Maybe I should call it Hassle Mustle…

I finally got my replacement decoder for GN400 (an NCE D13SRJ) and spend some time wiring it up. I got it all working, installed the shell and then nothing on the test run. I open it back up, re-solder the power leads… do a test run.. put the shell on but don’t fasten it down… do a test run… fasten it down… no power on test run.

So now I have to figure out why my solder’s aren’t holding on the pickups. I have to say I do like NCE’s rule 17 lighting implementation though.

Trouble On The Rails

Last week I was at an operating session and the owner of the layout suggested I could bring some of my equipment for the next session. My DM&IR locomotives and EMD Leasing locomotive are all in operating state (and speed matched to boot). However the Hustle Muscle was still a work in progress as it was not a DCC ready model. I was trying to repurpose a DH165A0 from my DM&IR SD18 (not sure what’s wrong with it, crazy pickup problems).

While I could program the decoder and read CV values on the programming track it was shorting out on the track. I even went to the trouble of completely disconnecting everything and using alligator clips from the power leads but that didn’t resolve it. I eventually released the “magic smoke” before I figured out what was causing it. I’ve had this problem before with a DH163 but for that one I had a receipt and qualified for the warranty replacement. I really don’t know how long I’ve had it and certainly don’t know where the receipt is so I didn’t even try the warranty route.

I decided to try something different this time around and ended up picking up a NCE D13SRJ. It appears to fit all my requirements for supported features and appears to have a pretty small footprint (a big plus).

Speed Matching success (sort of)

I had a little bit of success yesterday matching my DM&IR 210 and 413, I first discovered that one of the BEMF options in digitrax decoders is turned off in consist mode and it had a pretty significant effect on the speed table of the athearn drive train. It didn’t seem to affect the Kato SD38-2 as much but that has a different model of the decoder so I’m not sure if it’s the better kato drive train or the different decoder.

Basically the Athearn was running at half the normal speed when I set a consist address, I fixed the Athearn but have yet to verify the kato is still correct to my speed table (it’s close). My Bachman SD45 (Hustle Muscle) has been a bit of a chore to match though, it doesn’t want to run very smoothly at low speeds without BEMF turned on (which of course I can’t have on as it won’t work in consist mode.