Athearn Question


diburning

diburning

AlcoHaulic
Ok, I thought I knew the Athearn drive inside and out. I guess I was wrong since I can't figure this out!

I have an Athearn RTR F59PHI (newer run) and installed a DH123 into it. When I first installed it, it ran fine.

I left it sitting on the layout (unpowered) for a week and came back and it wouldn't move forward or backward. The locomotive's address worked fine. I tried to turn on the headlight and it turned on. I reversed direction, and the headlight reversed like it should. However it would not move.

I put it on the programming track, reset the decoder, and then tried it again. The headlights still worked but no motor control.

I took it off the track and tested it with a 9-volt battery on the wheels (the decoder can run on DC). The motor worked. I put it back on the track and it ran on DCC. Then, I put it on the programming track and went to adjust CV 2 for start speed. The motor then stopped working again.

I reset it again and still had no motor control, but still had headlights. I rocked it back and forth, dragged it forwards and backwards and nothing worked.

I opened it up, inspected all of the electrical connections and the drive. There were no shorts or pinched wires, or binding in the drive. The decoder worked on DC, and worked that one time when I put it back on the layout so I highly doubt that it is the decoder.

Does anyone have any idea as to what might be wrong? Maybe I missed something?
 
Its always hard to diagnose a problem without the locomotive directly in front of us. But it does sound like you may have a loose connection. This would be in the connection from the wiring harness to the motor. Was this a pnp installation, or a hard wire. If it was a hardwire, the problem could be a cold solder joint, or a broken wire in the harness itself.
 
PnP installation. The 9-pin socket on the decoder plugs right into the 9-pin JST harness on the light board.
 
So you tried it on the battery, and it worked. Then you put it back on DCC, and it worked. Then you tinkered with a CV, and it quit again.

Doesn't sound like a solder issue to me, sounds like a decoder programming issue. Maybe try a different one, or reset all the CVs and reprogram. Are your other DCC engines working properly?
 
Since the decoder is PnP, I'd try a different decoder and see if things clear up.
 
problem

I had the same issue on a Proto 2000 engine I had. After messing with it the decoder finally fried out. After looking around I found that the orange wire going under the motor grounded out and fried the decoder. Just my 2 cents but I would check that as well. My Proto has since turned into a broken down display soon to be on the layout as a broken down C&O GP30 with engine doors open and engine showing inside.

Eric
 
CP6027 said:
Make sure the motor is not grounding out on the chassis, had this problem on my F59PHI.
Click to expand...

Hmm I already checked it, but I'll look closer just in case. Hopefully the decoder cut out the motor control as a precaution and didn't blow (I smelled the decoder, it smelled fine)
 
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