DCS Remote Commander and New loco not responding

Carl,

When you put the engine on the track, connect the receiver and give power to the track, does the engine come up with lights and sounds, or dark and silent?

Hi Barry,

The Loco does come on with sound, lights, and smoke, but no motion or any response from the remote. 

The LED or light on the receiver does flash, or goes out when buttons are depressed on the remote.

Carl,

Your engine is not seeing the DCS signal if it starts up without pressing SU/SD on the remote. (with the remote commander hooked up)

Things to try:

There might be a DCS/DCC switch on the bottom of the tender.  Make sure it is set to DCS.  Also try it set to DCC if that doesn't work. (sometimes the switch is in backwards)  Some Railking engines just have a jumper instead of the switch.

Make sure the drawbar is fully seated in the plug.

Make sure all of the plugs going to the board are fully seated.  There is also a board in the engine.

Hope this helps.

Dave

 Carl,

Before you even look at the engine, ensure that the receiver is connected to the tracks with the RED post to the center rail and the Black post to an outside rail. Otherwise, you get exactly what you are experiencing.

Hmm!... if the engine was a proto-2 you could reload the sound file which at one time leave the engine in the  factory default  state. In other words one of the last sound file steps in the sound file download was a factory reset.

Can you do this with proto-3. I don't know and it seems you may also have dcs signal related problems?

So question .. can we load sound files to proto-3 engines and is the factory reset still one of the last steps.

Maybe the dcs loader can help in this situation???

Gregg,

He doesn't have a TIU so can't load a sound file. Further, it sounds like its not necessarily a DCS ID# issue. More like a switch or reversed wires.

You're right, it just dawned on me he didn't have a tiu . Thx.

Thanks guys for the suggestions, although no luck yet.

Barry, I did have the red post to the centre rail, and black to outer, or closest to me.

Dave, I tried the dcc/dcs switch also in both positions, and interestingly it was set to DCC, and now with it in DCS, the loco sound, lights and smoke do not come on, it sits silently but does not respond to the remote.  I also tried switching the red and black wires around so black goes to centre and red outer rail, no difference.  I also opened the tender and checked all plugs and wiring seems ok, haven't got the courage to open the loco itself yet, so I'm still thinking it may be ID?

It still runs fine on a cheap DC power supply in conventional mode.

I anyway have decided to order the DCS and found a good deal online, although its my first time I'm ordering internationally myself and not via a dealer.

I can then use this remote commander possibily as a second controller as long as I can get locos to run on it, so if it's an address or loco ID issue, this Nyc Hudson should work on The DCS Full system.

Do you use the SU button to start it up now that the switch is in DCS position? G

Hi G, yes that's the first button I try, I try it a few times and wait, and then for luck try some other buttons, no sound no lights, nothing at this stage.

Does sound like a ID issue, though I had one customer whose unit would not work on his layout, but worked fine in the store.  Let us know once you get the TIU.  You did order the whole set with remote correct:-)?

When you do the factory reset once you get the DCS System, make sure volume is on, and once the reset is done turn transformer power off and wait 15-30secs.  Then move the engine to the track with Remote commander and it should work.  G

Hi g, Thanks for those tips, yes I ordered item 50-1001, which apparently comes with the TIU and Remote.  I will power it with my 16 V 50 watt AC power supply for now, until I can get a decent AC or DC source built with at least 100 Watt.  I'm still trying to read up on best power supply for DCS, linear or switch mode, regulated or not, and AC or DC, many people say filtered DC works best and I'm not sure if 16 V is enough or if I will really require up to 24 V, It depends if AC or DC and also if one needs to run many trains at max throttle - I just want to extend life of lights and electronics, and I'm not going to run a large layout with no more than 2 trains in motion at a time.

Ps:  wouldn't this issue with my Remote commander system possibly be my power supply?  On the transformer it says 15 V AC 50 Wattoutput, on a cheap tester it read 16.1 V, it's a pretty decent quality heavy unit for 50 Watt.

Hi all, just came across something in the DCS manual, that one can set AC power under Advanced menu to 60 or 50 HZ.  I Confirmed that South Africa wall sockets are 220-230 V 50 Hz AC, so I guess I need to set this to use the DCS System here, unless I use a DC power supply?  They say 60 Hz won't harm the TIU but may not work well with track signals, isn't this maybe an issue with the Remote Commander which I'm having a problem with?

As others have suggested, it's probably an ID issue. The DCS Remote Commander works fine with 12V or even lower...but the lower voltage will limit your top speed.  50 Hz is fine. Since it also works with DC and you say you have a DC supply, you can even use that in the interim if it has more than 50 Watts and you need a bit more power.

Question for those more knowledge on the latest DCS developments - Since he has a tiu, is it possible to use the latest smart phone applications to simulate a full dcs system and reset his locomotive id without having to ship it to someone else?  I apologize if this is a foolish question as I am not fully aware of the capabilites of the new smart phone systems. 

If possible this would likely be less expensive than shipping the loco long distance.

JZ.

JZ,

I apologize if this is a foolish question as I am not fully aware of the capabilites of the new smart phone systems. 

First, it's not a dumb question at all!

Since he has a tiu, is it possible to use the latest smart phone applications to simulate a full dcs system and reset his locomotive id without having to ship it to someone else? 

Unfortunately, there is not a smartphone application at present that will do what he needs done. What's currently available requires a PC and $500-$600 of hardware and software. Further, curiously enough, I don't believe that the current PC-based system has a Factory Reset command.

Regardless, he doen't have a TIU.

Thanks for the input Barry!

Hi, thanks all for your replies, thanks Allan for those Reset steps with DCS full system, when I get my DCS full system at least I can reset a loco I want to run on the smaller remote Commander.  Thanks Stan, I will most likely end up geting a good filtered DC power supply between 18 and 20 V, at least 100 Watts / 5-6 amps.  I dont have space for a large layout, nor the budget actually as our exchange rate currently is killing us.  Would love a UP Bigboy one day when I am big, even if it's Imperial, Premier large steam is out of my reach.