Hattons 6 pin Decoders lighting issues

[GWRDukedog37]

Hi, I’ve had two Graham Farish class 350s for a little while and have recently got round to fitting dcc into the second one. 
 

for the first one I used gaugemaster chips with no issues. Having come to do the second one, the chips I used aren’t available any more so I’ve used Hattons chips. 
 

the chip in the motor car works perfectly, however, the chips In the end cars only seem to light the forward lights regardless of the direction. Add this to the fact they will only read on the programming track in the motor car I’m really quite stuck for a solution. 
 

does anybody have any tips or advice before I consider returning them?

 

thanks in advance

[Kaput]

Not being able to read them without a motor load is perfectly normal on most DCC systems.

 

For the lights issue....have you tried putting the decoders in the other way round?

[jpendle]

Hi

 

If you press Function key F0 on your DCC controller do the lights turn off?

 

Or do the headlights come on only when the unit is moving?

 

If the answer is 'yes', then as Kaput says, it  really sounds like you have the decoders in upside down and they are sending the motor signal from the decoder to the lights in the end cars rather than the light signal.

 

Regards,

 

John P

[GWRDukedog37]

Hi all thanks for the reply’s. When I press function zero the lights do turn on and off. However when I put the decoder in the other way round the head and tail lights both light up simultaneously but slightly dimmer than when it’s just the headlights on there own?

[newbryford]

If you know that the motor car decoder is working, have you swapped the decoders between the two cars?

 

If the lights are still not working correctly in the trailer car, then the problem is with that, not the decoder.

 

[GWRDukedog37]

Hi all, once again thanks for the reply’s. 
 

I thought I’d offer a small update. 
 

ive tried some gaugemaster decoders in the trailer cars and these work fine. As intended. Whilst the hattons decoders still aren't working so I’m still a little baffled. 

[jpendle]

5 hours ago, GWRDukedog37 said:

Hi all thanks for the reply’s. When I press function zero the lights do turn on and off. However when I put the decoder in the other way round the head and tail lights both light up simultaneously but slightly dimmer than when it’s just the headlights on there own?

Hi,

 So that means you are putting the decoders in the right way up, when they are upside down you get all the lights on but dimmer.

 

The symptoms say that either you have a bad batch of decoders, the one in the motor car may also be bad, but as it has no lights you wouldn't know, or that the decoders have been programmed to change the function mapping for the lights, although, if they were purchased new, then this shouldn't be the case.

 

I would try a reset on the decoders (possibly set CV8 to 8, or sometimes 0) and see if that fixes things.

Or, if you have a loco with lights, try one of them in that to see if things are any better.

If all else fails then return them to where you bought them for a replacement.

 

Regards,

 

John P

[GWRDukedog37]

Thanks for the advice John, I’ll be sure to give that ago tomorrow