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Loco's not responding while other locos consisted.

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  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Millarville, Alberta. Canada
  • 166 posts
Loco's not responding while other locos consisted.
Posted by CPbuff on Thursday, August 26, 2010 4:44 PM

Has anyone else come across this problem...Using MRC Prodigy Advance system...  When I have a multi unit hookup or consist in what MRC calls Universal or old style consisting I have two loco's (not part of the consist) that won't respond to their normal addresses... They won't run until I clear or delete the consist that is elsewhere on the layout... One loco is running an NCE decoder and the other is running a Tsunami TSU-1000 decoder while the locos consisted are all digitrax decoders... 

Any thoughts!

  • Member since
    July 2006
  • 3,312 posts
Posted by locoi1sa on Thursday, August 26, 2010 5:13 PM

 I don't have an MRC system so this is a shot in the dark. It could be the old style consist being a command station memory deal could be eating up the available memory from the command station and not allowing any more resources for other locos. I wonder what would happen if you consisted all the locos together?

 Just a guess.

     Pete

 I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!

 I started with nothing and still have most of it left!

  • Member since
    July 2008
  • 1,206 posts
Posted by mfm37 on Thursday, August 26, 2010 8:38 PM

It's working correctly.

You have to remove the loco addresses from a universal consist to regain control. When consisted with that method, they will only respond to commands sent to the lead (top) address.

If you want independent control of functions, use advance consisting.

Martin Myers

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Trois-Rivieres Quebec Canada
  • 1,063 posts
Posted by jalajoie on Thursday, August 26, 2010 9:39 PM

mfm37

It's working correctly.

You have to remove the loco addresses from a universal consist to regain control. When consisted with that method, they will only respond to commands sent to the lead (top) address.

If you want independent control of functions, use advance consisting.

Martin Myers

While your interventions are usually to the point and exact, this time I think the OP means two of his locos "not in a consist" will not respond to commands while an Universal consist is active on his layout.

Another slight correction, within an Universal consist, only the speed and direction of a loco can't be altered, all other functions are available individually.

I don't know how many locos the OP tries to run consisted, but MRC only allow for one Universal consist limited to 4 locos.

Jack W.

  • Member since
    September 2005
  • From: Plantsville Ct
  • 102 posts
Posted by dbradley on Friday, August 27, 2010 8:08 AM

I don't know if this is your problem, but in my Advance manual it stated that you can only old style (universal) consist  one set of loco's at a time, the other consist's must be advanced style. The only time I used the old style was with the early Blue Line, before I learned a little more about them.

Den.

  • Member since
    December 2007
  • From: Millarville, Alberta. Canada
  • 166 posts
Posted by CPbuff on Sunday, August 29, 2010 4:14 PM

Jack, your right . The locos I am having trouble with are not part of the consist and are located elsewere on the layout..  I run 3 consisted AC4400CW's with my coal train but my F7A and F7B on my passenger train and won't run at the same time... I did have limited success while running the 4400's in the universal consist mode while running the F7's in the advanced mode...

I was using advance mode one afternoon, Until I realized I had speed matched all my locos under universal mode (by mistake)... SO it looks like another long day speed matching my loco's while using advanced mode and stay away from universal mode...  Yes! The speed matching does change between Universal mode and Advanced Mode. (Another MRC querk).

What started all this was when I took my F7's (while in advanced mode) to a local club layout who use Digitrax for operations and they kept asking why my consist would not move when they put in the lead loco's number...( For in MRC Advanced you program in your own specific consist number to run multiple consists, for those of you who did not know.)Big Smile

Thanx for the inputs everyone!

  • Member since
    December 2001
  • From: Trois-Rivieres Quebec Canada
  • 1,063 posts
Posted by jalajoie on Sunday, August 29, 2010 6:05 PM

CPbuff

Jack, your right . The locos I am having trouble with are not part of the consist and are located elsewere on the layout..  I run 3 consisted AC4400CW's with my coal train but my F7A and F7B on my passenger train and won't run at the same time... I did have limited success while running the 4400's in the universal consist mode while running the F7's in the advanced mode...

I was using advance mode one afternoon, Until I realized I had speed matched all my locos under universal mode (by mistake)... SO it looks like another long day speed matching my loco's while using advanced mode and stay away from universal mode...  Yes! The speed matching does change between Universal mode and Advanced Mode. (Another MRC querk).

What started all this was when I took my F7's (while in advanced mode) to a local club layout who use Digitrax for operations and they kept asking why my consist would not move when they put in the lead loco's number...( For in MRC Advanced you program in your own specific consist number to run multiple consists, for those of you who did not know.)Big Smile

Thanx for the inputs everyone!

Check CV19 on both F7 locos, it should be zero.

Your friends at the Digitrax club should have run with the consist number, not the lead engine number and thing would have been fine. Do they know what is advance consisting?

I am surprise that speed matching is different whether you use advance or universal consists.

Jack W.

  • Member since
    February 2002
  • From: Reading, PA
  • 30,002 posts
Posted by rrinker on Sunday, August 29, 2010 7:28 PM

 If they are Digitrax decoders then by default they will repond differently if runnign singly vs using a CV19 advanced consist, because Digitrax decoders with BEMF have two sets of BEMF settings, one for single runnign and one for CV19 advanced consisting. You could have fixed them real quick simply by adjusting the BEMF settings so that the consisting ones matched the non-consisted ones.

 None of this matters for command station consisting, as the decoder has no clue if it's in a consist or not. It only applies when using CV19, because then the decoder DOES know.

                                                    --Randy

 


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

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