Well I just am not sure what is going on. I am cycling through my locomotives and seeing a disturbing trend. About 60% of all my Kato SD-80 and SD-90 locomotives with the DN163K2 are coming up DOA. Some of the decoders have been installed for over a year so I am SOL as far a warranty replacement. It just hurts to have to buy the same decoder twice like this. I suspect that since I did these a while back, that these may be victims of the Lead Free Solder trials and tribulations at Digitrax, but that doesn't help making me feel better about it. It is sad, but my first ever decodered locomotives were Lenz Silver Mini's and they are still running like brand new. Maybe it is time to try the TCS decoders, but the lack of trim doesn't make speed matching very efficient. Oh well......
Are the decoders completely dead? Do the headlights respond? I have had some digitrax decoders that lose contact with the frame and don't respond to any command. removing the shell and manipulating the board a little restored contact with the frame temporarily. I removed the decoder and put just a little dab of solder on each of the mounting tabs to make the decoder fit tighter into the slots. I have since had to do it to many new Digitrax decoders as the boards are somewhat thinner lately.
I have found that with some of my locos if the wheels and track are not clean after storage. After cleaning everything works fine.
Hi guys, Well I probably should have mentioned that I had done all of the troubleshooting steps including resetting the decoder etc. Track is pretty clean, nothing else seems to have any issues at all. As for the locomotives wheels, well before I place them in storage, I do clean the wheel sets with a swab and alchohol and make sure there is no residue at all. That came from lessons learned years ago. What I am seeing is that one light will work but not both. When I remove the decoders from the locomotive and use micro alligator clips to connect the decoder to the programming track, there is no decoder found. In each case I also placed a DC light board in the locomotive and tested on a DC test loop. The all ran like champs. So this does lie squarely on a glitch in a manufacturing process somewhere along the line. Again it is funny because my first Digitrax decoders were the DN163K1A for the SD70's and they are still running as good as the day they were installed. So it is looking like these and other problems I had with Digitrax decoders failing like this a year or so back look to be related since it is the same problem I had with a large batch of DN163K0A that stopped working all of a sudden. That was attributed to problems in manufacturing with the RoS conversion. I am thinking that these must be suffering a similar manufacturing problem. Looking back at the records, they doo seem to point that way sionce a lot of these current failures were purchased around the same time as the bad DN163K0A's. Like my problem with the Super Chief, I have some more thinking to do........... And I will most likely get replacement Digitrax decoders like I got my replacement Super Chief. I just hate having to buy the same thing twice!
No fun for sure. Sorry you are having issues. I don't have very many Digitrax decoders but mine run quite smooth, for now. I am not a wiz at this deocder stuff but my TCS and NCE decoders run quite well to, with the TCS being my prefered decoder because of the fine tuning I can accomplish.
Rant Over ! Hi, Well I talked to a buddy who gave me this tip........ Do the factory reset on the main line using the full power of the mains. So I put several locomotives on the mains at one time and did a reset of the decoders by setting CV08 to 008. Set the throttle to address 03 and they all started working again except 1. That makes me feel a whole lot better. And I also feel a little stupid for not thinking about the "Full Power" reset approach. For as long as I have been installing, programming and running DCC (9 years) I should have thought of this! Another lesson learned! :tb-biggrin:
The two most common fixes I perform on club members' locomotives with drop-in decoders are the decoder reset (usually CV 8 to 8) and the jiggle around with the decoder contacts to the frame to be sure that the decoder is seated properly. I am glad most of them got to working again.
I am familiar with both of those approaches. They did not work for some reason. Only the full power reset worked. Like I said before, I feel really stupid for not thinking about that before starting this thread.
I lost a digitrax decoder last year that was out of warranty, I can't remember why it failed. They charged $17 to replace it; not free, but better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
I have about 4 that have done the same thing! They worked perfectly and then, after a couple months, I put them on the track and Nothing except lit up leds. No response, no reset from cv8 - of course no pg. I'll have to clear my main and try the reset and hope that it works. I tried the other decoder manufacturer mentioned and I was not happy with the slow speed performance and overall rough motor response in comparison to the digitrax. Brian
Im no expert on dcc but when I began having problems with some of the decoders in my dcc engines behaving in an erratic manner, it was suggested by a lhs that I clear and reset my digitarx zephry as described in the manual and then do a reset on the loco decoders if needed. When I cleared the zephry everthing began functioning normally without having to reset the decoders in the locos.
