Help ! DCS Remote (s) shut down instantly

Bad connection on the batteries.  There are various cures for this, usually involving some additional foam padding to keep the batteries in place.  Dave Hikel 3D printed a clever battery holder to slip inside the DCS remote to hold the batteries in place, I picked up several at York a few years ago, they work great.

John, thanks for the info. I did check and the batteries are secure. Also I tried the same thing with a brand new remote. Same thing happened. I have the DCS big book and I am thinking that it is the TIU, maybe the fuse??

Any thoughts anyone?

You might try leaving the battery cover off and holding the batteries in with the fingers of one hand while booting the remote with the other. Like John, I needed to add some additional foam the cover to secure the batteries properly.

Even if the TIU is powered off the remote display should be on! Just might not be to the ready to run display bit it will at least post some information. If it is going out it is not the TIU.

The remote powering off has NOTHING to do with the TIU, the remote will power up without any TIU present.

Guys, really confused now. I have used new batteries and even a new remote, just out of the package. They start and then go blank??

Tom

Tom, I've had similar issues with my remote.  The battery area can be extremely temperamental, even on new remotes.  All it takes is a little pressure on the battery compartment in combination with a key stroke and the remote goes dead.  I sent Dave Hikel an e-mail asking about his battery holders and will let you know if/when I get back a response. I'm not sure how active he is on the forum.

It's the battery contacts, trust me.   I have half a dozen DCS remotes, and the only time any of them go completely blank is when the batteries lose contact or are dead.

John,

I really appreciate your time here helping me. Amazing that a DCS remote would have bad battery contacts right out of the box! Wow. But you are the expert and have the experience with these remotes.

I will try with the cover off today holding the batteries down and see what happens. I hope eaaiii hears about the battery holders I would definitely get one.

Will send results later after I try cover off, holding batteries. Any other suggestions to help this problem ?

Thank you for your time and suggestions.

Tom

I just went to Dave Hikel's site. I'll try and call them Tuesday.

Thank you so much for all the help and suggestions. One day without running my trains and I am already suffering withdrawal ! 😳😳

When you open the back cover, check the contacts and battery.  Some batteries have a different shape positive terminal and don't make good contact, I've seen that with these remotes.  It's really a lousy design on the battery holder in the remote that's the root of the problem.  On the two remotes I use all the time, I actually did a slight taper of the plastic around the positive terminal to allow it to make better contact.  You can also spin the batteries in the holder, sometimes that helps.

John, Many thanks !!!!  I did manage to tape the batteries in and the controller works. Back running trains with your help. I'll have to try some of your suggestions with the new controller. Funny I never had the problem in all the years of using it and then just yesterday it stopped. I'll see if Dave has those holders too.

Thank you very much.

Tom

Love the success stories.  Since every time I've seen this issue it's been the battery holder, it was an easy one to zero in on.

The part the perplexed me was the same issue was experienced even with a brand new remote. How could that be, just a coincidence?

@ironman1 posted:

The part the perplexed me was the same issue was experienced even with a brand new remote. How could that be, just a coincidence?

Lousy battery box design!  It can happen with any DCS remote.  I've had the issue with a number of remotes, and many other folks I know have the same issue.  Another annoying feature of the lousy battery box is you set the remote down and it blanks!  You don't even have to set it down hard at all, even fairly gently setting it down can result in a power-down.  As a bonus of having something holding the batteries in place, that stops happening.

I've heard of the problem before, many times & might have experienced the issue a few times in more or less than 20 years. If by chance I did, I'd open the back pop it back on, problem solved. Maybe one of the few things I've been lucky with.

A thick piece of soft foam will force in the handheld remote battery box to hold  batteries for a better fit works.

Yep, that's been the go-to fix for years.  However, it had the tendency to eventually break the remote battery cover latch.  The reason I like Dave Hikel's battery holder is it doesn't put pressure on the battery cover, and still solves the problem.

Just as a follow up I did contact Dave and he does have the battery holders and I will be ordering several.

Many thanks to John and all forum members that responded.

Tom

Try high performance AAA batteries.  I had the same problem even with full voltage cheap batteries.

@jps32016 posted:

Try high performance AAA batteries.  I had the same problem even with full voltage cheap batteries.

It's the fact that the batteries lose contact due to the lousy battery box design, not the actual batteries.  Keeping the batteries in place solved the issue 100%.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Yep, that's been the go-to fix for years.  However, it had the tendency to eventually break the remote battery cover latch.  The reason I like Dave Hikel's battery holder is it doesn't put pressure on the battery cover, and still solves the problem.

I seen Dave in the Ross Booth at York, but didn't notice those.  The Website in Dave's profile doesn't seem to come up.

How did I miss these over the years???

Jim

I only had this problem with my first DCS remote (smooth thumb wheel) that came with a Rev G TIU. My fix was much simpler and more cost effective using pennies worth of double sided foam tape.

Are these still available for sale?

This happens from time to time on my remotes too. Most of the time I find one battery that wasn’t seated properly.

@H1000 posted:

I only had this problem with my first DCS remote (smooth thumb wheel) that came with a Rev G TIU. My fix was much simpler and more cost effective using pennies worth of double sided foam tape.

Like I said, the big difference in using foam tape or the like is you put strain on the cover latch and that's why there's so many remotes with the covers taped on.   Dave's little contraption doesn't put pressure on the cover latch, but still holds the batteries in place.

I keep a few covers in stock as I get a lot of call for them.  I hope that MTH never runs out of them.

@Peter Frenzel 010119 posted:

Are these still available for sale?

Yep, catch up with Dave, he still sells them.

@Jim Sandman posted:

I seen Dave in the Ross Booth at York, but didn't notice those.  The Website in Dave's profile doesn't seem to come up.

How did I miss these over the years???

Ask him when you see him, I'm pretty sure he still has them at York.

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

Like I said, the big difference in using foam tape or the like is you put strain on the cover latch and that's why there's so many remotes with the covers taped on.   Dave's little contraption doesn't put pressure on the cover latch, but still holds the batteries in place.

I keep a few covers in stock as I get a lot of call for them.  I hope that MTH never runs out of them.

20+ years later on the original battery cover with this fix... proof is in the pudding. The foam is pretty spongy, in fact, it took two layers of the stuff. I am sure somewhere around the 5 or 6 year mark it permanently formed itself to the needed mold and doesn't press on the battery cover at all. Yes, if someone goes crazy with the stuff a battery door latch failure could happen but I've only seen them broken because the remote was dropped.

Whatever works for you.

My remote has a hard foam backing on the cover.  Tape it shut with duck tape and seems ok, but occasionally erractic.  Tried a different brand of battery (alkaline max) and is more reliable.  Is it possible different brands or grades of batteries could be a factor?

Could be, sometimes different batteries are slightly different dimensions, and maybe some don't make as good a contact?

HOW DO I CONTACT DAVE???????????????????????  I have never heard of this battery holder until about 2 minutes ago.

I have his battery holder (part #HJ-0001) and it solved a similar problem that I was having with the remote shut down. It's hard to find him on the internet, but an e-mail address I had for him was hikelogauge@gmail.com  and a telephone # 206-920-9647. I had better luck calling him. I recall that he was hard to get a hold of because he was on the road a lot.  I actually picked up the battery holder at York.  He used to hang out with the Ross Custom Switches booth at the show.  If you cannot get a hold of him, they may be able to point you in the right direction.

-Ed Abbot

I had a problem with one of the loose battery connectors also.  Seemed like it didn't hold the first battery secure .            Can't remember how i resolved the issue  but once it was taken care of there was no further issue with puting extra padding in the battery compartment door.

  Check how firmly the battery / batteries are held in by their connectors on the non sprung ends.

To be fair, I'm not saying battery boxes are perfect- but the far, far, far, bigger problem is batteries are no longer made to a fixed standard!!!

The battery tray molding exploits the fact that batteries have a protrusion on the positive end of the battery. This post or nub or bump is supposed to fit between 2 raised plastic moldings to prevent you the "user"- who cannot follow instructions or labels and warnings, and puts the battery in the wrong polarity. Those nubs or plastic molding prevent the wrong end of the battery from making contact to the metal contact.

Because of variations in how big the diameter of the protrusion is, how deep, how far, how wide, and another killer- how long the battery is tip to tail, these modern mass produced in a foreign country batteries are no longer fitting established battery tray configurations.

Again, look at what changed- it's not the several year old battery tray- no, it's the batteries you are buying.

This exact problem cropped up in the Menards remotes.

Again, feel free to then form a list of batteries that work- but at any given time- the next batch of brand X may not work. That's again, manufacturers playing fast and loose with tolerances.

Example, I'm now only rechargeable batteries in all of mine, and stick to EBL, Amazon Basics, and Tenergy, and thus far, have had no conflicts with any DCS remote (I have several).

I use the Tenergy Centura low self-discharge batteries, they have a much longer shelf life when charged.  These claim 85% charge after a year in storage, and my experience bears this out.

Yeah.  I had been using cheap brand name batteries, which sometimes responded erratically and conked out pretty rapidly.  Quality batteries are more than worth the price.