I had purchased a athearn quick plug BNSF locomotive with a unknown decoder in the 9 prong spot. I run it on DC power for a while and it runs fine, but I had purchased the NCE powercab and put that loco on the tracks to hear a loud pitches screaching. I don’t know if it is coming from the motor or the decoder, since the loco runs fine on dc power I assumed the motor was fine. Apon resetting the CV using my powercab I was given the error message of 255. Ive done so much research and nothing seems to help. The screaching makes different pitches when I increase the throttle. Can anybody help?
Have you run other engines or is this your first foray into DCC? There is a DC setting (I think it’s in CV 29) for choosing DC or DCC operation, and that may be set wrong.
If you did a total reset of the decoder, it would no longer be at its original address, and will now respond to Address 3, the default address for decoders. You can reset that.
There is also a command to query the decoder for the decoder ID, which can help you find out which one it is.
We have an Electronics and DCC forum here, which is probably a better place to ask questions like this.
Are you sure it’s a decoder? DCC-ready engines generally come with a dummy plug that has to be removed and a decoder plugged into it. Trying to run a DC engine on DCC can produce the sounds you describe.
p.s. I think with some Athearn engines, they come with a 9-pin and an 8-pin plug, and if you use the 9-pin plug you still have to remove the dummy plug from the 8-pin receptacle.
You can look up the engine’s instructions on the Athearn website and see what it says.
Yeah, it’s time to stop being a Newby and take a step up. You need to remove the shell from the engine and see what you’ve got inside.
To be a model railroader, you have to learn to take things apart and put them back together. You have to learn to paint things. You have to make a mess doing plaster castings. Don’t be afraid of it. It opens all kinds of doors.
You’ve still only got one post, so even if you were John Armstrong you’d still be a newby here. We all go through a process of “moderation” before being able to post freely. It’s worked well to keep the trolls from under our Central Valley trestle bridges. But, you need to post occasionally to let us know you’re OK and let you post freely.
Keep trying. You’re not forgotten. We want to solve your problem.
Which CV is “the CV” you reset? If you mean you tried to reset the decoder, decoders can be reset by setting CV8 to 8 or CV30 to 2. You have to turn the power off and on to the engine to finish the reset. Reading CV 8 will tell you the manufacturer of the decoder.