Is replacing my DH123D's with TCS T4X's a good idea?

[Eta power]

Hello,

I've been having some issues with my two Digitrax DH123D-equipped Athearn Ready to Roll SD45T-2's. For quite a while they worked pretty good, but lately everything has gone to hell. Using JMRI through a NCE system, I keep getting "Locomotive Not Detected (301)" errors. Then, suddenly, a friend of mine walks in and one unit starts working, out of the blue. Thanks, Paul! The other unit still won't allow itself to get programmed, though.

At this point in time, I've petty much decided to replace my DH123D's with something else. I'm leaning towards putting in T4X's because they seem to be well liked, they can power the Gyralight, and they seem to play nice with a variety of control systems.

Opinions?

 

[irocinblue89]

Hello,

I've been having some issues with my two Digitrax DH123D-equipped Athearn Ready to Roll SD45T-2's. For quite a while they worked pretty good, but lately everything has gone to hell. Using JMRI through a NCE system, I keep getting "Locomotive Not Detected (301)" errors. Then, suddenly, a friend of mine walks in and one unit starts working, out of the blue. Thanks, Paul! The other unit still won't allow itself to get programmed, though.

At this point in time, I've petty much decided to replace my DH123D's with something else. I'm leaning towards putting in T4X's because they seem to be well liked, they can power the Gyralight, and they seem to play nice with a variety of control systems.

Opinions?

Personally: I think the TCS decoders have better motor control. (Only my opinion) It sounds like you are having a pickup issue from the track to the decoder. Dirty wheels aside, I have had a few Athearn RTR's that after a few hours of run time they did the same thing. I ended up soldering wires right to the side frames and also taking the trucks apart, cleaning them, and using conduct-a-lube in the bushings. They have ran great since. I cannot narrow it down to 1 particular remedy. I figured since they were apart why not improve them. Let us know if you get them working.

Seann

 

[Cjcrescent]

Seann, you've pretty much covered it. We had to do the same thing to a sound equipped P2K that did the same thing. The problem with these locos is the reliance on the frame for part of the pickup, and it seems that as time goes by, dirt and other things interfere with the pickup from the frame. A hard wire to the metal frames of each truck cured it.

 

[diburning]

Usually it's the locomotive pickup/wiring that corrodes or gunks up over time that causes intermittent operation. If you do change decoders though, and want to get rid of the DH123s, let me know

 

[Eta power]

Well, I tore into the delinquent unit (9316) today. I cleaned up the way too greasy trucks, and put everything together nice and neat. We'll see if this helps come Tuesday (my club's meeting day, I don't have layout of my own). If this doesn't work, I'll try having the wires soldered to the sideframes.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[Eta power]

I been a lonnnnnnng time since I've updated this thread, but I have made some progress, so here goes.

I finally got myself two T4X's, and installed them. They have worked properly from the get-go. I'm done with Digitrax.

Now, the locomotives don't run perfectly, but some soldering should take care of that (should).

diburning, I have one bad and one good DH123D that are yours if you want them.

 

[diburning]

Ok, PM sent!

Of all the DH123s I have, I have not encountered a bad one yet.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Ok, PM sent!

Of all the DH123s I have, I have not encountered a bad one yet.

The only bad ones I've run across are the two that I fried when I first started installing decoders in the late 90's.

 

[diburning]

I have at least 2 dozen DH123s. The only bad decoders that I've ever had was 4 Lenz (model unknown), a Digitrax DH121, and an NCE D13SRJ. Of the Lenz decoders, one blew, the other 3 decided that they did not want to run on DCC, but ran fine on DC (resetting them did nothing). The Digitrax DH121 had a blown light controller (no rear headlight, front headlight would not turn off in reverse, resetting did not fix), and the NCE D13SRJ blew its motor control.

All of these were either factory defects or defects that developed from poor quality components. None of them were smoked by me.

 

[Mark R.]

Something you might always want to check on newer Athearn engines ....

Athearn paints the metal sides of the truck assemblies, and paint gets on the slots where the bronze bushings rest and acts as an insulator. Clean these slots with an x-acto blade. I've solved many pick up issues with Athearn engines performing this simple fix.


Mark.