complete shutdown

[shagspastic]

I've been building my layout for a year and a half. i have a prodigy advance2 system. everything has always ran fine. then all of a sudden no loco will work. if i take a loco off the track and then put it back on the sound effects will fire up like i'm running it full blast for a second then to idle and then off. what the heck is going on ? all decoders are digitrax 165 series and all sound effects are digitrax soundbugs 004. there is no electrical shorts anywhere. i've exhausted every possibilty that i know to try. what i have noticed is that when i turn the system on the Lcd screen on my cab is sometimes garbled and requires me to restart it. sometimes more than once. like i said i'm building my layout so i've barely used my prodigy advance. did my system just give out ? is the prodigy an unreliable product ? Please some ideas.

[retsignalmtr]

Disconnect the Prodigy system from your layout and set up a test track with some spare trackage (flex or sectional). Connect the system to it and try the loco's there. If it works then there may be a fault in your trackwork. I have Digitrax so i'm not familar with MRC.

[ruderunner]

What he said. 

 I'm an Express user and hav had similar problems when ther was a short on my previous layout.  Usually though I'd lose control of my loco's, ones that were moving would accelrate and not stop, others wouldn't respond to commands to move.  Shutdown power, locate and repair short, restart= ok until next short. 

This is especially likely since you recently have been working on the layout, perhaps something as simple as a track spike caught in a turnout or maybe you inadvertantly created a reverse loop.  Relax.

[DigitalGriffin]

 

First disconnect your MRC Prodigy system from the track.

Grab a volt meter and take off all your locos.  Switch the volt meter to Ohm (W)  When you touch the two switches it should read "0L" or "Over" or "0 Over" (something to indicate it ohmage is out or range)  If it reads plain old "0" you have a short.

Next measure the output terminals on the booster (the two connections you wire to the track)  Put your volt meter on DCV.  It will probably read between 6 and 10 volts.  If it doesn't the problem might be in your prodigy.

Another possibility: You have DC power tied into your trackage somehow.  I've seen locomotives take off at full blast (wheels spinning) when one of the legs was tied into a DC source.  (Or even possibly even a ground source)

BTW: These are pricey in my humble opinion, but they are a really great tool in tracking down these kind of issues (if it's not something as simple as a short)  It will tell you if you are getting a valid DCC signal and at what voltage

http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/rrampmeter.htm

 

 

 

[mfm37]

Disconnect the system's two wires from your track. Power it up as usual and see if it comes up OK with no gibberish in the display.  If it powers up OK, look for a short in your wiring somewhere. If not, Call MRC service for next step.

 

Martin Myers

[shagspastic]

I went to try some of the things that you guys suggested this morning. turned on the system and it worked fine. what the heck ?  I'm gonna try to figure out what caused it and see if it happens again. thanks for the help.

[locoi1sa]

Were you by chance soldering feeders or other wiring while the system was powered up?

  Pete

[rockislandnut]

DigitalGriffin

 

BTW: These are pricey in my humble opinion, but they are a really great tool in tracking down these kind of issues (if it's not something as simple as a short)  It will tell you if you are getting a valid DCC signal and at what voltage

http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/rrampmeter.htm

 

 

 

Yeah Tony's rrampmeters are pricey all right. I've had one for about four years now. Haven't had to use it much but when I did I was very thankful for the way it worked.

[Capt. Grimek]

Just something to add to the mix... I couldn't fire up layout last night. (no track power). I had a short indicated on my PSX board, but couldn't find it for quite a while. Turned out to be a section of track at the very end of the (point to point) main line that wasn't "physically" attatched to the turn out preceding it.

I had forgotten that it WAS physically attatched beneath the disconnected track via feeders! Duh.

Just in case you have a similar situation from repairs or track replacement. In my case I'd had to replace the preceding turn out but hadn't slid the turn out onto the track following it, yet.

[CPbuff]

Welcome to the world of MRC. MRC will shutdown if it see's a major short to protect itself. Like a metal tool left across the rails.

Another fun thing with MRC as I am sure you will find out!  If you use Universal or Old Style Consisting you can't run any other loco's until you clear the old consist... Also if you push and hold the delete button for  2 seconds to delete the lead loco of an old consist MRC deletes what you used to run the lead loco all the while MRC remembers the Old consist. So if you try to use or go to any other loco you still can get them to operate until you ensure you do a Consist Old Clear . Just remeber when consisting in any mode it takes two steps to get it too work and it takes two steps to get rid of it!

I also had trouble when I went to install a new decoder in a Loco I had been using for a couple of years (removing the older one) and when I went to get MRC to run the new decoder it wouldn't because I had forgot to Clear the consist number from previous useage. Luckily I say consistant with my Advanced loco numbers and remembered what the old number was, cleared it and the new decoder started to work...

Most of this stuff is in the manual if you read between the lines and use  a lot of trial and error. MRC does work well when you remember all the little things its trying to tell you.

[jeffrey-wimberly]

Boy! And people gripe about Digitrax being tricky.