Strange things

[Trainman1974]

Last night strange things started to happen on my layout

a couple of my loco that was stationary in sidings with tts chips in started to make there startup sounds and lights coming on without selecting them on my Hornby elite controller.

[96RAF]

Select each loco in turn and cycle through the function screens to see if any F-keys are indicating on (little black dots at bottom of the screen).

 

It may be that a play once function is still on.

 

Turn off any you find on .i.e no indicator showing on any function select screen.

 

Another thing is to fit terminators to your track bus - if you have a bus. See separate forum discussion about these simple to make devices.

[Chrissaf]

.....without selecting them on my Hornby elite controller.

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Yes....but were you doing other things on your Elite controller at the same time as you made these observations. If so, then your DCC track signal may be being corrupted and making the TTS locos incorrectly think that the DCC data signal on the track was meant for them.

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As Rob says, fitting a DCC snubber may help reduce or eliminate any DCC signal corruption.

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Another source of DCC signal corruption (TTS decoders seem to be particularly prone to being affected by this) is where Analogue power track components are used instead of the digital versions. The analogue versions have capacitors in them across the track rails which corrupt the DCC signal. These capacitors need to be removed on a digital layout. Use the image below to double check ALL power tracks AND clips that might be attached to your track.

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EDIT: Looking at your posting history, it would appear that your layout was originally a DC Analogue one. So the capacitor presence in the power track /clips could be something with a high probability. This could potentially also be the cause of the TTS dummy / motor car issues you have also reported in your other posts.

 

 

[Trainman1974]

Well I found out what was causing the problem and it was a piece of wire lying paralell in between the rails.

Thanks for your help guys.

[Chrissaf]

If the wire location was such that it was intermittently shorting the track, but not sufficiently enough to cause a full on short that trips the Elite. Especially is there was any arcing and sparking. Then that would be enough to corrupt the DCC track signal.