I have a Santa Fe Blueline F7 A unit with a Digitrax decoder that has been running fine up to now. It would not move on either addresses on my layout so I took it to the bench to see what was wrong. I use digitrax on my layout as I like the dt402 throttle but I program at the bench with an NCE Powercab. I have found its much quicker and easier to porgram with the Powercab. After I reset the decoders and reprogrammed the addresses everything reponds and works great on the NCE test bench track. But I cannot no matter what I try to get it to respond on the layout with the DT402 running through my Zephyr at all. It just sits there with the lights on. No sound and no movement.
To check my sanity I put another loco on the track and everything is normal with the track and Digitrax system. When I take it back to the NCE test track everything on it runs normally with the right address.
So there is the problem, the F7 does not like the Digitrax system anymore. Does anyone else see how nuts this is? What am I missing?
Thanks
SB
I also own a Dt402 and a Power Cab but me I much prefer programming with the Digitrax throttle for the exact same reasons as you do.
Did you read the CV19 it should be zero? Is the address you programmed lower than 128 and did you add a leading zero?. What is the value of CV29?
Jack W.
What address did you give it? If you gave it a long address between 1-127 (allowed by NCE), it cannot be run on Digitrax.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker What address did you give it? If you gave it a long address between 1-127 (allowed by NCE), it cannot be run on Digitrax. --Randy
Rich
Alton Junction
Thanks for the reply's guy's.
Here is where I am. I programmed it to 1138 and now it runs well on the 402 but no sound. When I address it with 03 I get sound but no movement. CV29 is at 38 and CV19 is at 0. I think I remember someone else having this issue in th past but I can't remember the solution.
I have an NCE PH-Pro system, so I don't know if this will work for you.
But, to restore headlights and sound, here's what I did. Using my NCE Pro Cab, I Programmed on the Main in the Ops Mode.
First, referencing the long address (381 in my case), I reset the decoder to factory default (CV8=8). The loco lurched.
Then I activated the short address (003). That got the sound going and the headlights working.
Then, I activated the long address (381). At that point, I got everything working on both the motor decoder and the sound decoder.
Hope that helps.
Well, the state you are in right now, the loco motor decoder has one address, and the Blueline sound decoder has a different address.
One way I can see that would definitely fix this is to use Ops Mode programming to address 3 (the Blueline decoder - make sure no other locos with address 3 are on the tracks) and use a CV17/18 calculator to set CV17 and 18 to the approriate values to match the long address that is in the motor decoder. Then set CV29, still using Ops Mode, to activate the long address. The sounds should stop responding at this point - now select the long address and both sound and motor should work.
A CV17/18 calculator can be found here: http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/cv29%20calculator.htm Scroll down and put in the address you want and it will tell you what CV17 and 18 should be. The top half is a CV29 calculator - in this case though, the value of CV29 for the Blueline decoder should be the same as the value of CV29 you have in the motor decoder.
Randy,
I seem to have hit the right sequence to get both decoders set to 138. I think the biggest problem was that I forgot that digitrax will not let you set a long address under 127. I will bookmark this in case it happens again.
Rich the sequence you suggested put me on the right track. But what really did it was getting the sound to come on at address 03 in ops mode then programming the long address on the programming track. Now seems to function as normal on the NCE Powercab test track and the digitrax layout with the 402. Weird. Ghosts in the machine?
blabride Rich the sequence you suggested put me on the right track. But what really did it was getting the sound to come on at address 03 in ops mode then programming the long address on the programming track. Now seems to function as normal on the NCE Powercab test track and the digitrax layout with the 402. Weird. Ghosts in the machine?
With two decoders, the motor decoder and the sound decoder, it is easy to get out of sync.
At one time, BLI recommended the LOCK feature as the workaround, but that just causes additional problems.
Since the sound decoder is the factory installed decoder, it responds to the short address, but then you need to re-program the long address to get the two decoder back in sync and moving once again.
Your right about the Blueline. Since I run it by itself on a Panhandle Cheif I might just run it as address 3, change out the decoder or sell it. Oddly I have never had any trouble, yet anyway with my blueline 4-8-4 0r Pennsy T1.
blabride Your right about the Blueline. Since I run it by itself on a Panhandle Cheif I might just run it as address 3, change out the decoder or sell it. Oddly I have never had any trouble, yet anyway with my blueline 4-8-4 0r Pennsy T1. Thanks SB
But, if it were me, I wouldn't bother. The Blueline sound is fine, at least to me, on my two Blueline Santa Fe F7s. And my NCE motive decoder operates quite nicely as well.
The Blueline series is weird with the two decoders, but I have learned to live with them and their peculiarities, requiring an occasional reset to factory defaults.
At our club we have learned to never try adding a Blue Line locomotive to an advanced consist -- you will lose the sound and have to go through all the hassle of removing the add-in decoder and reprogramming the Blue Line sound in order to recover.
cacole At our club we have learned to never try adding a Blue Line locomotive to an advanced consist -- you will lose the sound and have to go through all the hassle of removing the add-in decoder and reprogramming the Blue Line sound in order to recover.