Just got a Kato UP SD70ACe with a Digitrax SDN144K1E Sound decdoder installed. Bought it on line. Seller said it was tested and worked fine. The engine moves about 5 feet and stops. Sits for a few seconds and goes another 5 feet and stops. Sometimes it wont start unless I removes it from the track and put it back on. Am I doing something wrong or is it just a bunch of crap. This is my first engine with sound and not very happy. Any ideas ot there?
Sound engines are REALLY picky about track. Your track has to be really clean, and so do the wheels. Clean the you know what out of both and then try again. If it's working now, just balking, it's most likely dirty wheels and/or track.
Check the points where the decoder contacts are hitting the frame and make sure the contacts are snug. I found that on my Atlas GP38, the sound decoder was just a little bit loose where the contacts were hitting the frame, and it was doing exactly what you are describing. A little kapton tape on one side helped quit a bit.
Here is a link to another thread that may help: http://www.trainboard.com/grapevine/showthread.php?122563-SDN144K1E I Installed one of these decoders in an SD40-2. The symptoms were similar to what you're seeing only mine only moved about 5 inches before it would reset itself. While Digitrax says adding an external capacitor to the decoder is optional, I couldn't get the unit to run reliably without adding a capacitor. The problem is the one Digitrax includes with the decoder wouldn't fit in the locomotive. I solved the problem by adding a small surface mount capacitor. The locomotive runs fine now.
I concur with the above. External keep-alive capacitors are mandatory with Digitrax sound decoders. You can get 100uF surface mount ones from Digikey, the same size as the 47uF ones. Two or three of those in parallel are great in keeping things going.
