Ok guys here we go again,bought a bachmann 4-4-0 with dcc and sound the other day. When it arrived I put it on my main line and powered up my digitrax dcs 51 then I gave it the juice. The sounds responded perfect but it wont move, I called the store I bought it from & they said send it back,so I did. They called me a few days later & told me the engine worked fine on their test track. They charged me 15 bucks & sent it back to me. I tried to change the address but it wouldnt. I tried the cv 8 to 8 trick,that didnt work,I reset the dcs 51 with no change,I then tried to reprogram another engine with no problems. My question is this , is it the dcs51 playing tricks or is it the 440 engine giving me heartburn?
I suspect your 4-4-0 has the factory installed Tsunami decoder. These can be hard to program on the program track. Here is a trick you can do with your DCS51...
Take ALL of your engines off of the main track, except that 4-4-0.
Change CV7 on your DCS51 to 'C' (this is Blast Mode Programming).
Set the address to what you want on the 4-4-0.
Change CV7 on your DCS51 back to 'T'
What this did was to send 'programming' commands to the Main that normally would have gone to only the Program Track. If you would have left other engines on the Main, they would have been programmed as well! Why this works is because there is full power on the Main as opposed to the limited power on the Program Track. If you have JMRI, you can change this with <Loconet><Configure Cmd Station>, then click on the radio button for CV7 and 'Write' the change to the DCS51.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Thanks Jim , Im off to the train room to try it,stay tuned.
Jim, I tried what you said, no luck, any other suggestions
I think Jim meant OpSw 7. Setting OpSw 7 will activate blast mode on the Zephyr.
Joe
Thanks
If anybody is wondering, I found the problem. It seems the wire connector that goes between the tender & the engine was falling out of the connector,I had to shim it in place for a tighter fix & it works fine. The thing was much less than a sixteenth of an inch and you couldnt tell it wasnt in all the way, Thanks to all.
I have that loco and some other Bachmann steamers. Properly seated they will not fall out. If brand new, must be during assembly.
A few have broken the wires trying by pulling on the wires to disconnect the loco and tender.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Rich, I also have quite a few steamers by Bachmann, this particular one was so sensitive you could just wiggle the engine and it would fall out , must have been a defect. Rather than spend any more money on postage to send it back to Bachmann I guess ill keep using the shim (a piece of scotch tape) .
I bought a new set from Bachmann about five years ago but because I cut the wires too short when hardwiring a 750. The shim is probably the best solution. Remember, "what is best" in some forums?
I have had the same problem. I purchased another tender chasis and it would not work either. I have a second 4-4-0 and I switched the tenders and guess what - the new engine worked fine with the second tender and the second engine did not work with the tender that had the problem. The tender chasis is now back at Bachmann.