DCC SOUND CUTTING OUT

[Furnitureman64]

i HAVE TORNADO WHICH IS CHIPPED FOR DCC AND SOUND.

RECENTLY, AS SOON AS THE TRAIN MOVES THE SOUND CUTS OUT.

CAN ANY ONE ADVISE WHAT THE PROBLEM IS?

 

[96RAF]

No need to shout (UPPER CASE)

Can we assume it is a TTS sound decoder or is it another make.

[2e0dtoeric]

What controller are you using. There are reports of certain controllers not behaving with a small assortment of decoders.

-

 

Please don't misunderstand me, but your uninformative post is a bit like phonng up a garage in Kent, when you live in Scotland, and saying "My car is making a funny noise, what's wrong with it?"

We cannot see or hear what is or is not happening - we only have your words to guide us.  😆

[morairamike]

Dirty track or wheels OR your track isn't level so the loco lifts off and breaks contact. My A4s do this on one part of my layout whereas my class 20 diesel loco doesn't due to different wheel and pickup arrangements.

[fURNITUREMAN]

No need to shout (UPPER CASE)

Can we assume it is a TTS sound decoder or is it another make.

Sorry for shouting!!!!!!!   It ia a TTS Sound decoder

 

[fURNITUREMAN]

What controller are you using. There are reports of certain controllers not behaving with a small assortment of decoders.

-

 

Please don't misunderstand me, but your uninformative post is a bit like phonng up a garage in Kent, when you live in Scotland, and saying "My car is making a funny noise, what's wrong with it?"

We cannot see or hear what is or is not happening - we only have your words to guide us.  😆

It's a Gaugemaster Prodigy which all of a sudden is playing up som could be the problem.

 

[ColinB]

So once the sound goes does the train still carry on going, but without the sound? If so, then that rules out a problem with loco pickups or dirty track, it might be a loose connection on the speaker wire, or the speaker itself that only has an effect when the loco moves.

[Chrissaf]

You will have better luck with your replies if you do not use the blue button. This is not a 'Reply to this post' button. Write your reply in the 'Reply' text box at the bottom of the page and click the Green reply button. Your malformed replies nearly got deleted because your new text was trapped inside the buff quote box. This makes it very difficult to see what is new and what was existing text.

[morairamike]

Surprising Colinb, yes the loco still moves, due I suppose to momentum, but the sound is off as that is instantaneous with lose of contact.

On TTS the first 2 speed steps are sounds pre running steam bleeds etc. Step 3 is move. My A4s with sound off run at step 1

[ColinB]

So what you are saying is you have sound, then you tell the loco to move by increasing the command value (in old days increase the voltage) and the sound disappears. Now, does the loco stop or continue on, until you tell it to stop by reducing the command value (in the old days it was the voltage). Once the loco has stopped, does the sound resume or do you have to do a reset or power off/on on the controller to get it to work again.

The bit about momentum is confusing me, with DCC you do get inertia but if it has lost contact the loco will stop.

I know roughly how DCC works, but I don't know the actual detail implementation. I assume there is a chip that handles the motor control, which feeds the sound device chip with data. If it is two chips it is quite feesable for one of them to go wrong, but from what you say the chip is sort of still working as you still get sound when the loco is stationary. 

One TTS decoder I bought did lose sound occasionally and the only way to get it back was to reset the controller, but eventually it died completely so I suspect it was a duff device and returned it for a replacement. Most electronic components if they are going to fail, do it in the first 50 hours.

[locojoe]

It could be it`s an old decoder check the colour of the wires the old decoders orange wire look`s very much like

a red wire, on the new decoders it`s quite easy to distinguish the colours i`ve just put one on a black five and having nothing but problems,

sound cutting out and loco stalling, just a thought ate

[morairamike]

Ok let's clarify the statement I made. The loco an A4 is moving with TTS decoder and the sounds are all there. It gets to where my track isn't quite level. The sounds stops but the loco continues by momentum across the unlevel part and then runs on powered but  SOUNDLESS till I press F1 again when the sound returns.

The problem is the wheels lift off the track.

The decoder is not faulty. It's a TTS decoder there is no other decoder in the loco.

Momentum is the fact that the loco is moving and its momentum moves it across the uneven part of the rails.

The speaker is not faulty

It's the fact the rails in one part aren't level. They will be when I finish working on the layout.

My answer was posted as a possible cause to the original posters problem. 

[ColinB]

Great that was exactly the info I wanted. That is really weird, mine stop on uneven track, but the sound always returns when the loco gets going again. I have had it where the loco stops on a bad bit of track, sinks onto the track and then starts again, but in all cases the sound returns, without pressing F1. It cannot be resetting the chip because the motor is still running unless it thinks it is on dc, but then pressing F1 wouldn't work. Long term put some pickups, on the tender that will definitely improve running, it did on mine, but that doesn't solve the immediate issue. It is as if it resetting the sound chip, but not the Loco control. Sorry stumped my Tornedo only had a DCC decoder. So when the sound goes off on the loco, the DCC controller must say it is still on, so you must press it once to turn it off and then press it again to turn back on. Is that true?

[Fishmanoz]

Colin and mike have hijacked this thread talking about problems that don’t appear to relate to the OP’s, although we have limited info from him.  What he does say is the sound cuts out when the loco moves, which implies it’s not an uneven track problem.  And he also says his Prodigy may be playing up, but no further detail.

 

Difficult to diagnose with what we have.  Can you please describe in more detail from when you first turn on sound then turn up the loco throttle?  And why/how do you believe your Prodigy is misbehaving?