Thank you. I did not intend to to anything to this loco, just use it for a test device. As I develop new features to the DCC++ code, I want to quickly test it on a loco by making it make sounds and light the light. So I put it on the track, loaded JMRI, selected one of the sound decoders under the MRC tree list, told it to use DCC++, and created a throttle. Then I just pressed sound and light buttons on the throttle that came up. It added a lot of buttons over the default throttle. So I literally just pushed buttons for 5 minutes. On the second page, when I pressed the horn and bell buttons, it cycled through all the different bell sounds. This was on an ops track, not a prog track. I turned everything off and on again when the light stopped working. Only after messing with it for another 30 minutes did I switch the wires to make it a programming track and look at the CV values.
There I could see what CV changed when I turned the light on and off. So I tried to set it default (just on/off) mode. Nothing. I tried 2 of the other modes. Once I learned more about the settings from the table that came with the train, I reset it to factory. It mentions "resets MOST settings to factory settings", so I just looked in there now and read out all the light settings. The did indeed reset to default values. There is dim light value, mode (solid/flashing, etc.) and brighness level. I turned brightness from 100 (which was bright to see before but realistic) up to 180 (max 255) and still nothing. I'll take it apart and try the led test to see if it is sending power out the board and if so, if it is making it out to the leds
FlightRiskRR_MelI would suggest checking the light first to see if it works. If you have a multimeter check to make sure there is voltage between the blue (+) and white (-) wires from the decoder with the light on. I'm not sure how to do that. Do you clip power wires to the wheels? I don't want to scratch them.
No that's not they're talking about. You'll need to take the body off the chassis and try touching the leads from an LED or lightbulb to the leads going to the (I assume) LED in the engine. If your LED lights but the one in the engine doesn't, then there's something wrong with the LEDs in the engine. The fact that the light worked before and now doesn't makes me believe you may have changed a CV that is causing it. For examples, decoders have a range you can set of how much power goes to the headlight to adjust the brightness...so maybe for LEDs you set it at 3-4-5, for a light bulb, maybe 25-30. If you accidently set it too high, you might have fried the LED. If you set it down to 0 or 1, it may not be getting enough power to light up.
You might have been better off to just run the engine for a while before starting to do a lot of adjustments to the CVs. The defaults on a decoder will allow you to run the engine just fine.
Must be my shaky hands. This loco is very heavy for its size. The body is all metal. I was lightly touching it when it was on the track and would cause it to cut out for a second. I'll try with the cover off, my head magnifier and test leads and see what I can do.
If it's that touchy, your track or the wheels are very dirty. Or the pickups are barely touching the wheels. Even with the relatively light weight of N scale locos, with 8 wheel pickup you shouldn't have issues with track pickup.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Yes, I though about the voltage, though especially without running the motor, the 9V should work. It worked until it stopped. I tried 12V now too, just to see if that would make a difference, but still nothing on the light. When I talked about it "cutting out", i mean that if it is just loosely sitting on the tracks, so if I were to try and touch it with meter leads, it moves it just enough that it loses power to the rails. It so tiny I don't think I can clip leads to it so I don't have to touch it. Maybe laying it on its side and clipping something to the wheels that won't scratch it will work. The only other thing I can think of before returning is is to try someone elses controller. But again, I can monitor the packets being sent and see that all the other functions work, so it seems like either wiring, led, or somehow one channel of the decoder went bad. Thank you for all your tips. By monitoring packets I mean using an anlyzer to to look at the 1's and 0's and decode them.
EDIT: with the sound going at a loud volume, I pull about 68mA. No engine, no light. When programming, the decoder also sends a 60mA pulse as an acknowledgement so for that short period, the current jumps.
It's possible that with only 9V to the motor shield, you don't have enough track voltage to run the LED properly - and that could also be why the sound keeps cutting out. You really need at least 12V to the rails, which means feeding the motor shield for the DCC++ with more than 12V, because there are losses in the driver itself, at least 2 diode drops worth, more than 1V. So your track voltage with a 9V power supply is less than 8V right now.
well, there is several reasons a light doesn't work ..
the light itself, the wires, and then the decoder ...
first of all, do you have power off the decoder to the light , you might have to do a master reset on the decoder as well ..
RR_MelI would suggest checking the light first to see if it works. If you have a multimeter check to make sure there is voltage between the blue (+) and white (-) wires from the decoder with the light on.
I'm not sure how to do that. Do you clip power wires to the wheels? I don't want to scratch them. Pretty much any touch to the train while it is on the tracks and I hear the sound cuts out and it reboots. I guess no keep-alive on these things. Doesn't look like any room to add it.
Is the decoder new, it could be covered under warranty. Did you install the decoder? Is the light incandescent or LED?
I was playing with one of these: Model Power 89441 N Pennsylvania EMD FP7A Phase II Diesel Locomotive Sound/DCC locos. I know it's cheap, but nice metal body. I got it to test writing new DCC++ software. So mostly I ring the bell and light the light. I took it out of the box and was using JMRI to test all the sounds and the light. I ran through all the sounds many times and hit the asteris to go to page 2 of my throttle and as I was playing with sounds there, I noticed the light was out. I can't turn it back on. I tried using the "reset" function of JMRI and it reset, but no go. I then used a terminal emulator to type commands directly into JMRI and reset the engine 2 more times. Everything works but the light. I guess this is a case of another bad MRC decoder? I didn't drop the loco or handle it but for literally a few minutes. I am only powering a small piece of test track with 9V to the motor board.