I’m a new DCC user (less than a month) with a Lenz LV100 & LH90 throttle.
I have a Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 DCC ready with an NCE D13SRP deocoder.
I’m trying to read and then set the address to the loco’s road number, but I keep on getting an Er02 error. The decoder is installed correctly (the unit moves FORWARD and the 0 function turns the headlight on and off) so I don’t think that is it.
I tried reading several other CVs and each time during a rEAd, Er02 was returned.
I am using an isolated programming track. It’s a seprate oak plank with two 9" sectional tracks. The DCC is connected with alligator clips on the end of the rails.
I’ve got a BLI Hudson with QSI sound. This one is power-hungry, and won’t program on my programming track. (I’ve also got a Lenz 100 by the way.) I think I get the same error. This is a well-known problem with some of the new decoders. Setting the address on the main is a bit tedious, but it does work.
If you can program other engines on the programming track, this is probably the problem with your Spectrum.
Well, at this stage, it doesn’t really matter. All I have is a folded dog-bone with no turnouts (those I’ll pull track and install later).
My decoder version is 3.5 - dates May of 2006. I told my LHS what loco I had and he told me what decoder to use. I have no reason not to trust him on this.
Heh. This is my only engine, so I have no control model to test mine, or my dcc system, against.
I’ve tried programming on the main and my programming track - no difference. Grrr. I think I might need to bring both my system and loco to my LHS to test each out.
I discovered my problem. I’ve been using the J/K bus wires all along, not the P/Q programing ones.
Let me explain. My layout is just in its beginning stages. I have my LV100 sitting on top of the plywood next to the track with the J/K power bus wires attached to the stub end of a siding with alligator clips. The turnout is not insulated, so I’m able to power the whole loop.
My programing track is a 12" oak plank with cork & sectional track. I had been disconnecting J/K from the mainline and clipping them to the programing track. No wonder the LV100 returned an error.
I’ve now have a second set of wires for P and Q and am having no trouble programing my decoder.
On a humorous note, before I dug out a new pair of wires and alligator clips for P/Q, I disconnected J/K from the LV100 and plugged that pair of wires into P/Q. Laziness never pays off.
When I reconnected them to J/K I inadvertently plugged them into K/Ground. I was getting all sorts of crazy results! The engine ran by itself, the throttle wouldn’t control it, it ran forwards, then backwards… I tried resetting the LV100 and the decoder to no avail.
Only when I sat down to reply to this email and checked the back of the LV100 to make sure I had my connection letters straight, did I see my K/Ground mistake.
Y’know, if I had seen this post on Sunday, April 1, I would have replied that the problem was your programming track being on oak rather than pine. As far as I know, no one uses oak as a base for programming tracks, so who could dispute my April Fools prank? If I started rambling on about the different dielectric constants of hardwoods and how they induce phase imbalances, I bet I could have convinced some people that I knew what I was talking about.
I should have taken a picture of my original programming track. I took a section of 40 year old brass track, one that had thumbscrew wiring terminals on it. I put a bumper track on each end, and then mounted the whole thing on a pair of old Atlas bridge piers. (Brand new Atlas bridge piers are indistinguishable from old ones, except for the “natural weathering.”) This was connected to the DCC system with a pair of stiff 3-foot sections of phone wire. When not in use, it just hung under the layout from the wires. Rube Goldberg, eat your heart out.
By Downunder do you mean Australia? If so, I have a question. Does Australia “celebrate” April Fools Day? Like Halloween, it’s one of those cultural things which have no basis in religion or history, and is thus a true festival, celebrated for its own worth alone.
“Dielectric constants of hardwoods?” What on earth was I drinking that night. Adelaide Lager, perhaps…
Actually, Halloween is “All Hallows Eve,” the day before All Saints Day. From Wikipedia:
“The word Halloween is first attested in the 16th century and represents a Scottish variant of the fuller All-Hallows-Even (“evening”), that is, the night before All Hallows Day.[4] Although the phrase All Hallows is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, mass-day of all saints), All-Hallows-Even is itself not attested until 1556.[4]”
Well Johnny Reb,I’ve been using model trains(railroads) as immensely successful diversional therapy for the silent ‘C’.These conversations just happened to appear somehow, much to my amusement.I like your Train Page and it appears your layout is also going well.And Mr Beasley,‘Downunder’ could mean downunder the layout ,but you were correct.Spent almost two years in Adelaide in the 60’s and I did develop a taste for the finer things both north and south.However,model trains get my mind headed in the right direction.New to all this and I’m trying to figure out why a decoder installation by a US expert fizzed itself on my DC track.I had bought, it appears from research, an early model Spectrum(cheap at first) with a split frame.Have read extensively since and maybe the insulators between the halves failed.Had three running on the same track.Lost forward light on the loco in question.Ran the three back.Removed all from track.Placed the Spectrum Dash 8 back on track adjacent to the rerailer and alas!The dreaded cloud of smoke from under the front bogies(trucks).Cheap Digitrax decoder has the black hole above the wires from the motor.I found the decoder sitting on top of what I think is the light board.Any ideas?Current spike? Failed insulation?The other two Bachmanns with factory decoders still run ok.