Prodigy advance "consist" problem.

[GrahamB]

Last night I was trying to take some photos of the layout with my daughter and wasn't paying attention to what buttons I was pressing. One of my locos then stopped responding.

It seems that somehow I pressed the "consist" button and now can't clear it. Not that I think it helps, the loco address is 30.

When I select that address "Cons" appears in the top left hand side of the display and the loco refuses to do anything.
Placing the loco on my test track and using my SPROG, the loco works fine.
I have checked CV19 and that is set to zero.
If I change the loco address using my Sprog and then call up that loco using the new address on the Advance controller, the loco works fine.
This tells me that the problem sits with the controller (I think)
I have followed the instructions to clear a universal or "old style" consist.
I have followed the instructions to clear a "advanced" consist using all the addresses I have for my other locos to no avail.
Turning the unit off and on does not help.

What I think I have done is to set up (Probably incorrectly) a consist with the address of 30. Sadly it just won't clear.

Any ideas please?

[rob D2]

There’s two sorts of consist . Here’s the manual gen on clearing both .

 

 

[GrahamB]

Thanks but I've tried both of those to no avail. I suspect I didn't complete the setup process and I've confused it.

[rob D2]

I’d email gaugemaster - I’ve had my set 15 years and the support is excellent ,

 

sorry, I didn’t read the original post very well !

Edited July 16, 2020 by rob D2

[GrahamB]

All offers of help are always appreciated. I've e-mailed Gaugemaster.

[Paul80]

Have you tried going through the setup again, adding it to a consist, confirming that it works in the consist then clearing the consist from memory, that might work if its stuck half configured.

 

Paul

[GrahamB]

Less than one hour later and it's fixed  

Gaugemaster called me back and talked me through the process.

I did offer to post the fix here but they have asked me not to as it's not a guaranteed fix and a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, which I understand.

I have written the process down for future reference though.

If nothing else, it's an excellent demonstration of Gaugemaster's excellent customer service.

Edited July 17, 2020 by GrahamB

[Nigelcliffe]

54 minutes ago, GrahamB said:

Less than one hour later and it's fixed  

Gaugemaster called me back and talked me through the process.

I did offer to post the fix here but they have asked me not to as it's not a guaranteed fix and a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing, which I understand.

I have written the process down for future reference though.

If nothing else, it's an excellent demonstration of Gaugemaster's excellent customer service.

 

Its an excellent demonstration of why the Prodigy is a poor choice of system.  Basic stuff is a "secret" incase the punters might use it.  Had you not posted here, and got answers, how would you have fixed it ??   

 

There is no reason why the reset-to-factory mechanism for a DCC system should be a secret. 

 

- Nigel

 

[rob D2]

34 minutes ago, Nigelcliffe said:

 

Its an excellent demonstration of why the Prodigy is a poor choice of system.  Basic stuff is a "secret" incase the punters might use it.  Had you not posted here, and got answers, how would you have fixed it ??   

 

There is no reason why the reset-to-factory mechanism for a DCC system should be a secret. 

 

- Nigel

 

Prodigy is great ! 15 years - easy to use and great support 

[Paul80]

At least it does not need to be sent back to America for repairs unlike another popular system

 

But agree the reset process should not be kept secret

[Pete the Elaner]

7 minutes ago, Paul80 said:

At least it does not need to be sent back to America for repairs unlike another popular system

 

 

Since it is a re-badged US system, that would depend on what is wrong with it.

Gaugemaster's lifetime guarantee only covers products they designed, which does not include Prodigy.

[Paul80]

But we was talking about the Prodigy and not talking about their lifetime guarantee

 

Although it is a re badge MRC they are still able to do most repairs over here

 

Peace

[GrahamB]

I agree it's not a trade secret but I was asked not to.

The reason being that I was asked a number of additional questions (Too many for me to remember) and it seems that there were different options depending upon my answers. Had the fix not worked I would have needed to send the unit to Gaugemaster for a reset.

I think it is important to note that they called me back within an hour of my e-mail to them and there was no charge. It involved a number of steps which I didn't write down. No-one is going to thank me if I document it here incorrectly and it makes matters worse.

Sorry.

[Nigelcliffe]

So, what's the reply to the next forum member who asks for help on this topic ? 

 

Or the reply to GrahamB when stuck on something else ?   Tough, find out for yourself ?    Forums work when people share how to do things.

 

8 hours ago, GrahamB said:

Gaugemaster called me back and talked me through the process.

I did offer to post the fix here but …....

I have written the process down for future reference though.

 

30 minutes ago, GrahamB said:

It involved a number of steps which I didn't write down. No-one is going to thank me if I document it here incorrectly and it makes matters worse.
 

 

Make your mind up.

 

 

 

 

- Nigel

[GrahamB]

1 hour ago, Nigelcliffe said:

So, what's the reply to the next forum member who asks for help on this topic ? 

 

Or the reply to GrahamB when stuck on something else ?   Tough, find out for yourself ?    Forums work when people share how to do things.

 

 

 

Make your mind up.

 

 

 

 

- Nigel

OK. Last post. Had I obtained agreement to post I would have checked and noted the steps. They didn't so I didn't.

[Paul80]

You could always PM the answer to those that took the time to try and help.

 

You might not 'remember all the questions but I bet you remember what button presses worked.

 

Bit pointless asking for help then not sharing the solution 

 

Some on here are getting old but still have long memories for this sort of thing

[rob D2]

14 hours ago, Nigelcliffe said:

So, what's the reply to the next forum member who asks for help on this topic ? 

 

Or the reply to GrahamB when stuck on something else ?   Tough, find out for yourself ?    Forums work when people share how to do things.

 

 

 

Make your mind up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

if you have the same problem , ring Gaugemaster .

 

Stop the unecessary needling , and find something more productive to do .

 

[Paul80]

I know the answer but I am not allowed to tell 

[paftrain]

Nobody needs to get stroppy - it was resolved quickly in a phone call with Gaugemaster. I returned mine to them for a repair, years after I bought it, and  they repaired it for no charge and posted it back post free. Excellent service!

[AW]

I had the same - or a very similar - problem as the OP while showing a mate how to use his new Prodigy Advance a few days ago. One of us, probably me, contrived to inadvertently set up his only DCC enabled loco as a consist. After subsequently trying to select that loco as a loco (i.e. pressing "Loco", entering the loco id, and then "Enter) the controller repeatedly displayed "Cons" against the loco id in its display. Not something I noticed at first, but the manifestation was that the loco responded to sound requests, but would not move when requested to.

 

After eventually spotting the unwanted "Cons" on the display it became evident that consisting was the problem, and we needed to clear the consist. Reading the manual, because I'd never used consisting before, we tried both methods to clear the unwanted consist. It was clear from the fact that the loco id was a four character id, and I'd never entered any explicit three-character consist address, that this could only be an "old style" consist. But following the instructions in the Prodigy manual to clear it did not work.

 

At that point I started Googling, and quickly fell on this thread. Bingo, same symptoms, same controller, so I was more than a little disappointed to find no solution offered. This was a Sunday, followed by a Bank Holiday, so tech support was likely some days away.

 

Further testing revealed that the same problem didn't manifest on my own Prodigy Express, and we could also work around it by changing the loco id, after which it would work fine on both controllers. So the problem was clearly a function of the Advance, not the loco decoder or any of its CV settings. But it needed fixing, there should always be a way to reverse a config setting on the controller, especially something as simple as a consist

 

In the event the following day I found a very simple solution that worked for us, which I record here lest anyone else fall on this thread looking for a suggestion. It was indeed an issue with the controller, and all that was required was to remove the relevant loco id from the controller's recall list. What was happening was that because the loco id was remembered in that list as a consist any attempt to manually enter that same id simply recalled that id up as a consist. It wasn't possible to enter that same id as a loco. After deleting that unwanted recall entry from the list everything worked just fine. The deletion was done in just a few seconds as per the manual, but is here for reference...

 

1. Get the offending loco id up on the display (showing as "Cons" rather than "Loco").

2. Hit the Del key, it needs to be held down for a couple of seconds and the offending id will disappear (replaced by the next one in the recall list)

3. To save this deletion pull the base unit connection out of the controller handset while switched on, it will briefly display "SVdA" before powering off.

 

After reconnecting the handset we were able to enter the loco id (now displayed as "Loco" not "Cons"), and all was well. There may be other versions of this problem that need another solution, but this is a very simple, quick and benign method to try.