Non- cooperative DCC equipted gas mechanical

[Catt]

Hi,
About a year and a half ago I bought a DCC equipted gas mechanical.other than a short inspection the loco was never out of the box till last night.I put it on the club's layout, selected the 003 setting and nothing happened.No motion, no lighting, nothing.

We checked it for straight DC and it runs fine but I want my DCC.

While I am asking for help/information I have another one that is straight DC ,the question is How much trouble would it be to put DCC in this one? 

Thanks for any help.

[Biglars]

These are simple DCC conversions. I have done a few but I never did a SBS for this conversion. Are you any good at soldering it will be required.

In the next couple of weeks I will be rebuilding a davenport that us a stack of parts that was sent to me as scrap. I will be putting DCC in it so I will take pictures and post something that will help.

Larry

[railtwister]

Hi,
About a year and a half ago I bought a DCC equipted gas mechanical.other than a short inspection the loco was never out of the box till last night.I put it on the club's layout, selected the 003 setting and nothing happened.No motion, no lighting, nothing.

We checked it for straight DC and it runs fine but I want my DCC.

While I am asking for help/information I have another one that is straight DC ,the question is How much trouble would it be to put DCC in this one? 

Thanks for any help.

Are you sure the loco actually has a DCC decoder? You may need to look inside to be certain, someone may have removed the decoder and replaced it with jumper pins, or switched the loco with a non-DCC one.  If you are sure it does have a decoder, have you tried reprogramming the loco to another address, or restoring the decoder to it's original default settings?

Bill in FtL

[GG1onFordsDTandI]

Check to make sure it has a board. Note DCC ready has plugs for a board, for quick and easy installation. DCC equipped has the board installed. If its there, push and pull the connectors to reseat the plugs and/or reset defaults. Its out of warranty, so its time to learn to use an ohmmeter, and solder, not too hard. Or contact the repair dept. Be aware, repairs can take months. 

[Catt]

It says DCC equipted right on the box and in the enclosed literature.The loco is not a high priority item for the moment and I have done nothing with it.Thanks for the suggestions I will keep them in mind once I get into the project. .

[Steve Magee]

You didn't say what DCC system your club has. If it is NCE and you entered "003", you have entered a "long" address - I won't get into "long" short addresses here - and it won't respond. Try just entering "3" instead - again, this is for NCE systems only as far as I am aware.

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

[Catt]

I tried 003.then 03 then 3 and it does nothing.I have been working on a N scale show layout so the GM is just setting in its box for now.

[Steve Magee]

Try putting it on a program track and see if you can read CV1. If it shows "3", and if CV29 is set for short address (a value of "6" for 28 speed steps and DC operation) it should be good to go. If it is set for this and it still doesn't work, and unless you are really well versed in DCC resets and CV programming, time to send it back to Bachmann.

Or rip the whole thing out and install an ESU Loksound micro (It can be done)

Steve Magee
Newcastle NSW Aust

[Catt]

I have 2 gas mechanicals.1 is DCC the other is just DC. I think I am going to replace the Bachmann decoder and put a decoder in the other one.I have not decided what decoder I will use yet.

[Catt]

Replaced the B-mann decoder with a Digitrax DH165IP everything is good now. Also found out the other gm is DCC ready but requires hard wiring in a decoder or harness,or buying a new board from B-mann with the 8 pin plug.

I think I will get one of the guys at club (with better soldering skills than I have) to solder in a new plug.

[railtwister]

Replaced the B-mann decoder with a Digitrax DH165IP everything is good now. Also found out the other gm is DCC ready but requires hard wiring in a decoder or harness,or buying a new board from B-mann with the 8 pin plug.

I think I will get one of the guys at club (with better soldering skills than I have) to solder in a new plug.

Hi Catt,

Thanks for posting the follow-up, and I'm glad the new decoder got the loco working.

I'm still curious though, did you ever try to reset the old decoder back to it's factory defaults, or read it back with a programmer like JMRI's DecoderPro to determine what DCC address it might have been set to?

Bill in FtL

[Catt]

Tried the unit on two different systems,and it would not do anything.I really should have checked it when I first got it but shortly after I won the auction (from the Favorite Spot a great place to deal with) we lost our layout home.So the only thing it did out of the box was pose pretty for a roster pic.