DCC decoder problem

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Well friends, thankyou for Your answers, but I think I have to express me more clear. I installed a decoder from a Roco loco in an Athearn GP 38 and gave it address no.1. Four other locos vas on powered track with the addresses 5-10-20 and21. When the GP 38 was in use it suddently began to run eratic and when that happened 21 or 20 startet uncontrolable.Has anyone an answer to that problem. Way back when the CT 16 was high tech You had crosstalk, but I never heard the same could happen to DCC, but if so why only no.21 and 20? The GP 38 was ofcourse programmed on a special programming track.

Ove Jorgensen

Denmark.

2

God dag Ove!

Is this a newer Ready-To-Roll Athearn or an older Blue Box version? If newer, is it “DCC Ready”?

Do you have more than one throttle/controller hooked up?

3

Ove,

Can you tell us the specific decoder that was in your Roco that you installed into your GP38? That might help bear some light on the topic.

Tom

4

If the loco is an older Blue Box version and the motor hasn’t been isolated from the frame, it will cause all kinds of havoc with the DCC system. Gee, how would I know that.

5

  1. I presume the other locomotives worked fine before this one locomotive was introduced to the mix.

  2. Does it exhibit this same characteristic if programmed to another channel besides 1.

  3. Do locos 20 and 21 act this way if only one of them is on the track with the new one?

  4. What DCC system is this. Also Roco?

  5. How are you getting control of the locomotives do you have one throttle per loco or are you playing the stack flipping video game type control?

  6. Is the Roco decoder set to the same number of speed steps as the rest on the layout?

  7. There aren’t any capacitors anywhere in the new loco are there?

6

Hello Gandy Dancer,

thankyou for answerring my mail. You have set up 7 questiones and here come the answers:

#1: yes

#2: yes

#3: Yes

#4: Also Roco

#5:I have two handhelds, but disconnecting one does not help.

#6: yes

#7: no external condenser connected.

The GP is a blue box model and the motor has been isolated from the chassis.

7

What kind of DCC system do you have? I have a Lenz, and the low numbers (0, 1, 2) are generally reserved for the base station and the hand-helds, which have addresses just like locomotives do.

The normal practice is to use the engine cab number as the address. One exception is the Bachmann EZ-Command, which only addresses 1-10.