I’ m new at this so bear with me. Building an N gauge layout and have a Bachmann EZ Commander DCC contoller and Atlas DCC engines. When I first put everything together to get a fill for the layout all ran pretty good. I disassembled to build the terrain and on reassembly, the engine spped was inconsistant and has now stopped. The lights on the engines work and change direction, but the engines will not move. I have 12.3 to 12.7 V AC around the layout. Any idea what could have happened?
Unfortunately, there are lots of possibilities. Did you get any paint, glue, dust, etc., on the track? If in doubt, try cleaning one section and see what happens. Then clean the wheels on an engine (if they’re dirty, they’ll transfer dirt, grime and gunk right back to your nice clean rails). Also check all your electrical connections. Depending on how you’re measuring AC, you may hot have enough voltage. DCC is alternating current, but rather different from the type the typical multi-meter is designed to measure. Disconnect the layout and measure it right at the power source; then reconnect and try at the rails. If there’s much difference, you have a voltage drop. Depending on what kind of decoders you have (I’m not familiar with the Atlas jobs), you might have CV19 set to something other than zero (as, “in a consist”). If so, the lights (and sound, if you have any) work with commands sent to the loco address, but the loco won’t move unless you send commands to the consist address.
Thanks for the advice. I think it may have just been due to dust from construction. I set up a small oval and all was OK.