Here is a question from Goblue who could not move his question under this section:
Hey model railroad fans, new to this site but not to the hobby. Have 5 scales (G/O/HO/N and Z ) all running in one ‘train room’ about 30 by 15 feet. Last few years have not really been running the trains, especially the HO (which is the main layout). Now I find that my digital engines (mostly new but purchase years ago, sitting on shelves) light up, sound comes on, but will not move. This occurs on about 85% of my engine stock, some engines do run. I cannot figure out what is wrong. Do HO engines go bad??? Or do I need to reprogram them. Track is clean, connections are good as other engines do work.
I use Digitrax and my engines are mostly Atlas and some MTH.
Digitally meaning the engines are equipped with factory built in decoders.
Typically I just program the address (using cab #s) and basically that’s it.
Do not change the CV values (not very technical).
When I now use one of these ‘bad’ engines. I am able to get the engine to respond with sound and lights but will not respond to the throttle.
Or in the rare instance, the train will move but then stop.
Again, I do have a minority of engines that run fine on the same track (So I ruled out track cleaning or something amiss with power to track).
Ahh, I cannot recall ever using that term for decoder equipped locomotives, but it certainly is a correct term.
Anyhow, the decoders have likely fallen asleep so your best bet is to confirm that by resetting the decoder on one of them to factory default. On a Digitrax decoder, the reset would be CV08=08. Since the programming has been limited in your locomotives, once you do the reset, you will only need to reprogram the cab address. If that works, you can just do that for all of your sleeping decoders.
The bits in decoders do scramble over time, but some decoders seem to be better than others in this regard. I have 20 year old QSI decoders still running strong, and I can place any one of them on my track system and they’ll respond to inputs. QSI decoders, notably, have a ‘coma’ or sleep function where successive double-presses of Function 9 will put them into deeper stages of ‘repose’. The steam versions will hiss in response when you do each double-tap of F9. Sometimes people forget that they have done this, and scratch their heads when a QSI-equipped steamer or diesel won’t do anything. The solution is to double-tap F6, but you do this the same number of times to restore full functionality. You can still find the QSI manuals online.
QSI decoders have a three step procedure to reset them digitally. Otherwise, a magnet waved just above the decoder’s reed switch, wherever it happens to be under the shell, will accomplish the same thing on all/most QSI decoders.
If it’s not a QSI, CV8 reset to ‘08’ should restore it to factory defaults. Note, also, that it is imperative that you remove track power after hitting ‘enter’, or ‘reset’, whichever your system has. Then, restore track power, and acquire the decoder again using Add ‘03’.
Simplest thing first, connect up to a DC powerpack (virtually all DCC decoders are DC/DCC) and see if it runs on DC. If so, it’s probably not a motor / gearing problem with the engine.
Then put each engine on the programming track and reprogram the ID for it. Maybe try changing to 03 (short address) and 0003 (long address) and see if engine responds to that.
Make sure the engine isn’t still in a consist where another engine is the lead engine. Sometimes if I’ve forgotten about that, I can get the engine to respond under it’s ID but if it moves, it’s only a little bit.