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I have just purchased a new Atlas N VO-1000 loco. This is equipped with a decoder pre installed (Lenz I believe). Out of the box it worked fine for a short time as a trial run. Unfortunately I ran it up a branch line point that was set for main line opperation, this resulted in a derailment, it did not light the globes that are in the circutry to guard against shorts.
Since then it will not move either direction.
I can sucessfully run another loco on the same block so the track wiring and NCE equipment is working properly.
I can turn the headlight on and off on the VO-1000 and the headlight illuminates at either end of the loco when the direction it should move in is reversed, so it seems that the decoder is recieveing and decoding the signal correctly.
I thought that something in the electrical supply to the motor may have come apart with the derailment, it was not much of a derailment at low speed, or I may have a stuck brush or similar. To check this I temporarily coupled a 1.5v supply to the motor feed and it runs, so that seems OK as well.
So I am looking for possible solutions to my problem, I am at the point of wondering if somehow I have had a voltage spike that has erased part of the programming of the decoder. I would be pleased to hear from anyone that has had a similar experience in any scale and what steps they took to recover the decoder and indeed if that was the problem.
All help greatfully appreciated.
Check your documentation for how to reset the locomotive back to the factory settings. It sounds like something got a little mixed up in the logic circuit and a reset will usually put things right.
Thanks Jim,
Unfortunately I have two left thumbs and posted the message above before finishing it. The documentation is only an explodes view of the loco and its replacement parts with no reference to the decoder or factory settings.
Check at Atlas's web site or e-mail them. Since the decoder came pre-installed, they should be able to tell you the reset procedure. For some engines, there's a reed switch that's activaed by a round magnet that you place at a certain place on top og the shell. You didn't happen to find a small round magnet in the packing, did you?
Jim,
I have searched the box for a magnet or anything else that I may have missed, without sucess. They do list two part numbers, with/without DCC not that it helps me. I will follow your advice and get in touch with Atlas and ask if they can help with the factory settings, unless I find any relevant info on their website.
Sorry for the reply delays but I am in Australia and completely out of sinc with your day.
Thanks.
Many times a short will cause the decoder to get screwy, so yeah a reset may do the trick. I know several of mine will go dead and forget their address and default to 03.
Check the Atlas website. The decoder manuals are posted and you can print them out. I have two of the manuals printed, but don't think they cover the VO1000. I agree with Rex on resetting the decoder. There is no magnet involved.
Well I think that the decoder is dead. I downloaded the details from Atlas's site and had a look at that, put before using that I tried the recovery method on the program track with ine NCE Power Pro. That made no difference and then I moved onto the main, as Atlas's manual says that this loco is more suited to programming on the main. I tried loading the cv's as detailed in the Atlas manual, all to no avail. Someone away fron this forum said that sometines the way that the decoder boards are clamped in sometimes contact is poor leading to enexpected behavior, I took the board out and soldered two alligator clips onto these supply points and connected the lot to the track after placing a dummy load on the board output. I was unable to get any output voltage even after trying to reprogramme several times. Each time the light LED's were opperational, so I guess that the board is cooked like a Christmas Turkey..
Thanks to those that helped along the way with suggestions.
Man, I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know where you bought the locomotive but they should fix it or give you a new one since it's brand new. I bought a sound equipped GP-7 from Walthers and the sound worked for about 5 days. It would then start acting up and have air let off sounds when you wanted the horn. The P2K sound equippped engines have a reed switch so you can reset the engine with a magnet but I guess that unique to Walthers or maybe QSI, that made the sound card. It would not reset and the sound section of the decoder was obviously fried. Sent it back to Walthers and they put in a brand new sound card which has been working fine for last several weeks.
Try this. Put the engine on the programming track. Select programming track from the NCE menu. Try to change the engine address. If it comes back can't read decoder then either the decoder is bad or the decoder is not getting any electrical power or there's a bad connection to the motor.
If it can read the decoder, then change the address to say 4 or something. Put the engine back on the main see if it works.
