Runaway Trains

Making good progress on West Bottoms hoping for a January operating session. But all of a sudden electronic problems. I am running Digitrax radio controlled throttles through Loconet. It seems that unexpectedly the locomotive will not respond to the throttle, i.e. won't stop, change direction etc. It will work and then all of a sudden take on a mind of it's own. Went onto the Digitrax website, unless I want to stop construction and get a degree in electrical engineering didn't see much help here. Also, might be some time until Preiser come up with a miniture Denzil Washington ( as in movie Unstoppable) to hop on and stop the train. So I'm turning to by friends in the Frisco community for help.

John

 

Are you sure it's the throttle and not the decoder? Try a factory reset on the decoder.

 

Do you have your Radio Reciever powered by a wal wart or are you relying on the loconet for it's power. One question. Where is your reciever located? Is its antenna (the little green wires) in a V shape at about a 45 degree angle? Also are you sure your Throttle has a good battery? I have been using Digitrax for over 10 years I will help you as much as I can.
Bob Wintle

 

Bob, thanks here we may have a problem. Have a new battery and using a
seperate transformer. But, I don't see any green wires. Are they attached
to the panel front? If not, where are they? My panel did not come with any kind of instruction book.

Strangly enough, one locomotive a Broadway Limitied SW7 works just fine.
Two Walthers engines, an 0-6-0 and FM work most of the time, but then can just take off and you have to be pretty quick to get back to the power cab and shut off the power. That's a lot of extra fun.

John

 

John:

It sounds like your situation may be more problematic than trying what I am about to suggest, but this is a simple rule of thumb that I have been told applies to all DCC systems that are experiencing runaways.

Always turn on your Command Station first and let it sequence up before turning on any of your Boosters. I don't think that one should even turn them both on simultaneously. I assume that you have both of them plugged into some kind of surge protection and if you don't you should. That means two separate surge protectors or unplugging the Booster fom the surge protector evey time and plugging it back in only after you Command Station has sequenced up.

My experience is that not all locomotives have a runaway when the Booster is turned on first, just some do and they are usually the same ones.

Hope this helps.

 

John:
Which Digitrax Radio System are you using, Simplex or Duplex? I was refering to the Simplex system that uses a UR 90 reciever. The green wires I am refering to are on the top of it's board. If they are there you will not miss them. They may be a different color. They should be about 4" long. Which COmmand station/booster are you using?
Earlier in this thread some one suggested that you join the Yahoo Digitrax group, I highly recommend this. I have been on it for years and I have witnessed first hand how the folks on that group have solved problems even the manufacturer had trouble with. All in all they are very knowledgeable and a great bunch of folks.
BOb Wintle.

 

Runaway Trains Solved, Sort Of

For those following along, I found the problem. It wasn't the antennae (see earlier post), I found those green wires after pulling the module out of the facia. But I got to thinking, when did this problem first pop up. I had my SW7 changed from a default address of 3 to 114 at Rick's house and it was running fine. The problem seemed to start happening when I changed the number on the FM from 3 to 76 and the 0-6-0 from 4 to 43. This was done on an isolated programming track, and I read directions both from Digitrax and a book I purchased.

I took both locomotives and changed their addresses back to 003. Both now run fine it appears. So it is something I'm doing changing the addresses. Annoying, but I'm sure my local Digitrax friends can help me and a lot less worrisome than wiring problems.

John

 

John:
Make sure when you are programming and especially with the locomotive numbers that you talked about that you us 2 digit addressing. With Digitrax 2 digit addresses go from 00 to 127. I know that sounds wierd but that is what it is. I am sure ol krlzwhizkid will be of great help to you. Good Luck, but most of all have fun!!! Happy New Year!
Bob