I have an N gauge Graham Farish class 08 shunter that I fitted with a lenz silver mini+ decoder. I ran the loco in on DC on a set-track loop before fitting the decoder, and tested the loco after installation on the same loop, replacing the DC control with an Uhlenbrock Intellibox Basic DCC control box. It ran fine at the time.
Now, roughly a year later, I'm able to start working on my layout and have just wired up and some track and laid it down. Not even a loop, just a straight section so far, but I wanted to see my lovely little train run... and the controller just said short. So I opened up the loc, fixed the obvious short (so the intellibox no longer gives a short message when the train is placed on the track), but the decoder now keeps giving the error code 4 on CV 30 (which means motor short) and doesn't respond on the normal track. Now I've tried troubleshooting the wiring but am coming up a bit blank. I get 41.5 ohms of resistance between the motor pickups, but it makes sense to have continuity for the motor pickups, isn't it? (and from what I've found, 40ish ohms is fine for a motor)
I get continuity between the following wires:
grey and orange (both motor pickup wires)
grey and red (grey is motor pickup, red is wheel pickup)
orange and red (orange is motor pickup, red is wheel pickup)
No continuity between black and any other wires (black being a wheel pickup)
Resetting the decoder doesn't solve it either (I was thinking the error might trip and have to be reset to get the decoder to work again). I can still read and write CV values from the decoder on a programming track, so am thinking the decoder is still fine? (I only own a cheapish multimeter to troubleshoot)
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Imahilus
Hey,
I have an N gauge Graham Farish class 08 shunter that I fitted with a lenz silver mini+ decoder. I ran the loco in on DC on a set-track loop before fitting the decoder, and tested the loco after installation on the same loop, replacing the DC control with an Uhlenbrock Intellibox Basic DCC control box. It ran fine at the time.
Now, roughly a year later, I'm able to start working on my layout and have just wired up and some track and laid it down. Not even a loop, just a straight section so far, but I wanted to see my lovely little train run... and the controller just said short. So I opened up the loc, fixed the obvious short (so the intellibox no longer gives a short message when the train is placed on the track), but the decoder now keeps giving the error code 4 on CV 30 (which means motor short) and doesn't respond on the normal track. Now I've tried troubleshooting the wiring but am coming up a bit blank. I get 41.5 ohms of resistance between the motor pickups, but it makes sense to have continuity for the motor pickups, isn't it? (and from what I've found, 40ish ohms is fine for a motor)
I get continuity between the following wires:
grey and orange (both motor pickup wires)
grey and red (grey is motor pickup, red is wheel pickup)
orange and red (orange is motor pickup, red is wheel pickup)
No continuity between black and any other wires (black being a wheel pickup)
Resetting the decoder doesn't solve it either (I was thinking the error might trip and have to be reset to get the decoder to work again). I can still read and write CV values from the decoder on a programming track, so am thinking the decoder is still fine? (I only own a cheapish multimeter to troubleshoot)
Any help would be most appreciated!
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