May be majorly jinxed. Final got all major scenery done, cleaned all the track and was breaking out two new locos. Bought a Broadway Limited EMD SW-7 in August 2021 and after about an hour of use the horn came on by itself and could not be turned off and I could not control the loco. Had to unplug the DT500 throttle to get it to stop. It did it twice in a short period. Then the sound cut out until I toggled it on and off. So discouraged, I put the SW back in box and opened a brand new Atlas Gold series GP-38 I bought at a local hobby shop in September 2021. The shop ran it when I bought it and it was not run since. I placed it on the track and even before powering it up the speaker was making a constant chirping, crackling noise. When I powered it up the loco sound was working but the chirping continued. Seemed to run fine but did not run long since the idea of moving cars to the layout was squashed. Is this common? I am running a Digitrax starter set and prior to doing the scenery all tracks worked fine with another BWL engine I have. I put a new battery in the DT500 but nothing changed. I guess I am boxing up two locos and hope to see them back before I am raking leaves. So disappointing.
WPA,
My guess is that "cleaned all the track" is the operative word here.
You stated that "prior to scenery all tracks worked fine with another BWL engine I have". Did you try that locomotive also after cleaning your tracks? If that has the same issues as your SW7 & GP38 then something happened (most likely creating a short) when you were cleaning.
A few questions for you...
It's also possible that some scenery is the culprit. How long ago was it between "prior to scenery" and cleaning your track?
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Wondering that as well. Vacuumed everything, track eraser, then IPA. Was not too long ago everything was cleaned. I used some scenic express soil ballast in some spots and wondered if some freak short was occurring with something in the soil. A stretch but all seems odd. I only ballasted the yard (6 tracks) and one siding, the rest of the scenery work was removed from the tracks and all other tracks are not ballasted yet. I am using a DT PM-42 quad power manager and nothing is tripping. Now that I mentioned it will try locos in different block circuit. I will dig a little deeper into it today. Does seem like a signal issue but could be just bad luck on the locos. Thanks.
You may have been playing with different locos, several of them, over the past few months while you have been completing stretches of track. Your slots might be full, or you have the same loco on another throttle and it wasn't dispatched...not sure. You need to either dispatch all old engine numbers or just do a clean sweep, spring cleaning, and zero your Ops Sw function. You'll have to get into your manual for the DB150 and go through all the steps it takes, five or six of them, but in the end you'll have a reset system ready for you to add decoder addresses.
Have you determined whether the sound is actually coming from the locomotive's speakers, or could something have been picked up by the engine so that the chirping is not caused by the DCC system but rather by the moving parts of the power train? Does the chirping continue when the locomotive is not moving?
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
With the loco sitting on the track but not selected and not moving it sounds like speaker crackle that is caused by a loose connection.
WPA With the loco sitting on the track but not selected and not moving it sounds like speaker crackle that is caused by a loose connection.
Does the noise go away if you mute the sound on that engine? Can you command the engine to execute its shutdown procedure?
I did the loco reset on the booster. That fixed the chirping. It chrips a few times after sound turns off then stops and does not chirp with sound on. I think the chirp is a normal engine noise that was over riding the loco sound before I reset the booster. I can power of with f9 and I just powered back on with no sound and ran it, no chirping. Last night it was chirping with the sound off. I will keep an eye on the SW horn but hope clearing helps with that as well. I would not have known to clear the booster....thanks. So much to DCC and little quirks to get familiar with. At least I have some time on the warranty if something is funky.
Not fixed. I tried the cab communication F15 key and no voices, just chirping so the sounds I heard were Loksound voices at start up and shut down that are not working correctly. When I shut F15 off it stops. At least I know not the layout but still stinks. Now on to the SW.
WPAthe sounds I heard were Loksound voices at start up and shut down
I have quite a few locos with various Loksound decoders. I'm not sure what voices you are hearing at startup/shutdown?
Loksound seems to favor the "spitters on at shutdown" as they reason the air reservoirs would still be charged even with the prime movers not turning. This has thrown some users for a loop thinking it is a defect when ESU believes it is a feature.
I believe having F16 "on" disables this sound. YMMV
Good Luck, Ed
I thought that as well as far as the air popping sound but was not sure so that helps on that noise but no cab voices on F15, just chirping....and I just saw there are no cab voices in that slot per the 2019 ESU quick guide so I am the dummy. Got used to the BWL voices. But I still think resetting the booster helped.