BLI paragon 2 just "stopped"

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

My 2 month old BLI heavy Mike has stopped. No sound or motor. I have an NCE pro cab wireless system.

I thought I could reset to factory defaults with a magnet but evidently the Paragon 2s do not have this feature.

I have tried to set CV8 to “8” per the manual but no change.

The tender plug is in solid and the headlight is on dim indicating I have track power.

Other locos work fine so the system is OK.

Any ideas before I send it away? And where would I send it?

2

According to the FAQ section on the BLI website,

Paragon2 locomotives are reset by pressing the reset button located on the end of the Paragon2 electronics board. On steam locomotives this is inside the tender.

Give that a try.

Rich

3

Thanks Rich. I read and bookmarked that page. Now I have to find out HOW to get the tender shell off. The only screws are for the drawbar and the trucks. I am hesitant to remove screws without knowing what will happen.

4

Bruce,

Before you do that, be sure to check to see if the button might be accessed through the water hatch on the top side of the tender.

Tom

5

Tom, I removed the water hatch and there IS a hole in the center but I cannot see or feel any switch as pictured.

6

Bruce,

You should be able to lift the shell of the tender by holding the frame in one hand and pulling up the shell with the other hand.

Rich

7

Thanks again Rich. The shell is off and reconnected to the loco. The headlight is on and I pressed the reset switch at the rear of the PC board. Nothing happens. I tried it twice. Incidently, that switch IS below the hole in the tender shell but off to one side. Very hard to see.

8

Apparently there is more to just pushing that button to do a reset. Further down in those FAQs it says:

Paragon2 Series FAQ Section:

Q:

I made a mistake programming. How do I reset my Paragon2 Series locomotive to defaults?

A:

There are two ways to reset the Paragon2 locomotives.

Using your programming track, reset CV8 to 8. You will hear the coupler crash sound as confirmation the reset was successful.

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9

Yippeeeee That worked!!!

Many thanks to all.

10

Bruce, don’t overlook the fact that the manual reset will set the loco address to 03. So, you will need to reprogram the long address.

Rich

11

The most often forgotten or overlooked (unknown) step in resetting a decoder is the powering down and repowering of the track immediately after what most of us take to the be sign that a decoder has been/accepted a reset, be that blinking lights, jerking of the drive, a reedy voiced 'hhreeesssetttt", or something else I haven’t yet experienced.

Bruce, I am happy you found this out. You’ll never forget the solution to the dread you felt a couple of hours ago.

Crandell

12

Be it Paragon, Paragon 2, or Blueline, BLI is not the easiest brand of loco to reset to factory default, and it seems to need a reset to factory default more often than other brands.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my BLI steamers, even more than my Proto Heritage or Bachmann Spectrum locos.

But I will stand by my statement regarding resets to factory default.

Rich

13

BTW the original problem was most likely the engine inadvertently being put into “shut down” mode. You’d have to check the instructions to see how to do “start up”. I think it’s something like pressing F6 three times to enter shutdown, and twice for startup…or vice versa??

14

Actually, Stix, it’s three double-presses of F9 for complete shutdown mode and two of F6 for startup.

Tom