NCE DCC Decoders???

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I seem to be having problems with a few of my switcher engines that have NCE decoders. I have 2 of the older Atlas (Rocco) S-2’s and 2 of the Proto 2000 SW-9’s. I have the NCE ATL-S4SR decoders installed in the Atlas S-2’s and the NCE P2K-SW9SR decoders installed in my Proto 2000 SW-9’s.

The problem I seem to be having is that 1 of each type of engine I have, I can’t seem to program the Engines / Decoders using Decoder Pro.

I will put one of the Atlas S-2’s on the track and start up the software and it will locate and identify the decoder and program perfectly. I then put the second S-2 on the same track and the software will find and identify the decoder, but says that the decoder is not responding to any other kinds of programming. I have the exact same problem with my 2 Proto 2000 SW-9’s. The first one will program perfectly and the second one will not.

I can program each of the “suspect” engines using my Prodigy Advanced to accept a 4 digit address, but that’s all. Both engines will run on the club layout, but run erratically. After a few minutes of running, they will not respond to throttle imputes or Emergency Stop. Sometimes they even dump the 4 digit address and will only respond to 0003. For the life of me, I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on with these 2 engines / decoders and why the other 2 I have work perfectly.

Is there something I’m doing wrong? Is this common with NCE decoders? I have almost 70 other engines, most with Digitrax decoders and have never had these kinds of issues before.

2

I have NCE decoders in a lot of engines and have never encountered a problem like you describe. It sounds like something is not installed properly in the two problematic engines.

If the decoders were solder-in types, pop the cover off and check all of your solder joints, and look for areas where bare wires may be inadvertently touching. Also check where the wires are soldered to the decoder. I have had a couple of wires come loose from decoders, but don’t remember if they were NCE or another brand.

I don’t use Decoder Pro, but perhaps it’s malfunctioning.