Calling all you perts and ex-perts! I’ve got one thats driving me nuts! [%-)]I’ve got a TCS T-1 in a brass diesel that when the engine derails and shorts, or if another engine derails and shorts, or if I drop a tool on the track and set off a short, it goes brain dead.[V]
1st off, some backround. The system is an NCE Powerhouse Pro. The engine in question is and Alco products Baldwin Shark, with an A-Line can motor. Generally, this engine runs as smoothly as my Atlas and Kato geeps, with a very low amp draw. I have another with the same decoder that doesn’t exhibit the same symptom yet.
By “brain dead” I mean the engine stalls and will not respond to either its long address, or a consist address, and has to be put on the programming track. Even then, I can’t force it to run unless I run through a recovery program. Then I readdress it, reset the dither, and its business as usual again, until another short occurs.
I’ve heard that there is a way to “lock” a TCS decoder, so that momentary shorts wont affect the memory side of the chip, hence, curing the problem, but I can’t find anyone who knows the details as to which CV , and the TCS website has no info either. Any ideas? I was going to send the decoder back, but really, whats wrong with it???
Sorry for the long winded [:p] explaination, but I thought if I laid all the cards out, I’d get a better answer.
Have you swapped decoders. to verify that it is the decoder?
Next call TCS for advice.
Lock the decoder by programming a value of 7 into CV 15. I think TCS decoders have an internal circuit breaker to prevent them from being burned out, and my experience has been that they must be taken off of the track or the DCC signal must be removed from the track in order for them to reset.
I just got off the phone with John at TCS. [:)]1st, let me tell you, they were VERY nice, and professional on the phone. The tech guys were all busy, so they took my name and phone number. 30 minutes later I got a return call, an offer for a warranty exchange of the decoder, and a possible solution. Cacole, you are almost right. John said to set CV15 to a value of 7, and CV 16 to a value of 1 to “lock” the decoder. However if this does not work, the offer to replace the decoder at no charge still stood!
No matter what happens, I can’t lose. I’ll be trying the mods tonight!!![:D]
Just a lil update. I change the cv’s last night, ran the engine and intentionally shorted out the rails several times,noooo problems!!! Cool!![:D]