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I temporarily hooked up my DCS system ,added this engine and thought I turned off the “cab chatter” function.  Now when I attempt to run it conventionally on the same piece of track - directly with a ZW - the engine starts up ,honks & the crew still chatters,  but the engine won’t move in response to throttle off & on’s.  
    How do I restore conventional operation ?   Thks

Rich in SD

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@trestleking posted:

I temporarily hooked up my DCS system ,added this engine and thought I turned off the “cab chatter” function.  Now when I attempt to run it conventionally on the same piece of track - directly with a ZW - the engine starts up ,honks & the crew still chatters,  but the engine won’t move in response to throttle off & on’s.  
    How do I restore conventional operation ?   Thks

Rich in SD

Seen this before, certain engines, the firmware, when added to DCS, for reasons nobody can explain and many doubt- it locks out conventional operation. If in DCS you reset to factory defaults- bet good money it runs again in conventional

Again, it does not affect all models, but some of my first experience with MTH, some of the first engines I ever bought, both would have this problem because our train club did not have DCS, but I did at home.

https://www.mthtrains.com/30-20433-1 and https://mthtrains.com/30-1731-1

So I would add the engine at home and run with DCS, and then bring it t the club without DCS and GW180 conventional transformers.

I could not reset using the conventional reset sequence 1 horn 5 bells no matter how much I tried.

Then if I reset to factory defaults using DCS, no problems at all running in conventional.



Granted, this sorta defeats you going in, turning off a function that you had to add to DCS to be able to turn off because it was on by default. I don't know if newer updated chain files for a diesel might work around this or if there is just some glitch specific in certain sounds files.

Last edited by Vernon Barry
@GGG posted:

Not all memory in PS-3 was reset with factory DCS reset.  So wrt motion, you can have an engine locked in neutral conventionally and run fine in DCS.  So conventional reset or unlock procedure.  It is not an adding to DCS locks it out issue.  G

I respect your opinion and experience, but it's an easily repeatable test.

Take one of these known problem engines ( I gave a list of two and I have more than one example of the ES44 Freedom Diesel https://www.mthtrains.com/30-20433-1), test run under conventional- proving it's not locked out.

Then the only step you take is adding to a DCS system (remote or app) using the add engine command.

Then attempt to run conventional and NOW conventional is locked out.

I agree that this should not happen and this is not "normal" and there are tons and tons of engines in my collection that do not have this behavior. However, some of the first engines I ever bought did lock out, and caused me a fair amount of grief at the time with the club not having DCS but me having DCS at home.

And, I just spent 10 minutes testing this methodically with that exact engine 30-20433-1. Engine was run under conventional with no DCS connected to the track. Ran fine. Connected DCS TIU, powered track, added to a fresh completely reset DCS remote. Started up the engine under DCS, only commands were startup, checking forward and reverse movement, then shutdown. Removed TIU and DCS from track. Attempted conventional- engine was locked out and would not move under conventional and multiple attempts. Power using Z4000.

Last edited by Vernon Barry
ut, and caused me a fair amount of grief at the time with the club not having DCS but me having DCS at home.

And, I just spent 10 minutes testing this methodically with that exact engine 30-20433-1. Engine was run under conventional with no DCS connected to the track. Ran fine. Connected DCS TIU, powered track, added to a fresh completely reset DCS remote. Started up the engine under DCS, only commands were startup, checking forward and reverse movement, then shutdown. Removed TIU and DCS from track. Attempted conventional- engine was locked out and would not move under conventional and multiple attempts. Power using Z4000.

So can you use the conventional command (1 horn / 3 bells) to unlock the direction lockout and get the engine running without a DCS system?

If you say it has happend to a select few than I am sure it has.  I have not seen this behavior in all the PS-3 I have worked on, or upgraded.  Not that every unit is checked in DCS first.  It seems pretty odd that a software code that loads into DCS locks out conventional operations.  I get a lot of stuff from DCS only operators that test fine in conventional which is usually my first test.  So this is not a wide spread issue from my perspective.  G

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