follow for sure. Also turn off DC support.
Springfield PA
Check the pickups, dirt or dust might have gotten between the wheel and pickup wiper. It won't hurt to take the shell off and check for a possible loose wire. If one of the pickup wires came off, you might only be picking up power with one truck on one side or the other, which means you'd need VERY clean track and wheels for it to run smoothly. While the shell's off, check for any binding in the drive shafts. Also check lubrication, while most locos come over-lubed from the factory, after you've run it for a long time it could just need proper lubrication.
Also which DCC system do you have? Make sure you only have that loco selected on one throttle.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I would also check to see if you turned on the Back EMF / "cruise control" (I don't remember just what QSI calls it) with one of the function buttons. I don't recall which F button it is right now, check the manual or with QSI literature online.
QSI decoders work differently than most BEMF decoders. With most decoders that have it, the cruise control is always on and once you have the engine going a certain speed, it just stays at that speed whether going uphill or down until you change the speed. With QSI, when you get the engine to the speed you want, you have to hit one of the function keys to turn on the "cruise control". It then keeps running at that same speed no matter what. To stop or change speeds, you need to hit the function button again to turn the cruise control back off before making the change.
If you try running an engine with the BEMF engaged, it tries to jerk up to the speed you set before, and when stopping will grind to a stop very quickly. I did that with my BLI 2-10-4 and it ran terribly until I figured out the problem and shut off the BEMF.
Thanks for the suggestions. I will look for the pick-up wipers and then try to remove the shell, which I have no idea how to do. I am using the MRC prodigy wireless and I have only the one handheld unit.
Hmmm, I have the MRC Prodigy Wireless for about 7 months now and about 4 months ago 2 of my engines started doing the same things. Cant tell you how many times and different I have discovered to clean the track and wheels. I have not gone inside though as that was next on the list. I also did not realize there were pick up wipers in there somewhere.
I do also know that I have another problem, I have 5 cats and they like to play trains with me. I clean lots of fur from the axles and have been wondering how much is inside. So I guess from what I read it is time to perform some open hood surgery.
Bob Artim
Beaver, PA