I’m hoping a knowledgable person can help me. I’ve done a bit of searching on the Internet and haven’t quite found an answer to my problem.
I run my layout with a Digitrax Zephyr DCS52. The majority of decoders in my locomotives (3 of 11) are also digitrax mobile decoders.
Lately, I have been having an issue where I’ll start locomotives that have been consisted together and another random locomotive not part of the consist will start moving as well. For example, I’ll start running my UP trio (9660/322/660) and one locomotive in one of my BNSF pairs (6340/3001) on a spur will start moving and cause a crash.
I’ve tried resetting decoders, un-consisting and re-consisting, cleaning tracks, and wheels, turning off/turning on, and everything I can think of. I reset decoders and re-consisted last night and got things to work, this morning, same problem.
Is it possible you accidentally programmed a locomotive on track not realizing it was receiving the same power as the locomotives you were intentionally programming?
I have a Zephyr and get that problem from time to time. It does not happen often because most of my engines sit on “dead” track when on stand-by (I have blocks on my layout). Someone on this forum said that decoders that are DC enabled can do these unwanted starts.
Did you check the address? Could you have somehow addressed it with the address of one of the consisted engines? Or, are you sure it’s not (still) somehow part of one of the consists?
The real question is why preserve the dual mode capability of the DCC decoder.
You always run DC equipped locomotives on DC powered track if you’re wise.
You only need dual mode capability in your decoder if you run DCC locomotives with your DC locomotives at the same time.
Running the one DC locomotive on DCC powered track gets old pretty quickly. I have a Tech 6 and even after running DCC for only a short time it is a little surprising when you select DC mode and all the locomotives start moving together, with the DCC equipped locomotives taking forever to get a move on.
Mind you, running DCC together with DC on a DC powered layout really gets tiresome quickly, in reality. The two power systems just work so differently operationally, not just electrically.
Dual mode capability is a selling point for model manufacturers but in reality you should plump for DC or DCC and stick with your choice.
If starting out or rejoining this hobby after a long absence (pre DCC absence) do yourself a favour and just build a DCC layout right from the start. Buy only decoder equipped locomotives (or DCC ready if you prefer to install your preferred non manufacturer decoders, some factory stuff can be a tad lame) and plan on putting decoders into anything DC you have or selling any DC that you don’t want to or cannot fit decoders into.
DC has its attractions and if that’s what you prefer, no problem. But it is unlikely that you really will prefer DC once you try DCC for very long. Just don’t harbour the illusion that you will be happy switching back and forth from DC to DCC. It is very unlikely that you will.