I purchased 2 of the newer Atlas GP-7's & 2 SD-7's last Feb. I installed ESU LokPilot 5 Nano (59925) in each one as I don't do sound. Everything ran fine & I left everything on the layout during the summer. My layout is in a room I built in my garage. I have heat but no AC. So fast forward to Sept. and I start to go back out there and clean track & run some trains.
My problem is on one of the GP-7's. And I noticed it doing it this week. I have it consisted with 2 other loco's. The consist would occasionally stop and then start up again.
I just figured dirty track so would clean the area and everything seemed to be fine. Then I notice that it is only this one consist that I'm having this issue with.
So I leave them consisted but separate them and run them around the layout about 5 ft between them and this is when I notice the GP-7 stopping at random places on the track. It would stop and then start up again. The lights would go off & then come back on as it started back up. I cleaned the track before this test so I don't think this was the problem.
This loco was the middle of the 3 in the consist so the lights weren't on. After testing some more I notice that this loco only does it while running in reverse. So now I at least know which loco it is acting up.
I deleted this consist so I can work on this loco solo. I go to ESU's website but I don't see any manual for the 59925 decoder. I seen where someone recommended downloading the LokSound 5 Nano which I did.
I still haven't been able to figure out this problem. At 1st I thought bad motor or extra friction in the gearing was somehow making it run this way. I took it apart but didn't see anything (cleaned off gobs of factory grease) so then I took both worm gears out and the motor still ran super slow in reverse but fine in forward. Sometimes I would have to manually spin the armature to get the motor to spin in reverse. Took the decoder off and put the stock E24 plug back in and using my old Tech 2 2500 power pack the thing ran flawless in both directions. I didn't have to finger start it at all.
So I go OK... let me switch PC boards and decoder with the other GP-7. Still have the same problem. So I put the worm gears back in and ran it again on DC from the power pack and it ran flawless.
It would start and run at #10 on the power pack in forward but I would have to increase that to #15 if running in reverse. So I figure the motor is ok but it does have slightly more resistance in reverse than forward.
I even ran it some 20ft forward & back about 3 times just using a 9v battery and it ran fine in both directions. So I put it all back together again (for the 20th time) and still have the same issue.
I have reset the decoder probably 10 times (CV8 =8) Upped CV2 from default 3 to 20. I see CV95 is Reverse trim and default is 128 and I have tried 64 & 255 with no change. My programming track is a NCE Power Cab and my system is NCE SB-5 with 2 ProCab throttles. I don't have or know anyone that has an ESU programmer and I'm not about to purchase one. We have no hobby shop in town.
Today I orderd just for the hell of it a Digitrax DN1134E24 decoder but it will probably be late next week before I get it. 95% of my fleet is Atlas and 80% of my fleet is digitrax & I've had good luck with them. But this ESU has me stumped.
2 different decoders & 2 different PC boards and still the same results yet the other twin loco purrs like a kitten. I know the loco is under warranty but the thing runs fine on DC so I don't think Atlas would replace it.
Not sure what else to try and I'm open to suggestions.
Thanks, Tony
