Need help with DCC

[mecgp7]

I purchased a handful of factory Atlas DCC locos. I have a basic Digitrax Zephyr system.
I can't make any of the dang locos work. They all have decoders and the Digitrax will pick up some of the loco numbers, but that is it. What am I doing wrong?
Any help would be appreciated.

[MK]

Are these newer or older Atlas locos?  The older ones use no frills Lenz decoders and the newer ones use NCE stuff.

I have a Zephyr and a bunch of older Atlas locos with factory Lenz decoders and have had no issues.  If you are trying to program them on the program track, you'll need to drop a 1k ohm resistor across the track to make it work better.

When you say pick up some of the loco numbers, do you mean you can control lights but no motor function?

[RBrodzinsky]

If you purchased new, most locos come with the address set to "3", not the road number.   With your Zephyr, you can place the loco onto the programming track, enter program mode and set the address to the road number (or anything else you want, but that could get confusing).

[mightypurdue22]

I'd recommend tackling one at a time.  Place the loco on your program track and reset it to factory settings.  That will assign address 03.  Who knows what a previous owner might have programmed on those.  Once you're reset, you can assign the address you want and make any other changes the decoder will allow you to.  I'd think once you get the first one figured out, the others will become simpler.

Here's something on the Lenz decoders Atlas used...
http://www.atlasrr.com/pdf/LE063XF%20Manual_Atlas.pdf

And the NCE (I believe)
http://www.atlasrr.com/pdf/AN12A0.pdf

Takes a lot of reading.  I've had to read things over and over before it finally sunk in, as I'm not much of an electrical guy.  Good luck!

Dave