I have an A-B-B-A set of the DCC ready Kato F-7s with DN163K0's installed. The engines are from the sime time period as the first release of the Super Chief. I use the prodigy advanced squared system. The decoders were installed by my dealer. I wasn't able to test/program the engines when I purchased them due to not having a DCC system at the time. Now that I have a system and am trying to test them, I am getting perturbed. I changed the address, and all that would work, is the headlight. I reset the decoder using the instructions from digitrax, and using the default settings, still would only get the headlight working. What am I doing wrong? Am I doing anything wrong? Does it sound like my decoder is fried? I am still a relative novice when it comes to DCC, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Andrew Gillette Sumter, SC
Andrew; Since you are getting a light, you obviously have power. What I would suggest is to remove the carbody, turn up the throttle a little, and if you don't get any movement, try pushing down on the decoder with something non-metalic(pencil eraser) in the area where the gray plastic clip holds the decoder. Often, the problem is the clip itself. You may be able to fix the problem by simply removing the clip and rotating it 180 degrees. If that doesn't work, check all the areas of contact for the decoder,especially near the clip. I usually don't have a problem with the F units, however, the PA's and my son's Genesis have similar setups, and cause me a great deal of hassle. Hope this helps.......John C
Also if they are new try cleaning the wheels- you'd be suprised how dirty new loco wheels are and how often this will cure the problem. Good luck!
You really need to solder the motor leads to the decoder to get 100% reliable operation. The motor leads are not making a good enough contact with the decoder because of many variables. So to be safe and 100% reliable, solder them in place.
If the motor isn't making contact then you can't read the decoder, nor program it. With the lights, can you switch them on and off and end for end? Did the loco move fractionally at each CV rewrite when the reset was done? The reset may not have occurred if it didn't respond as the motor may be not connected. Check as per John and Dave's posts.
Try the suspect decoder in a Known working engine----Try a working decoder in the engine that your having trouble with. After testing it should be fairly clear on what and where the problem is! ~Alan C.
