Gaugemaster DCC27 decoder not driving motor?

[ianjeffery]

Hi All,

 

have a weird one....

 

I have a GaugeMaster DCC27 decoder in a loco ( Hornby class 37 from 20 years ago )....

 

it was working ok, but never great. I then decided to amend the deceleration as it was taking ages to stop ( it somehow gained a vlaue of 94, rather than 3 !!! ).

 

since changing it, there seems to be NO movement from the motor at all now.

 

I know the motor works, as tried different chips and it runs fine - plus when reading all the CV values, the wheels turn very small amounts....

 

Anyone had similar issues ? they decoders seem quite poor quality.

[newbryford]

Hi All,

 

have a weird one....

 

I have a GaugeMaster DCC27 decoder in a loco ( Hornby class 37 from 20 years ago )....

 

it was working ok, but never great. I then decided to amend the deceleration as it was taking ages to stop ( it somehow gained a vlaue of 94, rather than 3 !!! ).

 

since changing it, there seems to be NO movement from the motor at all now.

 

I know the motor works, as tried different chips and it runs fine - plus when reading all the CV values, the wheels turn very small amounts....

 

Anyone had similar issues ? they decoders seem quite poor quality.

 

Have you tried a decoder reset? CV8=8

 

Cheers,

Midk

[Brian]

As stated above, setting CV8 value of 8 will reset most decoders, but do check the decoder manual to see if CV8 is the correct reset CV.  It will completely return the decoder to its default settings, including the address number to 3

It should be the CV value setting trialled for unresponsive decoders as it will restore everything to default values and often return what seems a non responsive decoder back to life. 

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

If it doesn't respond immediately to a reset, set it aside and try again with resets a few more times over a couple of weeks. This was advice from a German retailer, many years ago now, and it has 'come through' for me on decoders that went unresponsive, but had no directly observable evidence of physical failure like the sight or smell of component combustion. (The retailer couldn't explain why it works, and neither can I...)

 

 

... they decoders seem quite poor quality.

They are only cheap consumer grade electronics, and they have to work in a torrent of electric garbage. I have been quite pleased to have minimal failure, now 14 years in on the earliest group of installations. Lots of other small consumer electronics items bought since have already irretrievably fallen over. My wife's Nokia slide 6000, which she lurved and still pines for - so small, so neat, so smart and discreet - just for a start...