DCS Won't Recognize Two Engines

Yes batteries can effect this.  You may want to try deleting the lashup.

You can place engine on the track by individually and try a "recover engine".  G

Jay,

By any chance, are you using more than 1 TIU? If so, the issue may be a bug in DCS.

Programming track with only one engine at a time on the track.... everything else off the track or on non-powered track.

I don't remember seeing a recover engine feature. Track signal is strong enough for the other engines.

Menu/System/ Engine set up/ recover engine

Adding engines really requires  an almost perfect signal,,,  If an engine has already been added to the remote it may  respond to dcs with a dcs signal as low as 2 or 3... can't add with that.

You may not have the recover engine feature depending what software is installed

 What version do you have ? just turn on the remote.

I forgot to mention, I don't know if it makes a difference, but both engines are getting the wake-up signal from the DCS. I can hear it plainly.

I'll try a separate set-up track. 

For what it is worth, I just took two engines that haven't been used for a while off the shelf to run under the Christmas tree and the system couldn't find them. After charging the batteries, everything was back to normal. Batteries do make a difference. I'm heading towards all BCR's for this very reason. Good luck! I'd go after the batteries first.

I seem to have gotten the system to recognize the engines individually and to make them work. It's when I put them together in a lash up that DCS won't recognize the rear engine. And it won't let me confirm reset on the second engine either. It's like the DCS cannot distinguish one engine fro the other.

Hows the track signal?? We need a little better signal to operate lash-ups

Track signal??? Lash-ups need a decent track  signal, better one than a individual engines.

also  they must see the watch dog signal which goes out each time  the voltage on a tiu  out put channel is raised above 0. If on a toggled "off siding" the engine will have missed the watch dog signal.

Funny thing ,,the lash-up will do everything it's suppose to do except move if watch dog is missed.

Jay,

Whoa!

I'm afraid I can't understand exactly what is your problem and what it is that you're attempting to do. Please state the problem, then state what the "blow by blow" without any abbreviations, spelling errors and extraneous information.

Just say what you do and exactly what does or does not happen. Leave out extraneous "step numbers", track signal tests, resets, etc.

I think you're pretty close to creating the lash-up however you're not quite  there yet.

Forget about the lash-up for now, Can you get both engines you wanted to use in the lash-up added to the remote  using the test track ?

Seems  you can .. one at ID1 and the other at ID 6. Put both on the test track

Will  both start up now??

 Remove track power for a minute or so ... will they both start up again ?

 You have to get this working before you can create a lash-up.

Tip, you may want to avoid the "read".... if a engine is not found it ends up in the inactive list. The "read" will  NOT bring an engine out of the inactive list. You have to select it to make it active.

 Can you get this far??? lash-up is the next move.

The problem isn't with creating the lash-up. Forget the lash-up. I delineated the lash-up and reset the engines and the TIU (I don't know how to reset the remote controller) The problem is that the system will not differentiate between the two Burlington engines when they're on the track together, whether they're lashed up or not. It finds them individually when they're on the track alone, but when they're both on the track it just finds the first, but not the second. The system isn't recognizing - or it isn't distinguishing - the second engine when they're both on the track together. It used to last year, but it doesn't now. It's like the second engine has the same internal identification number as the first. I don't know how else to describe it.

"Tip, you may want to avoid the "read".... if a engine is not found it ends up in the inactive list. The "read" will  NOT bring an engine out of the inactive list. You have to select it to make it active." I don't know what you mean by this. When "Read" is pressed, I believe the system lists all active engines it finds as being active If there are two of them on the track, both would come up as active.

Perform a Factory Reset of both engines. Then, individually re-add them to the Remote.

I did that, see steps 21 and 24.

If factory reset did not work are your batteries Good and Charged, not one or the other.  You know, like bolts without nuts.  If you have the train started in conventional, and turn track power off, do shutdown sounds play out or do they abruptly end.  If they don't play you need to replace the battery as a start.  G

When "Read" is pressed, I believe the system lists all active engines it finds as being active If there are two of them on the track, both would come up as active.

 Jay, That's true but the engines must be in the active list anyway,  The "read doesn't find engines in the inactive list. All you're doing with a single tiu is wasting time using the read. .Outside of knowing  the remote finds the tiu  I can't see any advantage using it. Any engine the read doesn't find goes the inactive list.

Anyway GGG brings up a good points, unless the batteries are good we're just wasting time as the engines revert back to the old ID and settings created when the engine had a good battery.

Those are some ideas. I'll get back and let you know if they work. Thank you all for patiently helping me. It is appreciated.

I finally got these two engines to work normally. The solution lay with factory resetting both the engines, TIU and Remote, but it had to be in a specific order. When I factory reset the engines and the TIU without resetting the remote, the problem didn't solve. When I reset the TIU and remote without factory resetting the engine, the problem didn't solve. Even after erasing the TIU and remote, the engines remained confused in the system and kept showing up in the remote with the old names I had designated and didn't work normally.  I don't even know for sure what the correct sequence was, but I think I factory reset the engines both at the beginning and the end of the sequence and that seems to have finally solved it.

Thank you all for your help. 

"INFO" Battery OK Runs normal;

JFYI:

Battery OK just means the charging system is working, not that the battery is charged up.

Jay, I recommend purchasing the MTH battery charger so you can charge the batteries with out running engines.

As you run them they will charge, no special requirements other than voltage above 10V.

If you power them up and have sounds playing, turn track power off.  If shutdowns play out, then you are probably ok on the batteries.  They will continue to charge as you run the trains.  G

I'm not going to purchase the MTH battery charger. I have a battery charger, but I dont want to dissamble th eengines to get the individual batteries ouut.

Can I recharge batteries by leaving one or two or three engines sitting on the track with the transformer on high? For how long? What else do I have to have positioned correctly in terms of DCS to charge batteries? Does the engine have to be recognized by DCS to charge the battery?

Jay, See sentence 2.  Leave them overnight 12-16 Hours.  I would turn smoke off and volume down and leave in neutral.  No special DCS requirements.

But if batteries are already charged partially and meet the requirement, I am not sure why you would do it.    G

Yes you can charge them on the track, engine doesn't have to be recognized  by remote,  and hopefully it's dark and silent. If not make sure the smoke unit is turned off.  we don't want to burn it out.  How long?? I would start with 2 or 3 hours. Yes it takes a lot longer to fully charge ...  do the sound test as GGG suggested after charging.          

Note, Track charging can be dangerous.

Make sure you arrange things so they cannot run off the track at speed.

This can be caused by momentary drops in power.

All this said, I have done so many times.

Ensure TIU is powered from same outlet as Track.

Optimally, TIU is powering track and powered from Fixed 1 or everything runs off a power strip from one outlet. (My method)

That way if power blips I get a new watchdog signal.

Jay,

I don't understand your reluctance to purchase the MTH charger. It allows charging of PS2 engines without removing the battery and without having to leave the engines on the  track to charge.

I suppose I can call Sumerfield's in Milwaukee and hav ehtem send me a charger. I couold use some smoke oil too.

I found out something else. After correcting my problem, it happened again. This time, the system confused the PRR 6 with the F3 and I had to start all over again. I found out when resetting the control parameters that the thing goes haywire when I press "Labored Smoke." It happens repeatedly. Then the system no longer recognizes the engine normally and the remote needs to be reset. Nothing else, just "Labored Smoke." Does that mean anything?

I'm thinking of getting a while new DCS because one channel of variable is burned out (plastic is melted) and doesn't work at all. 

"I don't understand your reluctance to purchase the MTH charger. It allows charging of PS2 engines without removing the battery and without having to leave the engines on the  track to charge."

I bought the charger. I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it. Sommerfeld's charged me only $14 or so for th echarger, but the shipping was $10, I ordered two bottles of scented smoke thinking it would be convenient to since I was ordering anyway, and they charged me $16 for each of two bottles. The total was $60, basically for a $14 charger.

THe charger doesn't have a charging light, so you can't tell if it's working. It has two plugs, but three of my five MTH PS-2 engines, it turns out,  don't have plug-ins, so it doesn't help them.

That's my reluctance. Like I say, I knoew it was a bad idea.

Anyway, my F-3 seem to work okay but now,  for some reason, my transformer is not putting out much energy. Everything just limps along and is slow to respond. What's that all about?