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New to DCC - Locomotive Problem

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  • Member since
    August 2011
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Posted by narrow gauge nuclear on Thursday, December 6, 2012 2:45 PM

I have had some strange stuff happen in the past on my DCC setup and have learned to just totally unplug all power to the controller and power pack for a few seconds and then plug it all back in.  Solves about 50% of the problems.  For some reason the various CPUs can just "dummy up" and need a full blown cold start to bring them back to intelligent operation.  If this doesn't fix the problem, only then go and fiddle with CVs.

Richard

Richard

If I can't fix it, I can fix it so it can't be fixed

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  • From: Mount Vernon WA
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Posted by skagitrailbird on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 7:49 PM

Glad to hear you got it working.  Let the fun begin!

Roger Johnson
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Posted by engineAL on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 5:36 PM

So I just fixed my problem. Before setting CV 30 to 2, I read back CV 29, which said 255. After setting CV 30 to 2 and toggling the power, the loco moved on address 03. I then changed the long address to 566 and it worked! CV 29 is now 34. I have no idea what happened, but at least it works!

Modeling the Maine Central in N scale.

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Posted by engineAL on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 5:21 PM

cacole

When you tried to change to the long address, if you didn't follow up with the Set Configuration steps, CV 29 never got set to a value telling the decoder to run on the new, long address.  Program on the main line or programming track, and set CV 29 to a value of 34 and see if it will run on the new, long address.

The headlights were responding, just not the motors, so it had to be running on the long address.

cacole

When you went to set it back to 3, you should not have put a leading zero in the number.  NCE doesn't use leading zeros when programming decoder addresses, so the Power Cab considers 03 as a different address than 3.

I didn't (like above, the headlights were responding, just not the motors).

Modeling the Maine Central in N scale.

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  • From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Posted by cacole on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 4:15 PM

When you tried to change to the long address, if you didn't follow up with the Set Configuration steps, CV 29 never got set to a value telling the decoder to run on the new, long address.  Program on the main line or programming track, and set CV 29 to a value of 34 and see if it will run on the new, long address.

When you went to set it back to 3, you should not have put a leading zero in the number.  NCE doesn't use leading zeros when programming decoder addresses, so the Power Cab considers 03 as a different address than 3.

If all else fails, do a factory default reset (CV 30 = 2 for an NCE decoder) and start over.

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Posted by engineAL on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 1:06 PM

tstage

Sometimes what you need to do after programming a decoder is to break power to the locomotive for the changes to take.  You can either disconnect the Power Cab from the cord or just tilt your locomotive off the track to one side to break the signal.  It should then run fine on the new address after power is restored to the locomotive.

I tried that, but it didn't fix anything.

tstage

Are you programming your locomotive in Programming Track mode?

Yes.

skagitrailbird

According to the Atlas web site the locomotive is equipped with an NCE decoder.  Try doing a decoder re-set as follows:  put a value of 2 in CV 30 to reset any NCE decoder to factory setting.
Of course the address will also be reset to 03 and if you read CV30 thereafter it will be back to 0 automatically.

This should take everything back to factory settings.  Then try re-programming the long address and see what happens.

Thanks for the advice. I will try that when I can get to the layout.

Modeling the Maine Central in N scale.

  • Member since
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  • From: Mount Vernon WA
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Posted by skagitrailbird on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 12:26 PM

Sorry to hear you are having problems right out of the blocks.  Sort of saps the fun, doesn't it?

According to the Atlas web site the locomotive is equipped with an NCE decoder.  Try doing a decoder re-set as follows:  put a value of 2 in CV 30 to reset any NCE decoder to factory setting.
Of course the address will also be reset to 03 and if you read CV30 thereafter it will be back to 0 automatically.

This should take everything back to factory settings.  Then try re-programming the long address and see what happens.  Good luck!

Roger Johnson
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Posted by tstage on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 12:24 PM

WW,

Sometimes what you need to do after programming a decoder is to break power to the locomotive for the changes to take.  You can either disconnect the Power Cab from the cord or just tilt your locomotive off the track to one side to break the signal.  It should then run fine on the new address after power is restored to the locomotive.  I've had this happen a few times when initially programming a locomotive for the first time.

Are you programming your locomotive in Programming Track mode?

Tom

https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling

Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.

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Posted by opaque333 on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 12:16 PM

I am really new to DCC as well so I don't think I can really help with this other than to provide you a link to the PDF version of the NCE PowerCab Manual. So here it is http://www.ncedcc.com/images/stories/manuals/power_cab_manual_v1.28.pdf

Edit: Just re-read your post, looks like you wanted the decoder manual. My first DCC equipped locomotive was from Atlas as well and it came with an NCE decoder. But also there was no documentation for the decoder with mine either.

Allen

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New to DCC - Locomotive Problem
Posted by engineAL on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 12:12 PM

I just bought my first DCC equipped N scale locomotive, this Atlas GP-7, and am using the NCE PowerCab for the first time. When I placed it on my temporary track setup yesterday, it ran smoothly. I decided to change the long address to 566, the number on the locomotive. After following the instructions in my PowerCab manual, the locomotive acknowledged the address change. I can turn the headlight on and off on this new address, as well change the direction of it, but the locomotive won't move. I tried changing the address back to the default short address of 03, but the problem didn't go away. The locomotive does move a little when I change the address, and it also gives a jolt when I first power up the PowerCab, so the motor does work, just not when I change the speed on the throttle. I have never worked with DCC before. Do you have any ideas? I feel as if there is something simple causing the problem, but I have no clue what.

Also, what is the manual for the decoder? It didn't come with one. Thank you!

Tags: DCC , DCC Decoders

Modeling the Maine Central in N scale.

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