Bachmann 150 and 21 pin decoder

[petertg]

Just this week I received my latest acquisition, a DCC ready Bachmann 150 DMU Regional Railways livery (Leeds-York destinations) together with a 21 pin Bachmann decoder 554. I ran the model in as DC only on a provisional layout and it worked OK. I then fitted the decoder (right way up) and to my surprise there was absolutely no response to the commands. I replaced the blanking chip and ran the model under DCC as a 0 address and it worked again. Bachmann have not been able to give me any explanation. Can anyone suggest what the cause may be? With the body off and the 21 pin decoder in place, I found that there is current in the terminals at both ends of the power car but something fails in the middle. Any comments would oblige. My digital system is a Piko starter set, which I know has limitations. I am fully aware that the simplest reply is that the decoder is dud, but one must presume that a new thing will work well. My problem is that I live in Spain and I bought it on-line from Hattons, so I can't just go back to the shop and ask for a new one. Also I have no way of testing the decoder. Thus, if anyone can suggest another line of action, I would be grateful.

 

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You can forget what I say above. I have to-day refitted the decoder and, instead of pressing it right down as far as it would go, I left in the air, just on the end of the pins and Lo and behold!, it worked. I say this, in case the same happens to someone else some day.

 

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A final comment. I believe that I have finally discovered the secret of this decoder that has caused me so much trouble. It is apparently key-specific. Namely, my PIKO handbook states that to activate a loco you have to press the Loco Icon key on the remote control, enter the loco address and than press any key except four specific channel keys. However, with this decoder and loco, after entering the address it is necessary to press the f0 key, otherwise nothing happens. In another place I have read acomment that the light dummy car may cause problems when the power car is pushing. I have had some problems that I have not yet fully investigated. Has anybody tried weighting the dummy car?