I recently acquired a Bachmann FT-A DCC On-Board locomotive with a PCB01-B board. I have a Digitrax system and when I put the locomotive on powered track, I get no response from the locomotive. I'm getting 14+ volts to the red/black wire solder joints on the pcb from both trucks, but that's it. No light to the LED. What can I do from here to troubleshoot?
Make sure there are no loose or incorrect connections. Make sure the decoder is installed correctly. If possible install jumpers for standard DC operation and try running it with standard DC power. If you ever noticed excessive heat, smoke, or a burning smell then either the decoder or board is bad and needs replaced.
The PCB01 board is integral with the dcc decoder. There are only the red/black wires coming from the trucks to the board, then a brown/gray wires to motor from board. All are soldered wires. Don't know how I could bypass dcc for dc control? Is there a plug-n-play dcc sound decoder made for this engine?
Is this used? Have you checked the copper wipers on each truck to see if they are contacting the inside of the wheels? Or if perhaps, they have so much lube on them that they are insulated from being able to contact and conduct electricity from the wheels?
It is used. I checked the trucks and cleaned contacts. I'm getting power to pcboard from rails. I think I'll go on the assumption the board is fried. I'm going to try wiring cheap mobile decoder directly, bypassing board to see if it will run.
Is the Bachmann FT, with DCC OnBoard a good enough running engine to warrant the investment in a Soundtraxx Tsunami decoder?
Before doing anything drastic yet, try a reset of the decoder. Set CV 8 = 8. Turn power off. Restore power. Address the loco as 3. See if it works. The FT as new is a very smooth running unit. If you didn't pay too much for it, then a new board could be worthwhile. Good luck. Dave
Quote from: DAVE2744 on October 25, 2014, 02:00:36 PM
Before doing anything drastic yet, try a reset of the decoder. Set CV 8 = 8. Turn power off. Restore power. Address the loco as 3. See if it works. The FT as new is a very smooth running unit. If you didn't pay too much for it, then a new board could be worthwhile. Good luck. Dave
This is exactly what I was going to say..So common fright when new to DCC. Gave engine Address 5205 say. Did some other programming. Inadvertently returned loco's address to factory default '3'. But still trying to run #5205..no response ...!