I've just discovered how to make a decoder install even more stressful. (Background: Lifelike GP60, milled frame and Digitrax DZ143 wired decoder. Previously attempted to fit a decoder in March, blowing the decoder by crimping / shorting some wires. Engine has sat in pieces since then.) </font> Spend an hour carefully fitting decoder and soldering wires</font> place engine on programming track and nothing happens </font> re-fit wipers between frame and trucks </font> engine can now read two or three CVs, but then stops reading (!) </font> spend an hour fiddling with soldered joints and decoder connections</font> Running short on ideas, try holding DCC power wires against metal frame </font> sucessfully read all CVs </font> How to make a decoder install even more stressful: have dirty wheels on the engine. Remember in italics where I said the engine sat still? corroding and dirtying the wheels? So it works for one or two CVs... as the decoder "kicks" the motor to draw current and reply... moving the engine until the dirty part of the wheels touches the rails, thus stopping it from working anymore. Maybe I should repaint this engine in the Lessons Learned Line colour-scheme? On the upside, after all this, I do have another working engine; behaves itself on the main where the motor spins fast enough to drag the wheels over their dirty spots. Tomorrow: DCC my other GP-60. This one has clean wheels.
