DCS Remote Commander Issue (Engine Locking Up)

Drewski1992OGR Forum Member

Hi guys,

I have an issue that I've seen with the DCS Remote Commander and was wondering if any of ya'll could lend some insight and maybe even help me resolve it

1. I have an MTH KCS ES44AC. I've only had it for about month now and it's brand new. I had ran it with the Remote Commander for a while with no issues. One day while the engine was running, I hit the bell button and when I went to increase the speed on the engine none of the buttons worked and the bell continued to stay on. So I essentially had no way to stop the engine other than pulling the power because nothing on the remote worked. My dad and I thought that it might be the batteries, so we changed them out.

I reset the engine via our conventional transformer to make sure that everything was okay since I had to pull the power to stop the engine. I ran the engine via the transformer to make sure everything was working correctly and I didn't have this issue at all. The next day I pulled the engine out with the Remote Commander to test to see if the problem would reappear. Sure enough, as I was backing the engine up to its consist the same thing happened except this time it was the horn. I held the horn button down and the horn stuck. I had to repeat the same process as before, cutting the power because none of the buttons worked, and resetting the engine back to its factory default settings conventionally. Changing the batteries out seemed to have no effect, even though they probably needed to be changed anyway.

Again when I ran it via the transformer I had none of these issues, so I'm suspecting that the problem isn't with the engine but may be with the Remote Commander itself. I've seen threads where remote commanders have had issues with horn buttons sticking, but I didn't run across anything on the forum here that dealt with my specific issue. Tracks and wheels were thoroughly clean in both of these instances. Any help that you guys can give me would be most appreciated

Thanks

11/10/197:41 PM

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stan2004OGR Forum Member

Does this locking-up behavior occur the first time you press either Bell or Horn?

As you've probably observed, each time you press a button on the remote the green LED on the Remote Command Base unit should blink OFF, then back on. So when locked-up what is the green LED on the Base unit doing as you press buttons? Is it solid-on, solid-off, blinking off every second, etc.?

If practical, when it gets locked-up, can you remove and re-install the batteries without removing power to the track? The idea here is re-installing the (same) batteries "resets" the remote electronics. Then see the Green LED behavior changes in response to remote button presses (such as speed adjustment) - obviously do NOT try Horn or Bell as the first button presses after re-installing batteries! cool

11/10/1910:38 PM

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Drewski1992OGR Forum Member

Thanks for the info Stan! I'll run the engine again and see what the light is doing and let you know. I'll also try removing the batteries as well and then putting them back in if this happens again and see what results I get.

Thanks for your help and I'll reply again once I've done the test.

11/11/193:52 PM

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stan2004OGR Forum Member

If you isolate the problem to the handheld remote, try this quick experiment with a digital or phone camera which renders Infrared light as a purple glow. Note when momentarily pressing the Bell or Horn button, you get an Infrared burst as the remote sends the command to the Base unit. Holding down the button and the remote sends repeating Infrared bursts several times a second. Even the Speed Up rocker button behaves this way.

So the idea here is perhaps pressing Bell or Horn somehow locks up the remote so that it no longer sends out any Infrared commands, or locks up continuously sending commands even when no button is pressed, or ???

11/12/191:50 AM

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Drewski1992OGR Forum Member

Hi Stan,

I was able to locate the problem. It turns out that the wheels were dirty and needed to be cleaned. I had forgotten that we had run the engine a lot when we got it because it was such a joy, especially since it was brand new. This was before the tracks were cleaned so the wheels had caught some of the gunk. The carbon and gunk was not as noticeable to the eye because the wheels were still new looking. However, when I ran my fingers over the wheels, a black oily substance showed up on my fingers. I knew right away that this could possibly be the issue. Once I cleaned the wheels, I put the engine through each of the tests that you suggested and the issue did not show up. The light on the receiver behaved normally and holding down long blasts on the horn did not lock the horn up. thumb

If there was one thing about the remote commander I feel should be changed it would be having visual on the remote to let you know when the batteries are getting low and need to be changed.

Thank you so much for your help! If I have any more issues, I'll post again.

11/14/194:11 PM

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