Help needed with strange goings on

[shanks522]

Hello all,

 

 I'm no expert in DCC and still relatively a novice, my layout Halstow-on-sea is not that large and i'm using a Digitrax Zephyr xtra with all loco's bar one using Lenz silver decoders. All has run fine for the last couple of years then today a couple of strange things happened, First off the layout appears to be draining more power from the controller, example is a Bachmann 37 with sound would move off with a small amount of power, now all of a sudden it needs more juice to move, The second thing that is strange is a Hornby 60, It has run perfectly smooth since day one, Today though it keeps stopping every 10/15 seconds, will pull away say on half power, run fine then slow down to a standstill, wait a few seconds then move off again, Its not shorting the layout as the controller seems to be unaffected and also the lights stay illuminated.

 

This has had me head scratching all day and wondered if anyone has any idea's?

 

Cheers

 

Graham.

[richard brown]

Have you tried a reset of your unit. Also have you tried removing all your train and addeding them one at a time till you find which has gone wrong

 

Richard

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

One question that should always be asked when a system suddenly performs differently, is 'did I change anything immediately before noticing this?'. In this case the focus of that question should be on the electrical side of the layout, and all the vehicles on it.

 

Resets of decoders and systems as Richard has already suggested are the main standby when anything odd happens in DCC operation. That may well fix the immediate trouble. However, if the underlying cause of the problem is unresolved, there is a probability that it will recur. My plan would be to make a note of observations, and retain these somewhere easily found.

[Oldddudders]

Do you by any chance have the 60 in the stack twice? I can get that effect if I have an ancillary throttle dialled to the same address as a loco, but set at zero. The sluggish behaviour of the 37 might be explained if you have been running a DC loco on address 00, thus stretching the DCC packets. The suggestion of resetting should cure both problems.

[shanks522]

Thankyou for the reply's and suggestions gents, 

 

Richard, I haven't reset the unit as i wouldn't know how, will look into that, I did remove all the stock though which made no difference.

 

34theletterbetweenB&D, I did think this and worked backwards to see if anything i've done recently had changed things but to no avail, will keep note now though.

 

Ian, I think you might have hit the nail on the head, i've just fired the layout up and when i set the 60 it looks like it maybe that, will attempt to undo it.

 

 

Thanks again,

 

Graham.