If anyone is still following this thread,I hooked up a dc transformer to this engine & it worked , it just wont work with the dcc! Any ideas?
the old train man If anyone is still following this thread,I hooked up a dc transformer to this engine & it worked , it just wont work with the dcc! Any ideas?
Alton Junction
Rich,I contacted BLI , they told me to send the engine to them,I did so & they installed a new decoder,it came back to me with the same old problem,I called them & told them the situation & they told me to send it back to them,I did & they called me & said my engine worked fine when they tested it, they then informed me that they would send me a refurbished engine for $35.00. I have already paid them to repair this engine & paid shipping twice to them so Im into about $260.00 for this engine so I told them no thanks just send the back to me. It is sitting on the shelf but Im going to a train show sat. maybe someone will buy this engine for parts .Thanks for the help.
This is all very strange. I had no issues with a Zephyr and many early BLI locos with QSI - starting with the GG1. I currently have an Atlas Trainmaster with QSI. No issues with that one either. It's very odd that other DCC locos are fine, which would tend to mean the Zephyr is OK. And equally odd that this loco works fine on BLI's test track but not this Zephyr. The whole idea that the address doesn't stick is the biggest issue, the only real way that could happen is if the decoder were in fact stuck in perpetual reset. If the programming wasn't taking, then it would never assume the new address. ANd once the decoder is programmed, the only way the address would get changed is if another one were programmed to it, OR the decoder reset. And regardless of all that - it should work on address 3, if it has been reset. Having had the decoder repalced once, it's not very likely that the decoder is bad, either.
Have you tried the most basic of test setups, a couple pieces of track hooked to the Zephyr track outputs, NOT part of the layout? Or even just a pair of wires, with the loco upside down in a cradle, touchign the wires to the wheels? (Though that makes it a little hard to then also advance the throttle and press function buttons)
--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 have the same degree of skepticism on this as does Randy.
I will stand by my earlier offer that if the old train man wants to pay the postage and hold me harmless, ship the loco to me and I will run it on my DC test track and my DCC test track. I think that the problem is fixable without going back to BLI.
Rich
Hey guys Im not believin this,I hooked up just the pack to the engine as suggested & it works. So whats going on?
the old train man Hey guys Im not believin this,I hooked up just the pack to the engine as suggested & it works. So whats going on?
Try that again.
I hooked up just the digitrax dcc unit to the train wheels & it works that way but not on the layout track. What gives?
the old train man I hooked up just the digitrax dcc unit to the train wheels & it works that way but not on the layout track. What gives?
Wait, so by just providing track power to the wheels with the loco on the bench, it works fine, and even remembers the address when you take away the wires and put them back again?
The only thing I can think of, is that there are some reports of QSI decoders getting scrambled by less than ideal DCC signals on the track. This is usually on larger layouts where the far end is open so you get a reflected signal off the open end causing an interference with the original signal coming from the booster, and most commonly with systems other than Digitrax. And yes, many times, other decoders work just fine. However, this does not exactly fit the symptoms - the problem in these cases is usually that the QSI locos just stop responding completely WHILE powered, not that they effectively reset when take off the rails or the track power is removed.
If it works properly touching wires to the wheels - next step would be to get a few track sections and make a short test track and try it on that. If it works on that (just don't run it off the end to crash on the floor!), then there has to be some really odd wiring issue witht he layout. If it doesn;t work on a short test track, there is probably some sort of short in the loco that occurs when the weight of the loco presses down on the wheels, or maybe a binding in the gears or a contact issue of some sort.
Randy I will try setting up a test track,thanks.
I always operate with a sense of urgency when it comes to solving problems. If I can't solve the problem myself, I turn to the forum for help. As soon as I get some advice or suggestions, I am down at the layout or sitting at the work bench working on that suggestion or advice.
Now, I realize that we all have other priorities in our busy lives, but this problem first surfaced on the forum on October 11th. In this case, it could be the loco. It could be the decoder. Or, it simply could be operator error in programming the decoder. The fact that BLI has tested the loco and the decoder and returned it in good working order leads me to believe that there is nothing wrong with the loco or the decoder although, admittedly, I could be wrong.
Why not devote one day this weekend to a more intensive analysis of the problem? Let's all reply back and forth as you test our suggestions and report back to us. Let's put this issue to rest.
P.S. There are nearly 2,800 views of this thread, so there is a lot of interest in finding out the source of the problem. That is an extraordinary number of views for a single thread.
I appreciate all the help & time being spent on this problem , maybe its my wiring on the layout, I remember having to run extra wires to parts of the track because of peco switches were shorting out some sections & I would lose power in those sections so I jumped wires to provide power, maybe this is the problem.
Well, I'll contribute my thoughts.....probably fairly obvious now.
It sounds like the entire problem was with the layout not supplying a consistently strong DCC signal. I assume the proper course now would be finding help to troubleshoot the layout wiring and not so much the locomotive itself.
- Douglas
This has been going on long enough where a snarky, unhelpful comment might be useful.
Maybe it hisses because the Engine just doesn't like you?
I'll just go now...