Frustrated with DCC


bigfoot13

Well-Known Member
I went to run trains tonight with my nephew and only one engine would move. The horn and lights would work on 1 engine but it wouldn't move. Another engine without sound or lights wouldn't work either.
Suggestions on how to troubleshoot?
Digitrax system.
Walther's ML-8 worked
Walther's raillink 104 lights and sound only
Throttle dcs52
And dual wireless
Command station dcs240
Jmri on Linux
 
Probably the first thing is to remove one of the command stations from your system. With only 3 locomotives, you only need one, and the second one is going to cause problems.
 
There are actually more engines all of which show the same symptoms. The dcs52 is only used as a throttle. When running only the dcs52 I was having intermittent cutout on the steep hills with my consists when sound was on. The dcs240 seems to have solved that issue.

I'll try only one when I get up
 
Which one is the booster?
How is your track linked to the command station?
Have you done any scenery work on your pike lately?
 
Booster is throttle only. No scenery. Left it working last use. Initially I suspected a short but then realized the lights were working.
 
Have you checked the cables into the back of the DCS52, they sometimes work loose, especially if your carrying it around with you. I've had a similar problem, I just tinned the wires, no problem since.
 
Wondering if it might be related to having played around with JMRI consist tool. As the locos that will not move are part of 2 different consists. I have 5 on the layout. 2 paired consists and the ml-8 switcher.
 
After several loco resets I think I have things working again now. Need to spend some more time on how the long and short addresses work.
 
Originally DCC had 2 digit addresses on basic systems and later higher end systems had 4 digit addresses. One of the reasons I went with NCE is because it was 4 digit addresses right out of the box. As time went on all system made accepted 4 digit addresses. The way I use long and short addresses is that only my engines with 2 digit engine numbers are set to short addresses, then everything else is set to long addresses. That way I don't have to worry about having to enter any leading zeros on any engine numbers, I access any engine by just entering the number painted on the side of the engine.
 



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