Hello all,
this is the 3rd decoder Ive had to return to ESU for repairs, out of the roughly 20 I have currently active. Seems to be a high failure rate, and was wondering what I am doing wrong. Each failure occurred during Lokprogrammer CV or sound programming, NOT while running, NOR writing firmware. The programmer will suddenly throw an error “No supported decoder could be detected”.
Here’s how it plays out:
-
I have the lokprogrammer hooked up to track, laptop, and power source.
-
I place the engine on the track, and make sure it responds to the simulated throttle inputs on the ESU lokprogrammer to make sure its got a good connection.
-
I press write CVs or write sounds, whichever is appropriate to what I need to do. It tries to read the decoder but then the error appears.
-
From here, the decoder will not respond to anything. Not the Lokprogrammer throttle. Not on the main layout with my NCE powercab. Any attempt at reading or writing CVs from my NCE always returns a value of 255. It is dead in the water.
-
Now every time the decoder gets track power, the one square IC chip (SEE PICTURE) gets EXTREMELY hot. If you leave it on the track for more than a few minutes, it gets SO hot it can burn my finger.
Here’s some facts to rule out causes:
a. My installs are not the culprit. Each decoder has worked reliably for 60+ minutes of run time and firmware updates and handful of sound reprogrammings before not responding, and after replacing the fried decoder the engines have ran without issue.
b. None of the three that fried used any sort of stay alive or anything special connected.
b. The lokprogrammer doesn’t seem to be at fault either…it has reprogrammed countless engines, and responds and reads other decoders fine both before and after a frying incident. (to elaborate, I tend to reprogram in batches, as in 5 decoders, one at a time, and the other engines all respond fine).
c. The most recent failure (on my Trix 2-8-2 as pictured), I updated the firmware and reprogrammed the sound 60 minutes prior. It was successful. Tested a few things, didnt like one sound, and was in the midst of reprogramming the sound the second time when suddenly it crapped out.
THE QUESTION:
Am I doing something wrong here? I realized later my programming track perhaps was not spotless, but the engines all respond fine on the prog track before starting a programming upload. Is that the culprit? These decoders were purchased around 2023…does my failure sound like the infamous 2023 defective power supply ICs (article here)? Is that the piece that’s getting hot on my decoders?
Thanks,
Charles