"Engine not on track"

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I was running a "lash-up" on our clubs 30'x60' layout at the Pittsburgh Home show, ran for at least an hour, then quit, now I get "Engine not on track" from one of the engines.

That's a DCS bug that's been around for a looong time.

Based on some information that Dave Hikel found with another, non-lashup issue, it's possible that the way you may be able to have the remote find the engine would be to physically move it to a track that's connected to the same TIU upon whose tracks the engine was sitting the last time it was addd to the remote.

Also of the four hand held remotes two work perfect , one intermittently, and one not at all(mine).

I don't understand what you're  talking about. Please clarify.

Barry

Thanks for the response. About the hand held remotes, one will not find any engines, I get engine not on track, out of RF range, where as the other remotes will pick up the engines immediately.

one will not find any engines

If you press READ, does the remote find the TIU? If not, connect the remote to the TIU's Remote Access port and press READ again.

If it finds the TIU this time, the remote's transceiver board has most likely drifted out of its socket.

To reseat the remote's transceiver board, follow these instructions from The DC O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition, page 156:

Opening the DCS Remote can be extremely difficult and can cause problems with the DCS Remote! You should consider having this done by an authorized MTH service center!

• Open the battery compartment door on the back of the DCS Remote and remove the batteries

• Remove the Philips head screw inside the battery compartment

• Before opening the DCS Remote's case, note that when the DCS Remote is opened, there will still be a black wire connecting the two halves of its case

• Begin to separate the two halves of the DCS Remote's case by pushing outwards from inside the battery compartment while squeezing the bottom portion of the top of the DCS Remote. This requires considerable patience, particularly when opening a DCS remote's case for the first time

• Once the bottom of the shell begins to separate, gently continue to separate the two halves of the case and open the DCS Remote like a book, taking care not to damage the wire connecting the two halves of the case

• The transceiver board is located at the top of the DCS Remote behind the LCD screen.

Do not under any circumstances lift up on the transceiver board or black wire!

• Press down gently on the transceiver board to reseat it

• Place a piece of soft, nonconductive spongy material on top of the transceiver board so that it will hold the board in place when the DCS Remote is reassembled

• Carefully line up the two halves of the case and gently but firmly snap them back together

• Replace the Philips head screw, the batteries and the battery compartment door.

This and a whole lot more is all in "The DCS O Gauge Companion 2nd Edition", now available for purchase as an eBook or a printed book from MTH's web store site! Click on the link below to go to MTH's web page for the book!

Just a fill in of information Barry.  When we started this project last summer. All TIU's, every club member's, and Remotes were upgraded to  version 4.2 Interesting to note that one of the TIU/Remote set was the original issue never out of the box.  Two new version L TIU's were purchase for the club layout. One TIU (#2) is currently powering (2) tracks on the (30 X 60) layout that Dan has mentioned.  Fix#1 and Variable #1,(set to fixed), power one loop, Outside (Red) track, and Fix #2 and Variable #2,(set to fixed), power the the second (White) loop. That would be approximately 90 ft of track for each DCS generator circuit.  Blue and Black loops are non-DCS loops.  There are (4) main tracks and a (5th) track engine facility.   Signal seems exception for such a large loop and a modular layout. (IMO)  Dan's remote was programmed using the New TIU (#1) , but we had some issues with Dan's remote even when we were using that TIU. Interesting enough the two remotes that came with the new TIU's seem to work O.K. Most club members with a problem will pick-up one of the two club remotes if they have a problem just to check. They are marked with Blue and Red tape, easily noted as different and the ones that came with the New TIU's.  Though we did spend some time with a Label maker putting everyone's name on their remote.  We have a master engine number list, and at least 10 numbers are assigned to each member. The master list is also downloaded in my laptop.  We can erase the information on a specific remote and re-enter the information from the laptop but it would require one of the two TIU's to do that at a meet.  Priority is to keep everything rolling possible.

We had some issues with some remotes not seeing the second TIU or addressed TIU #2 but I thought I had resolved most of that.