I have a good friend in a nearby city who does all my loco decoder installations. His record is excellent. I purchased a new Spectrum Heavy Mountain before Christmas, and got a Titan decoder from Tony's Train exchange.
This took a lot longer than I had thought due to having to ship back a defective Titan and wait for a new one. My buddy gave me the loco back three weeks ago, and I just got around to trying it out two days ago. He had it working nicely. I powered up the Super Empire Builder, got sound out of it using address 03, and it took an address change, always the first thing I do. It was making sounds, including responding to prompts for whistle and bell. Turned the associated encoder knob, and the loco wouldn't budge. It made cylinder$1****$2opening and hiss sounds, and when I turned the throttle back to zero, it made the neutral pop that QSI's make. I did a reset, and tried it on address 03 again. No movement, but F presses got the bell and whistle to function.
I took it back to my buddy yesterday, he put it on his older Atlas (Lenz-based) system, and away it went. Only a little embarrassed, I returned home and found precisely the same problem as before!!
I have reset the decoder twice, swapped throttles to make sure the one I had been using was not the problem, swapped the two throttles between the two ports on the front of the DB150, and metered the rails in several places, including on the programming track where the 4-8-2 sits. I verified that another nearby loco, an Atlas QSI Trainmaster, moves when the very same encoder is twirled. It does.
Have any of you experienced this mystery before?
Crandell
Crandell,
Since you reset the decoder twice AND the issue doesn't happen on your friend's layout, that would negate the locomotive being in partial shutdown mode.
Did you check to see whether there are any functions activated on your throttle - for example, dynamic braking? On my Power Cab I can glance at all 28 functions simultaneously by pressing the EXPN button:
That's the only thing that comes to mind. That is a weird one though.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Almost sounds like your Digitrax system is in Standby Mode - Track Power on - NO LOCONET Commands
Press the Power + buttons again
If you have a DT40xx then check for the Flashing Power Dot above the F11/12 spot on the screen!
My Digitrax System will sometimes come up in Standby Mode and I have to remember to check the Power Dot on the screen.
Why it does this is unknown!
Hope this helps!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Have you checked the tether plug to the loco? It could be an intermittent connection. It has bitten me more times than I care to recall.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Thanks, Tom. I did glance at the function indications but only to see if I had the usual ones showing and not an 8 for mute. I didn't pay closer attention. Since this is a steamer, I tend to keep functions to whistle and bell, lights, and mute as needed. It doesn't make sense that the same encoder knob would make the Atlas Trainmaster move, but not the Mountain, and yet my friend's system gets it to move. I could see if the voltage were hovering near 5-6 volts only that it would not be enough to run the sound, lights, AND the motor in some cases, even for scale crawling. But the rail voltages all show excellent levels wherever I check them.
Digitrax tech has responded and suggested doing a reset of the DB150 to defaults. Other than that, they have no answers either.
Thanks, all of you. I routinely use the Power +/- to place the system on standby, and I know to go through the motions of that process every time I power up the system. So, thanks for that reminder, and it's a good point a person could easily miss...but it is not the case here.
David, he didn't suggest anything of that nature, but neither did he do anything more than to dial in speed and we both watched the loco move. He didn't alter any CV's or do anthing to take it out of motor isolation. I lifted it directly off the tracks, drove back, placed it on mine, and still get no motion. However, it's work asking him about it.
When you select the loco address, what does the display say below the address selction? You may have inadvertantly status edits the address to use somethig other than 128 speed steps, like maybe marklin/motorola format. The other NMRA DCC formats would make it do wierd things, but still run - ie 14 speed step mode.
Since you reset the decoder, it shouldn't be an addressign problem - Lenz uses 100-127 as a long address, so if it was set to anywhere in that range, you wouldn;t be able to run it with Digitrax at all.
Reset of the DB150 can;t hurt, unless you have lots of consists built. It resets the same way other Digitrax systems do, plug a throttle in the front, put the switch on OPS, call up switch address 39 on the throttle, and hit Throw. Turn off all power, put the switch back in Run, and turn it all back on.
--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 did the reset, and the same thing happened. For some reason, I just kept dialling up voltage on the throttle until I got to 40, at which the loco budged. CV2!!! Why didn't I remember that Spectrum steamers are often tight and in need of a break-in? Why didn't I think to try upping the value in CV2 if the other locos moved on the same system on speed step 01?
AAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!
Hmm, shouldn't need a huge value in CV2 if the BEMF is on - most be off.
Maybe I'm just spoiled by my TCS motor only decoders, they just creep on step 1 with no adjustments, but some BEMF is useful for steam sound both ebcause of the general stiffness of steam locos with all those moving parts plus to keep the chuffs in sync without a cam.
Randy, my installer wasn't so keen to hear of the value I needed in CV either, but on his own 28 step Atlas system, he needed a speed step of about 6 to get it to move. I recall reading a number of posts from members here who found they needed fairly hefty values in CV2 for any number of reasons. My hope is that this beast will be tamed after a couple of hours of run-in and that I can dial back the V-Start. If not, maybe this engine was on the shelf for a few years and it has dry grease?
Crandell.
Is the decoder hard wired in or plugged into the 8 pin socket? Spectrum locos have caps that need to be removed. I have found some on the motor itself. They are part of the FCC program for noise cancellation. There are plenty of links about how the caps interfere with the decoder throttles.
The bottom of this page tells about it and shows it. http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Bachmann/Spectrum%20Baldwin%202-8-0/Bachmman_Spectrum_baldwin_2-8-0.html
Pete, thanks for the tip. I did mention it to my installer months ago when I first gave him the loco, and before he had to return the defective Titan. I asked him to take out all Bachmann's electronics and to use their tether for the link between tender and locomotive. However, if he left it in, it doesn't explain why his own throttle had the loco moving at a lower range of speed step than my DT400 did.
Or maybe it does......
selector ...it doesn't explain why his own throttle had the loco moving at a lower range of speed step than my DT400 did. Or maybe it does...... Crandell
...it doesn't explain why his own throttle had the loco moving at a lower range of speed step than my DT400 did.
There are a few possible reasons for the difference in starting point between his system and yours. You stated your friend uses a 28 step Atlas system. I believe that system displays speed in speed steps, so 0-28 for 28 steps; whereas the DT400 displays speed as a percent, so 0-99%, regardless of the speed step setting. Additionally, if you are running in 28 step mode on the DT400, you don't actually get any throttle until 12%(it has something to do with how Digitrax handles the stop and E-stop 'speed steps'), so that would make the apparent starting speed even higher. Also, any voltage difference between the two systems will also affect what speed step the loco will start on.
Yup, the difference is simply 28 vs 128 speed steps. And differences in track voltage, the Atlas/Lenz Compact tended towards higher than typical track voltage when used with the Atlas power supply sold as being for use with it. Closer to 17V compared to 15V for Digitrax on the HO setting.
I forgot to mention, Randy, that I did verifiy the status on the locomotive on the display on the DT400, and it showed 128.
Robert, yes, and that explains why he had to dial in 6 speed steps on his system before he got the same response. However, it didn't occur to him to comment on it or to pass it on to me. So, I went away thinking that the loco was working for him with a step or two dialled in, but it wouldn't work for me even when I dialled up to 25 once on the DT400. As soon as I decided to dial in 42, away it went...just...