PS3 diesels run poorly under NCE dcc but run well under DCS

I believe 2 Rail DCC is much more sensitive to track cleanliness and also engine wheels and such.  This was reported to me by a group that runs scale MTH on 2R.

So cleaning off the black of the pickup screws, cleaning coating off wheels and such probably improved operation.  Not sure how other DCC non MTH trains run on the layout, or whether this is all MTH stuff.

Cleaning up the wiring above the signal transformer and getting it moved away from the side of the board is a know issue that effects DCS signal, maybe it also plays on DCC.   G

 One of the LHS guys suggested but wasn't sure that the BCR might be bypassed in DCC mode and when there is a signal loss someplace on the layout the loss of settings occurs.I said "huh" ? I am so unqualified with this DCC stuff.

Try killing the power in DCC and see if the engine plays any sounds after.

I have one MTH PS 3.0 diesel and I have tested it under both DCS and DCC(NCE). For me it ran exactly the same on either system. I only have a test track so I don't know if that plays a part in it or not.

When you initially said the pair of engines "ran very poorly using NCE DCC" was this in a MU configuration?  And by very poorly was this jerky low speed?  Did they run OK as individual engines?

Fast forward to today.  So after running fine for a while as a MU, "the engines glitched and the settings got scrambled or something."  Does this mean they reverted to jerky low speed or something else?  Do they run OK as individual engines?

Just trying to determine if there may be multiple issues in play.  For example, if you run the MU but uncouple and separate the engines is there anything worthy to report...such as perhaps only one engine acts up?

Even under DCS, MUs can exhibit curious behaviors requiring resetting/reloading the settings.

With DCC the power on the rails is the signal...it's not piggy backed on the voltage like DCS. That makes DCC much more forgiving when it comes to dirty track.

Personally what I think is going on is folks are trying to change the cv settings with that pair of locomotives. There's a lot of animosity in the HO scale world towards MTH and if someone reprograms the PS3 decoders to look bad esp in a store environment... 

Only knowing what you've written I'd say you did them quite a favor in removing the jerky low-speed behavior from both engines.  So I'd say that was one issue hopefully resolved or at least on the sidelines for now. 

Now it's just one engine that is apparently non-responsive.  When you say no direction, does that mean you can nevertheless talk to it (i.e., turn lights on/off or whatever)?   If you can talk to it, then like DCS first try a Feature reset, then a Factory reset and start over.  If you can't talk to it because maybe the engine's address was lost then use the "55" address recovery (see manual).  If they've already done all this and the same engine repeatedly becomes non-responsive, then I suppose more troubleshooting data would help narrow the focus.  That is, does it only do this when in a MU, or does it only do this in concert with other non-MTH engines at the bad track near the bridge, etc.

Also, easy for me to say, but if there's a known section of bad track that upsets multiple DCC engines, I hope they fix the track first! 

I will post more when i get back(est 2 weeks) there and work w/ the NCE people. Appreciate everybody's help.

.

Bill,

   Interesting problem, I will keep an eye on this thread to see how thing progress.

PCRR/Dave