I have a little P2K GP-9i, had it for over a year now… and I’ve noticed lately that the lights were acting a little funny… like I’ll have it in forward clipping along the track and the reverse lights will come on.
Over the weekend I installed a Powershield circuit breaker (Tony’s Train Exchange) between my Digitrax Zephyr and the main buss terminal strip. Everything was going great until I fired up the GP, put it in forward and gave it the gas. When I started turning up the power, it’s like there was a momentary short. I looked at the Powershield and the light was on that signifys this.
What the heck!
Tried it again… same thing. Always after a second or two the engine would come back to life and continue on… til the next time and then the same. I tried other engines… no problem. So I took the Powershield off the layout, hooked up direct and tried it again. Everything was fine. But then I noticed a passenger train that was sitting on a siding with all the car’s lights on. Everytime I’d stop the P2K, change direction and give it the juice, the lights in the passenger would momentarily blink off then right back on. Something about the GP seems to be shorting when brought to a stop and given the juice again. It hadn’t been enough to completely throw the Zephyr but it’s enough to trip the Powershield.
What could it be about the engine that is doing this? Is it a mechanical thing or an electronic one?
I think before I sent it to the shop, I’d try a new decoder in it first. Sounds suspiciously like an electronic problem - maybe a component going into overload, then clearing…
I’d vote for a loose wire somewhere inside the shell, or some bad insulation. Take the shell off and see if there are any obviously wrong things in there. Try running the engine with the shell off in the dark. You may see sparks at the point of the short. Be prepared to have your wife ask what the heck you’re doing in the dark.
Are you using the stock incandescents, or have you replaced them with LED’s?
Oh, does this happen on curves particularly? You might have something shorting the trucks to the frame.
Hi guys, thanks for the suggestions. This happens on straights, curves, whatever. But, it only happens when the locomotive is brought to a stop, put in opposite direction of travel and the throttle is turned up to get going again… THEN it happens. Today I’m going to set everything back to factory defaults and see if that does it. I’ve gotta hunch it won’t make any difference.
Like I said, the first thing I got to noticing was the lights, which are factory installed. It’ll be going down the track in forward just as happy as can be and suddenly the rear light will come on. That’s all. Nothing else… just the light. Bring it to a stop, put it in reverse… stop… put it in forward and the rear light goes off. Just like it’s supposed to. Clip on down the line in forward and after a while the rear light pops on again. This was the first thing I noticed, and then, after installing the afore mentioned circuit breaker yesterday, the momentary shorting of the whole thing begain but only with this one engine. I now think this had been going on all along, but the Digitrax Zephyr wouldn’t shut down when it happened so I didn’t pay that much attention. But when I installed the Powershield circuit breaker, the breaker DOES react to it. Just like it’s supposed to.
I’ll take the shell off and see if I can find something obvious, and I’ll try running it without the shell to see if that makes any difference.
I think you’ll find that resetting the decoder won’t make any difference. The way you described it in your last post, it’s acting like a computer with a faulty processor, which, when you think about it is an apt analogy, for the decoder is a computer, and it does have a processor. Taking this into account, a new decoder should fix the problem.
I think Jeff is on the right track here. Something for you to consider. You mentioned the unit is only about a year old. I bet the unit is still under warrantee. Call Walthers, They will probably send you a new decoder circut board for free. They have been really good I hear about supporting Proto-2000 products since they took over Life-Like.
Well, I took the shell off and checked the wiring the best I could and found nothing obvious. I’ll wait til tonight and run it without the shell and see if anything shows up. I’m betting it’s in the decoder.
HAd an issue like this on a different locomotive and on an NCE decoder a year ago I installed it doesnt take brains to do this. I checked it out with a different deocder I had laying around and to my surprize it didnt do it. Took the Decoder back tot he store they replaced it for free and sent the bad one packing, It wasnt walthers but it fixed the problem thats all I cared about.
I only have one DCC equiped loco right now, another one on the way. I should have it in a month. It’s a Conrail GP35 and it’s first stop will be at the paint shop.
If I have any problems with my locos, I’ll know what kind of problems to look for. I’m new to this DCC thing, but I’ve been working on computers for 23 years and there’s a lot in common between the two.
Did you perhaps let some of the smoke out? Ya’ know, these kinda’ gadgets are all built with smoke in them, and if ya let some of it get out they don’t work so good, eh? jc5729