There's been a most interesting thread on how to work on the Bachmann 44 tonner to make it more reliable. I have a different more basic question so rather than "hijack" I'm starting another thread. The 44-tonner I have, still with the stock DC/DCC board, will "lose" the headlight every time it stalls. (Obviously, a sign that I have to clean the track). The NCE Power Cab still indicates that the headlight is lit, but it's not. I need to turn it off and turn it on again in order to "re-light" the headlight. No, it's not the end of the world, but it's annoying. This does not happen to any other loco in my accumulation that's DCC equipped? Here's my question: Is this happening to anyone else? I'm thinking that this is a "function" of the, ahem, "economy" decoder that Bachmann includes with the loco, and, perhaps every other loco that has this board. And therefore the ultimate solution is a decoder replacement. Thoughts?
That's weird. I can turn on the headlight on mine, remove it from the rails, put it back on the rails and the light comes back on. -Mark
I think that's something the NEC system does. My club uses them and I've noticed that type of thing before. When you put a locomotive on the track, the sound will start right away, but the headlight button will need to be pressed a few times before it works.
I have the same thing happening with my NEC powercab and different brands of decoders. It must be a NEC "thing". Fred
Thanks, that helps. The Power Cab just had the upgrade to the new software (Release 1.65) so if that's the situation, the new version doesn't change things. This doesn't happen with any other loco I own, but no other loco I own has the Bachmann decoder, either.
CSX Robert, I'm not sure what you mean by that. I have a PowerCab so there is no "command station" per se (the PowerCab is self-contained). Meanwhile, it turns out that some of the local guys do have the same issue, and not just with the Bachmann 44 tonner and not just in N Scale. I think I'll call myself lucky to have this headlight problem with only one loco. I have been told that turning off dual mode (that is, enabling DCC only and dropping the DC operation) is an option for better performance. The 44 tonner is in the "repair shop" at the moment awaiting Z Scale couplers... and a new truck (don't ask!) so this is on hold for a while.
The command station is integrated into the Power Cab, but it is still a command station with options that are configurable by the user. If you got to programming, one of the options is to setup the command station. Under that one of the options is function refresh enable. The default setting is no - if you change it to yes, then the command station will continually send out function commands to refresh the function states on decoders that do not remember them after a power outage. Sense this is a command station option, if you upgrade to a SB3a or Power House Pro system, you would need to change the option on the new command station as well.
