OK I’m stumped. I’m finally putting a sound decoder into a N-Scale Con-Cor 2-10-2. Reworked the pickup in the tender and it ran perfect on DC. Then popped the DC 8-pin plug, dropped in a Digitrax SDN-144, placed it on track and steam engine sounds are coming out the speaker. Lights are on when throttle is in forward or reverse. Whistle blows and bell rings. Crank up the throttle and the chuff increases, but NO MOVEMENT, forward or backward. Checked and made sure the plug was seated in the NMRA 8-pin socket and it was. So I tried a second SDN-144 and the same thing, all sound and no movement. Put the 8-pin DC plug in and it runs forward and backward. What’s happening? Anyone DCC gurus have ideas?
I would try a non sound decoder and plug that into the 8 pin socket to see if the loco would run. If it does, then I would test both the sound decoders on a decoder tester. I am having a very similar problem with a plug and play Athearn (HO) non sound install.
I had this problem when I installed a new sound decoder. It turned out to be a bad connection at the point where the motor leads connect to the PC board. I had full sound and lights but no movement. I traced all of the leads to the motor found a bad connection, fixed it.
I have a simlar problem...just received the latest Atlas HH660, ran for about 5 minutes then quit responding to the throttle. Won't run on straight DC either. All sounds and lights work fine. Tried re-setting decoder with no luck. Should I take it apart or wait for Atlas to get off vacation and send it back?
I have a N-scale Atlas GP30-2 that I have had for 3 years do this to me this morning. Lights worked, but no go. So I had it on the track with power, the body off and decided to turn the motor by hand. So I held the engine down and turned the motor with my finger. It would start then stop even while doing this. Then with thumb on one side index finger on the other side I pulled it up wards. It then worked fine. Let go then it stopped. I then thought that maybe the motor contacts were not making contact with the decoder as they should for what ever reason. I also noticed the board was not snug in the frame slots for it and it moved when doing the motor thing. I took the engine apart as I'm now very good at removing the boards and installing new ones after doing eight Atlas engines. Any way cleaned the motor tabs where they touch the decoder contacts. Then tapped the parts of the frame that hold the board in place just a little to tighten them as there was play in the decoder as I mentioned. The engine now works better then it ever has. Moral of this story? Well, maybe some times it can be a simple easy fix that just drops in you lap. Or maybe dumb luck can be a good thing.:tb-tongue:
