dcs engines dead

 Is having the legacy engine on the track screwing up the program.

It could,

I think the simple answer is:  charge the battery.  Have you tried to run it conventionally?  Does the battery hold enough of a charge to run it that way?  If not, then charge the battery.  The DCS address needs to have a good battery to write into memory and be recognized by DCS.

If the loco is not listed in the remote, as it may not be after a reset, you have to "add engine."  I reset the remote when cloing my remotes, and that clears out everything.

The tender is sitting on the track now with 18 volts on the track to charge.  I have a mth charger but no place on the tender to plug it into.  I took the shell off and the plug to the battery from the circuit board just plugs the battery to the board and not other place to plug it in.  I thought these engines had plug in holes on the tender floor to charge butt Gn S2 has no hole to plug into so it sits on the track with nothing else on it to charge.

Post the model number of the loco.

Early ones did not have charge port.  Does the tender have center rail pickups?  If not you need to connect it to the engine to get power to the tender.

Plug in an alkaline to see if it work in conventional.  If not, it may have died. 

If it runs go back and try to add to dcs or do a recover engine.   G

I get no signal reading on the handheld.  18 volts is running through the variable I input to output to track but the handheld says no signal.  Does that mean my tiu is shot.  Suggestions as t how to trouble shoot the tiu?  All the handheld says on screen after any command is ina su all  what  does that mean?

Those are the add keys for trying to add an engine.  You need to say exactly what the Remote Says after you press a butting.  I don't think there is a "No Signal"

THe easiest way to confirm TIU versus engine, is put another engine you know works on the VAR 1 track and try it.  If it adds or is controllable, the issue is with your engine.

Also do a conventional test with just a transformer to see if the engine starts up.  If not, there is a problem with the engine.

 first step always, Is the remote communicating with the tiu? if not nothing else will work.

hit the "read" bottom left on the dcs remote. Do you get the message tiu  found? It probably is but we don't know for sure unless you tell us.

did you get the engine working>?if not what new clues due you have from testing

Alan

will try the read button tonight as I do not think the hand held is talking to the tiu  I pressed the on button and turned the handheld on and when screen came on I pressed the read button.  Nothing happened until I pressed the off button and then it said tiu address number 1 not found.  What do I do now?

Have you tethered the remote to the TIU using a phone handset cord?

I have to get a phone chord tomorrow.  Check me out on connections.  Transformer to fixed voltage 1 + to red terminal input and black to - black terminal input and output red terminal output center rail and-  to output terminal black to outside rail.

engine is 20- 3145-1 gn 4-8-4

Ironlake2,

In your first post you stated you were using variable 1 channel. Please check to make sure you are using fixed 1 in and out.

Joe B.

Ironlake, does the LED inside the TIU light?  If not, there is a power problem.  And, if so, when you power up, how many flashes does it do?  The number of "outs" should equal its ID number in your remote.

Per JOe B's comment, if you're not using fixed 1, you must power the TIU through the AUX port.

I was wrong I am using fixed 1,  TIU red light blinks twice does that mean it tiu 2, how do I find out what my remotes address is so I assume they should be the same number.

 Yes  A two blinker tiu means  it is tiu #2.  All you have to do right now is add it to the remote with Menu/ System/ tiu setup/ Add tiu . Add tiu #2.  Although the remote should have the same address it's not really required.  It just speeds up communications . 

I would add tiu #2 and try the read again, be patient,  You may get the message tiu #1 not found, and hopefully another message TIU#2 found.

We can fix the other unwanted tiu  later.   The important thing now is finding Tiu #2. Good luck

It makes no difference what number the remote is.  What is important is that the remote knows your TIU has TIU ID #2.  The MTH manual that came with your DCS set clearly tells how to do this.

It is not necessary that you have a TIU as #1 in order to have a TIU #2.

ok now I get tiu 1 not found and tiu 2 found.  Read gives me engine out of range.  Cleaned the wheels and rollers on 1st engine and it took and found it and all works ok now.  That took a high learning curve and why I say mth dcs is not for non electrical mined people.  Thank all of you that helped me get it solved.  Somehow my tiu changed from code 1 to code 2 and the remote was still on 2.  I also found the connection for the gn engine charger.  Under the oil fill cap on top of the tender so it was on charger overnight.,

So far so good,,, The read finds tiu # 2   and you can add an engine good stuff.

You can leave things as is and leave your tiu with address #2   You might as well delete TIu #1

 Menu/ System / Tiu set up / Delete tiu/delete tiu #1

Do the read thing again and hopefully you ll get the message TIU #2 found no aiu box connected.   give it a try,,,

again thank you all for your help and I was forced to learn more about my dcs system.  When your 71 years old you tend to think it is too much to learn, but you guys helped me change my mind.  Good to keep my mind thinking.

Now I put the engine in the 4 chuff per rev mode and when it gets going fast 42 mph it quits chuffing and slow it down it starts chuffing.  After waiting 2 months to get it back this is not fully fixed.  any suggestions?

It sounds like "Click-Clack" is turned on.

It sounds like "Click-Clack" is turned on.

Exactly. That's normal behavior for Clickity-Clack in auto mode.

Your right.  now how did I manage to turn that feature on, never tried it before.  We are now back to normal running.  By the way the drawbar had to be replaced by mth as the printed circuit was bad somewhere.  The new drawbar has a thicker metal  above the circuit board.  Do not have a clue how that broke.