Hi everyone. Hoping to receive some guidance on an obstacle I encountered, after reading my loco’s decoder, saving to a roster, and attempting to test some of the loco’s functions. I read the loco from the programming track, successfully. No errors. I can’t get the loco to respond to throttle commands, while on the programming track, though. Is this not supported in DCC++? I tried switching over to the main track, and running a throttle through panel pro. However, I encounter the same issue. I do have the power turned on to the track. All of my LEDs are on, my loco is selected and set. How can I trouble shoot this issue? If I monitor traffic, I see the command going to the loco at the set address, last line in the traffic for the command says (no reply expected). Not sure if that has anything to do with the issue. Any guidance is greatly appreciated! I’m using an arduino motor shield + mega board, PINs 13 and 2 jumped. Power source is 19.5v 3.x amp. Vin and break traces severed. Latest source code used from github, latest release of Arduino IDE for Mac used to upload code. Jmri for Mac. Loco is an intermountain Santa Fe F loco.
Hi, It is correct that the loco will not run on the programming track. You could try a basic test on the main track by closing JMRI and then opening the serial monitor in the arduino ide. Then in the serial monitor type and send a command like: <1><t1 03 5 1> This command should turn on the power and then send a (slow) speed 5 command to loco address 03 (replace the 03 with your loco's address. You can send <0> to turn the power off. If that works, then it must be the settings you have in JMRI..... Jim
Thank you Jim. I’ll try that now. Update: tried using the ide serial monitor to send the commands you specified. No response from the loco. I’m going back to JMRI, deleting the loco, and re-reading the entire decoder, to start from scratch. Interestingly enough, I ran the loco on DC last night, and it ran. The loco runs on dC with a few sounds - primer, accelerating and decelerating motor sound, and air break sound. I mention this, because I thought I had fried the decoder. Not sure what else to try, other than starting from scratch on the arduino code upload.
Thank you for all the suggestions. I followed all of them to troubleshoot. I re-read the decoder, saved, and switched to main. Loco ran like a charm. Not sure what the trouble was. I subsequently added a second loco to my roster, and the process was successful. Thanks again to everyone!
