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HELP! Problems with NCE Procab

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  • Member since
    July 2006
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Posted by locoi1sa on Monday, February 4, 2013 6:37 PM

Rich.

 I have some decoders that will not give up the consist address until I clear it using CV19=0 on the main. One is a Soundtrax LC and the other one is an NCE DASR. Every time they are consisted using advanced consisting on any layout just killing the consist will not clear CV19 on these 2 decoders. I also have a few of the old TCS decoders that had a consisting issue with direction. If you set the consist in forward the loco would be in reverse until you cycled the power then it would be in the forward direction.

   So what I am saying is there can be glitches in the decoders software or some sort of corrupted programing that gives you some odd results. Looking at the big picture it is amazing that we have so few issues when we have such lousy contacts between wheel and rail, shorts, and thousands of command signals transmitted through all this.

         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!

  • Member since
    February 2008
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Posted by maxman on Monday, February 4, 2013 8:57 PM

richhotrain

maxman, I went down and tried to kill a consist.

Here is what I did and what happened as a result.

I had an advanced consist number 70 with lead loco number 9015 and rear loco number 9016.

I pressed the sequence of buttons to Kill Consist and keyed in 70 in response to the request for the consist number. 

As a result, I could independently operate loco number 9016, but loco number 9015 would not respond to forward or backward movement requests.  However, the lights and sound worked on loco number 9015.  To get loco number 9015 operating, I had to press the sequence of buttons to Delete a Loco and key in 9015.  That got loco number 9015 moving.

So, something must be wrong somewhere.

Rich

Rich:

I'm not sure anything is "wrong".  As loco1sa said, some decoders seem to have a mind of their own.  I have had the same problem you described, but not with an NCE decoder nor with the Tsunami-equipped engines that I ran at the club.  I think the locos I had a problem with had a QSI decoder.  I have some other locos that have Atlas dual-mode decoders in them, and I don't remember a problem there.  If I have a chance I'll go down the basement and mix and match some of them to see what happens.

Because I've had that problem is the reason I always check to see if the units will run independently after I've killed a consist.

I am curious about that deleting loco thing you did.  I know that you can delete a loco from a consist, but if you deleted the consist first where else did you find that loco listed so that you could delete it?

When I do get a loco that won't respond after I've killed a consist, I select program on the main, enter the problem loco's number, select program CV, select Cv19, and set that value to zero.

EDIT::  one other thing occurs to me.  When you had 9015 selected on your hand set  was the address 9015, or *9015?  If it was *9015, that was the consist address so the loco would not run because the command station would no longer remember that consist.  So I can see how your delete loco procedure would work if you were deleting *9015 and re-entering 9015.

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
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Posted by richhotrain on Monday, February 4, 2013 9:10 PM

maxman, I will have to look at that issue to see if the address showed up as *9015.  Without checking, I assume that it was 9015.

In any event, that is why I mentioned earlier that before I kill a consist, I delete the rear (and any mid) locos, then with only the lead loco left in the consist, I Kill the Consist.  That way, everything works fine in terms of individual loco performance.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    February 2008
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Posted by maxman on Monday, February 4, 2013 9:24 PM

richhotrain

maxman, I will have to look at that issue to see if the address showed up as *9015.  Without checking, I assume that it was 9015.

In any event, that is why I mentioned earlier that before I kill a consist, I delete the rear (and any mid) locos, then with only the lead loco left in the consist, I Kill the Consist.  That way, everything works fine in terms of individual loco performance.

Rich

 
Rich:
 
Yes, but In this particular case I believe you said that 9016 was the leading unit and 9015 was the trailing unit.  So when you killed the consist the trailing unit was okay but the lead unit was the problem.
 
Do you happen to know which decoders you have in these engines?
 
And I'm still curious as what, or where, you deleted 9015 from to get it to run after you killed the consist.
 
Inquiring minds, you know!!
  • Member since
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  • From: Dearborn Station
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Posted by richhotrain on Monday, February 4, 2013 9:31 PM

maxman, 9015 was the lead loco and 9016 was the rear loco, as I mentioned earlier.

Let me run back down and repeat the process, so i can see whether the throttle shows 9015 or *9015.

The lead loco, 9015, is an Intermountain with factory installed sound, a Soundtraxx.

The rear loco, 9016, is also an Intertmountain without sound, DCC Ready.  I installed the decoder and I will check to see which decoder it was.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
  • 24,281 posts
Posted by richhotrain on Monday, February 4, 2013 9:46 PM

maxman,

I did the same identical procedure to Kill the Consist.

There was no * before the 9015.

The decoder that I installed in the 9016 was a Digitrax DZ143PS.

Rich

Alton Junction

  • Member since
    February 2008
  • 8,879 posts
Posted by maxman on Monday, February 4, 2013 9:56 PM

richhotrain

I did the same identical procedure to Kill the Consist.

There was no * before the 9015.

The decoder that I installed in the 9016 was a Digitrax DZ143PS.

Rich:  That being the case I'm afraid that I am out of ideas.  So I'll have to resort to the comment that used to be made when I worked at power plants and things turned south:  "you'll have this at these small nuclear power stations".

Again, I'm still curious how you managed to delete a loco after you deleted the consist.

  • Member since
    September 2004
  • From: Dearborn Station
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Posted by richhotrain on Monday, February 4, 2013 10:05 PM

maxman

richhotrain

I did the same identical procedure to Kill the Consist.

There was no * before the 9015.

The decoder that I installed in the 9016 was a Digitrax DZ143PS.

Rich:  That being the case I'm afraid that I am out of ideas.  So I'll have to resort to the comment that used to be made when I worked at power plants and things turned south:  "you'll have this at these small nuclear power stations".

Again, I'm still curious how you managed to delete a loco after you deleted the consist.

After I killed the consist, the former rear loco, 9016, could be moved but the former lead loco, 9015, could not be moved.  So, i pressed the delete button and when asked which loco, I keyed in 9015.  Then, I pressed the select loco button and keyed in 9015, and that got the 9015 moving once again.

None of this bothers me because I simply delete the rear loco from the consist before killing the consist, and then all is well.  Both individual locos perform just fine.

Rich

Alton Junction

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