No headlight in consist


1

1943Mike

New Member
I started this hobby (I have several others) back in January of this year and all is proceeding well with the exception of several of my locos not having their headlights come on from time to time. More specifically, I model in N scale and have installed a few decoders into Kato, Atlas, and Intermountain locomotives and most of the time they all work fine. However, sometimes the headlights on some of my locomotives won't come on. I use an NCE Power Cab and no matter how many times I press the "Headlight" button when the locos are not displaying the headlight, it won't come on. I have done decoder resets before and sometimes - like today - when I re-programmed the locomotive (Kato F7 A unit) the headlight will work when I press the button but when I put it into a consist (advanced consist) with the B unit the headlight won't come on. The consist runs fine and I've no complaints there but I'm frustrated not being able to figure out why no headlight when I run the F7A and F7B in a consist.

I have a very small layout (3' x 5') in my dining area and am considering building a larger layout in my garage but I'd like to get to know a little more about how to fix/solve the problems I run into like the one I'm asking about on this forum now.

Any help would be appreciated.

Mike
 
Most decoders can be set up so things like headlights are enabled in consist. You may have to dial up the address of the engine you want to do it, though.
 
Thanks Gomez.

I just looked up the Digitrax decoder I'm using in my Kato F7's online and on page 63 it says: "If you want to have F0, F1 and F5 controlled by the advanced consist address, program CV21 to a value of 023 and CV22 to a value of 001."

I suppose I could have read through it before but I had no clue that controlling functions in an advanced consist required specific inputs to certain CV's.

I'll give it a try tomorrow - just too tired tonight.

Thanks again.

Mike
 
1943Mike said:
Thanks Gomez.

I just looked up the Digitrax decoder I'm using in my Kato F7's online and on page 63 it says: "If you want to have F0, F1 and F5 controlled by the advanced consist address, program CV21 to a value of 023 and CV22 to a value of 001."

I suppose I could have read through it before but I had no clue that controlling functions in an advanced consist required specific inputs to certain CV's.

I'll give it a try tomorrow - just too tired tonight.

Thanks again.

Mike
Click to expand...
Tried the consist about 1/2 hour ago. Just like bringing your car to a mechanic with a complaint that he/she can't duplicate, my two locos ran just fine this morning ... headlight control no problem. I wonder if it has to do with my under layout wiring? I'll probably never know. However, having been prompted by Gomez to do some reading about the Digitrax decoders I installed in my Kato F7A's (and B's) I now have something to try the next time the headlight doesn't work in a consist.

Mike
 
I also have a PowerCab and have encountered the same situations that you've described. It usually happens when
locos with decoders of different manufacturers are involved (NCE & Soundtraxx).

Clearing an advanced consist and then setting up an advanced consist did not help.

In the trouble shooting section of the manual: " Locomotive was running yesterday but today it just sits there - The headlight and
other functions are controllable but it won't run. - this sometimes happens when you clear a consist but for some reason the
decoder misses the command. Use the DEL LOCO button to "re-delete" the locomotive. Alternately use the programming on the
main to set CV19 to 0(same thing as clearing the consist)."

For me, using the DEL LOCO did not correct the problem. However, setting CV19 to 0 solved the problem. Since I only
have 3 locos that ever are operated in a consist, I set CV19 to 0 for all locos-one at a time programming on the main.
 
shortwrench said:
I also have a PowerCab and have encountered the same situations that you've described. It usually happens when
locos with decoders of different manufacturers are involved (NCE & Soundtraxx).

Clearing an advanced consist and then setting up an advanced consist did not help.

In the trouble shooting section of the manual: " Locomotive was running yesterday but today it just sits there - The headlight and
other functions are controllable but it won't run. - this sometimes happens when you clear a consist but for some reason the
decoder misses the command. Use the DEL LOCO button to "re-delete" the locomotive. Alternately use the programming on the
main to set CV19 to 0(same thing as clearing the consist)."

For me, using the DEL LOCO did not correct the problem. However, setting CV19 to 0 solved the problem. Since I only
have 3 locos that ever are operated in a consist, I set CV19 to 0 for all locos-one at a time programming on the main.
Click to expand...
Thanks shortwrench.

Next time I run into that problem ... and I'm sure it will happen again ... I'll set CV19 to zero to delete the lead unit in question. Why use the Main though? Why not programming track? I don't suppose it matters, just curious.

Mike
 
I had the same thought regarding programming on the main. My layout is small and it's no big deal to make sure
all the other locos are not on the main when setting CV19. After a couple days of trying to resolve the issue,
I'm glad the problem is fixed and onto bigger things.
 
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