decoder issues

[riss2509]

Last night I took 4 units down to the club to do a test run. 3 I soldered a harness in to the GP frame, the last I converted the motor to a DCC ready motor with an athearn board. 2 units are athearn blue box, 2 are RTR ( essentially blue box ). I picked up a bunch of NCE D13SRJ decoders as well. Well, added the harness to the GP's, did a test run using a digitrax decoder and worked great! Last night installed the decoders, and on our Digitrax system, its showing No decoder. The wiring looks fine on all the engines. The one thing I noticed was my distributor for the decoders uses his own custom packaging, It looks to be very thick on the ends. Could this be the issue cause it does appear I'm not making a complete connection. 2nd, I moved 1 of the new decoders to a DCC ready unit, and it took the programming, but, still wont get recognized on the GPs and SD I added them too. Any ideas?

[riss2509]

Me neither, all my unit except 1 is NCE D13SRJs. I should say im trying to program the address ( better wording ). I looked at the last couple decoders Ive got that havent installed and Im going to try and trim back the " wrapping " a bit to expose the plug. Im really thinking its a poor connection based on that fact, also considering that they ran great when tested with a digitrax decoder.

[CIOR]

Welcome to my total Digitrax frustration world. AND MANY OTHERS!

I randomly have Digitrax decoders that fail to show anything there. I've bought new ones and had this issue. I've put in TCS decoders in the same harness and not had a issue, or the 8 pin and not had an issue.

There are many people out there talking about the issue you describe. Heck, I've got engines that have been running for months with no issues, then the next session, the engine (in the middle of a consist) will just not respond. Pull it out, put on the program track, NO DECODER FOUND! Ya, the decoder fairy came last night and pulled the DH123 out!....

Put a NCE or TCS decoder in there and be happy! Toss the Digijunker in the trash and be happy!

Best story yet, I got a 165ip and got to looking, new in package, it was missing the motor control pin off it. No joke, several of my regular operators were there to witness that joke!

[riss2509]

Well, the funny thing is im using NCE. Im going to try a reset on them tonight to see if that may work. The only reason I used a digitrax was it was available by one of the guys at the club and I hadnt ordered anymore NCEs yet.

[CIOR]

Ya, I wouldn't bother with the Digitrax seriously, not worth your time.
CV08=08, but that is only good if the decoder wants to say "I'M HERE".

[riss2509]

looks to be a grounding issue, going to work on drilling some holes and mounting with a screw. I was hoping my usual way of pinning it under the motor with electrical tape would work this time , but oh well.

[CIOR]

Drill and TAP, Its funny how a ground is almost always the biggest pain in your rear. Its like that with almost anything model railroading..LOL

Still, trash the junker..haha

[riss2509]

And put all my hard work in the crapper?!??! Actually was able to secure a ground to the frame without tapping. AND, its holding very well! Had 4 of the units out running last night, now, just need to get my lighting and figure out proper LED size for my DA ditch strobe castings.

[sd45longhoodfoward]

I have had similar issues with my clubs digitrax system I used digitrax aho123 decoder if memory serves me right.I installed it on a blue box GP50 programed it at home with my MRC squared advance on my layout ran them ditch lights worked and flashed proper.took them the next day to the club layout with it,s highly overrated digitrax system it didn't even recognize the loco.so the a few digitrax gurus wanted to mess with it i said no took it back home it ran perfect.to make a long story short they sould call them Donkeytrax 1 they are as stubborn as one and 2 as temperamental also

[diesel]

the first thing that jumped out at me was on the RTR units you have that light board with the NMRA plug. Actually Athearn used a 9 pin plug whereas the rest are 8, right.

What I do and tell the others at the club who have that problem: remove the board and discard it. If you have frustration you'd like to get rid of step on the board(s). -might help. Then, wire the units like the blue boxes.

Next, I know drilling a 256 screw into the frame has been done forever, but I think it's just more DCC to solder wires to the metal sides of the trucks. Sometimes the connection through the frame is unreliable. I know the wiring looks solid. I say the same thing about my/my friend's work, right up till I find out what the problem is. lol

Also, make sure the decoder is pushed all the way onto the plug. I've seen that happen to a couple guys too, as they realize what happened after the meltdown...

Hope it works out for you, that's frustrating for anyone!

[CIOR]

Actually they have a dual plug system.
8 pin and 9 pin.

Everyone I know of now removes them and just hard ties them. Too many issues otherwise.