I have a Life Like PK2 GP-20 with a QSI sound and power decoder in it. It is out of warranty.It had been working on my home layout for over a year. Then I decided to take it to or club to run at open house. As it sat on a siding waiting to go out, there were several overloads and shorts on the layout due to the large number of sound locomotives, new users with the Digitrax DT400 throttles that didn't know how to use them properly, and lots of other shrots due to running of improperly set switches. When it was my turn to run, the loco wouldn't move. The sound and lights were OK. I was told that the QSI decoders often loose there settings and must be reset and started from the beginning. (Well, to me, that is no way for a high quality piece of electronic equipment to work.)So I took it home and performed a hard reset with the magnet after trying a decoder reset (with the CV) and it still not working. It ran for a while after the magnet reset, then went back to sounds only but not moving/running. I tried resetting it again and no luck. I tried a CV decoder reset and a hard reset with the magnet several times but no luck. I am at my wits end and ready to just give up.As a last ditch effort, I am either going to replace the QSI with a Tsunami decoder or try to fit in a motor only decoder in parallel with the QSI after disconnecting the QSI motor wires.At this point I am willing to try ANYTHING to get the loco working again before I replace it. Please assume that I don't know what I am doing, and/or have done the wrong things, or used the wrong CV to reset the decoder.Any and all suggestions are welcome.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
Take a look at the reset procedures on Tony's Trains web site.
There are some specific procedures for resetting QSI decoders in Life Like engines.
Act as if there is no wand and try the other procedure as follows. Open the engine or access hatch and find the reset jumper. Remove the jumper and restore the track power. There will be an audible acknowledgment from the engine at the end of the reset sequence (usually 3 toots of the whistle/horn). Replace the jumper and test out using address 3.
http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/dec_rescue.htm
Alton Junction
If it is one that uses the magnetic wand, take the shell off so you cna see the reed switch and exactly where you need to palce the magnet. It's VERY picky. And follow the instructions carefully, you have to remove power. Rumor also has it that the wand reset ONLY works with DC power, not on DCC track.
Are you SURE you are not using F9 to shut it down? Sounds working and the motor sound accelerating when you turn up the throttle but the loco not moving is a sign that the decoder is in the 'disconnect' mode which does exactly what your desciption sounds like - all sound work, and the motor revs up as expected, but it never moves
I think a clean proper reset is in order, since it seems liek so far you have not been succesful in getting it to truly reset. A good clue is the address - if it didn;t revert to 3, it definitely was not reset.
--Randy
.
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
QSI decoders are notorious for being finicky. I have had mine go dead when running into a turnout set the wrong way. There was a time when I would panic, thinking that I had fried the decoder. Only a hard reset and reprogramming the long address would get it going again.
Rich
Elmer,
Did you change these CVs when resetting your QSI decoder?
After performing the above, I found that I sometimes had to turn off then turn on track power before the reset would take.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I just went threw the same thing in a version 6 decoder. According to the book and online manual the reset procedure was CV49=4, CV50=255 and CV56=113. Didn't work. Went to another manual and tried CV49=128, CV50=255 and CV56=113 and I got the 3 toots. This must be done on the mainline in ops mode programming.
It drives me crazy sometimes when other guys in the club that are supposed to pay attention to the job at hand and keeps shorting the layout. It can get frustrating when the decoders get scrambled and lose programming. If you can park your loco on an isolated section of track it would solve a bunch of problems. Also look into separating districts into isolated blocks with short protection. I was never a proponent of the 1156 bulb trick but my personal observations have been that they seem to cushion the short and minimizes decoder scrambling.
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!
Hi All,
Thanks for the quick response and things to try. I will copy and print them out to try tomorrow and let you all know with another post on this thread how it went.
On one note, when I did the magnet reset, the address did revert back to 03.
I didn't notice a reset jumper on the decoder when I had the shell off, but I will certainly look for it now.
Thanks again everyone.
If the decoder reset back to 3 you should be ok. Before trying the CV reset hit F6 a few times. It might be in shutdown mode.
Springfield PA
I have tried the F6 start up several times with no luck.
Also, after the magnet reset, I tried to run it on a section of track with DC. Got the sounds but no movement.
Next step is to try all the suggestions above tomorrow.
Thanks, Elmer.
I also had a problem like that with a QSI decoder. The engine shorted running over an Atlas 30-degree crossing, and went into some odd shutdown mode. I fixed the root cause shorting problem by replacing the crossing with a Walthers. I guess there was a quality control problem there.
I could not reset this decoder at all. The CV tricks and the wand did not work, either. Eventually, I went to my LHS. He has a programmer unit for QSI decoders. It took 3 or 4 tries, but he was able to eventually rouse it from its slumber. It's been running fine ever since.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Hi Everyone,Well it's Monday afternoon, and after spending the morning working with the GP-20, the locomotive is now working.Prior to starting with it, it had been off the track for about three weeks with no power.So I started by trying to do a magnetic reset, which I could not get right, even with the shell off and looking right at the reed switch. Next, I went over all the steps that you all sent to me and did each one in turn. Some of the reset CV's were different from each other, but I tried them all anyway. Then I went into the brief manual that came with the loco and tried those reset values (which were the same as one set that was suggested).Finally it started moving, and I can't really pinpoint any ONE thing that I did to get it working. So when it started moving, I just let it run for 15 minutes or so to get it warmed up and settled down. After that, I opened up Decoder Pro and started putting my original programmed setting back in a few at a time. I had a little trouble getting the headlights set up, but when I turned the track power off and then back on after a minute or two, they came back correctly.
Thank You All for your procedures, links, and advice.
This is now one loco that will never see the club layout again.
I am surprised that you did not locate and try the reset jumper.
That is a "hard" reset that works every time.
Anyway, glad you got that sucker running.
Yup, I believe the jumper is the re-set, not the wand. Wand is just for volume...I know that's what it does on the "sound" stockcar from BLI.
richhotrain Elmer, I am surprised that you did not locate and try the reset jumper. That is a "hard" reset that works every time. Anyway, glad you got that sucker running. Rich
Hi Rich,
The older QSI decoders have a reset jumper and a small pot that controls the volume. On the newer ones, there is no reset jumper or pot, just the reed switch.
I did look for the jumper, but also found the above info from QSI about the jumper versus the reed switch. The reed switch can be used as the reset and the volume control depending on how the magnet is used in conjunction with track power being on or off. The QSI manual I downloaded didn't mention any decoders that had both.
I had previously been able to do a hard reset with the magnet.
The reed switch on the current Atlas loco's is for reset.
Here's the link for the procedure when using the wand. You're supposed to use DC voltage when you do it. If you try on DCC you might get it to reset on occassion but you'll need patience.
Randy gave a heads up on the DC power with reset earlier.
http://www.atlasrr.com/DCC/Procedure%20for%20Resetting%20using%20the%20Magnetic%20Wand.pdf
Same thing hapened to me. I did the remove and replace the reset jumper thin. It worked.
Tom, I have had similar problem with P2K w/ QSI's -- but I think you meant CV49 = 128 vs. 138.