I first thought the same as John, as I looked at the Athearn site, and it's "DCC Ready", but the OP says it's shorting out. I don't think that should happen, no matter what the system is.
I can run DC locos on my Digitrax, but I don't, tried it a couple of times, didn't like the way the loco sounds.
Mike.
My You Tube
Some DCC systems can operate a DC loco on address 00 by stretching the 0 bits of the DCC packets, either the positive half or the negative half, to change the track voltage from a net 0 DC to a positive or negative DC.
Digitrax and Lenz are the only ones left that still have this feature. NCE used to, but you had to make a special throttle connected to the serial port of the PH Pro command station.
For anything but a coreless motor, it's fine for a quick test run, but you should never leave a DC loco sitting on the DCC track.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I thought no dcc ready engine is supposed to run at all in dcc? Isn't that the point of dcc ready? It needs a decoder to operate at all.
John
They could be pully a play from Atlas and using capacitors that cause a short on DCC with no decoder. These would be bypassed when a decoder is installed, especially if you use a board repalcement one and remove the factory board.
Try it with a normal DC power pack and see if the same thing happens. If it shorts with a regular DC power pack, THEN there is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Hello all. I recently peuchased an Athearn RTR dcc ready locomotive. I prefer lok sound for my decoders. I noted that while trying to give it a test run on a dcc layout before installing a decoder it will shirt the system, both of them that i bought.
I have yet to buy decoders for them. I always like to make sure they work before doing an install. Guess i coukd try on straight dc....
Anyone know why they wont run on a dcc layout?
Thanks
Troy