DCC Wagon Lights Not Working

[JJ1892]

Hi,

 

I hav tried to add light to 3 KATO Japanese model trains (all DCC friendly). I took the king's path and combine KATO 11-211 LED Interior Lighting Kit and Kato 29-353 DCC Decoder FR11. My DCC system is control by KATO 29-125 DCC Controller D103.

 

The first one (2 wagon trains) worked well and F1 does lights the wagons.

Then the 3rd got burned with smoke popping from the train. Putting another train on the rails without changing anything worked well so I guess it is not the infrastructure (polarity, electricity etc). While I know you can have trains with smoke in DCC, I doubt this is the best example...   

The other 3 just don't work. They blip for a second when I forget to turn off the power to the rails and put the wagons on, but F1 will not turn them on. 

 

I checked the golden rods that they are in full contact, re-checked the installation and nothing. 

 

My experience with KATO is 99.99 working products, so I'm assuming I did not get a malfunctioning set of products (bought from Plaza Japan which always send me products in great state). So I assume it is my fault but could not decipher why. Any leads for investigation would be much appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

 

JJ1892

[Madsing]

In my experience, smoke means short circuit. Wrong contact between one of the rails (= full DCC) and any component of the decoder. Can you send us a photo? If the FR11 is all black, smelly and burnt it’s most certainly dead.

A blip of light when powering on is normal. All my FR11s do that. If turning light on and off does not work, check the DCC address and CVs. Also, try resetting the decoder.

Marc

[JJ1892]

Thanks @Madsing. Indeed messing with the CVs and DCC address eventually made it work (did not have time to autopsy the burnt FR11 though). 

 

One thing I can't understand: the AD2 and AD4 can have the loco address. But with the FR11, there is also CV1 which is restricted to 1-127. So if I understand correctly, if I use FR11 I have to use lower number (range 0-127) addresses and have the same one in AD2 _and_ CV1. Namely, the Loco identity has to be put into AD2 and CV1 for the FR11 to work.  Did I get it right ?

 

 

[Madsing]

CV1 is AD2. In other words, AD2 (the short address, also called two-digit address) of the decoder is stored in the CV (configuration variable) number 1 of the decoder, i.e. CV1. As you wrote, it is between 1 and 127.

As a single CV can only store numbers between 0 and 255, the decoders needs several CVs to store a long address, also called extended address or four-digit address or AD4. A long address (AD4) is stored in CV17 and CV18, plus one configuration bit in CV29.

 

I have never tried to use long addresses with the FR11, but several forum members report that it works.

 

Marc

[chadbag]

3 hours ago, Madsing said:

I have never tried to use long addresses with the FR11, but several forum members report that it works.

 

I have a bunch of FR11.  Not sure I've ever installed them but I have installed FL12 and may have tested FR11 and I never use short addresses.  I'm guessing the FR11 should work fine with long addresses.

 

[Lapis]

Hi.

 

This web may assist you when you wish to assign 4 digit address.

Reference

 

 

[Kingmeow]

If you are using Digitrax command stations, they will set all the associated CVs correctly if you are programming a 4-digit address.  Since Kato decoders are made by Digitrax, they follow Digitrax's nomenclature.  I've programmed EM13s and FL12s, using a Digitrax Zephyr, to short and long addresses with no issues and I didn't need to worry about CVs 17, 18, 29 being properly set.

 

But if you are not using a Digitrax command station there are CV calculators to figure out what should be in 17, 18, and 29 for long addresses (and other things).

 

https://www.digitrax.com/support/cv/calculators/

[chadbag]

In my experience the other systems I used (D&H programmer and EMU Programmer) also make all the correct bust flips when setting a long address.  Just input address and indicate it as long.  It does the right things to set the various CV.