So last weekend I had some friends visit my layout and my friend Boyd brought is wonderful new
SNCF loco.
We wanted to change the volume and protocol addressing settings of the decoder of the loco so we decided to use my Intellibox to do this.
We used the guide I have at
http://cabin-layout.blogspot.com/2005/08/mfx-Decoder-Intellibox.htmlNow, mfx decoders can't be programmed with the Intellibox on the programming track, so we did the work on the mainline as directed.
We were able to do what we needed and in testing that our efforts matched our goals we of course tested the sound volume, by switching sound on using F2.
All worked well.
Then I wanted to run one of my trains, we found it was no longer responding. Then it dawned upon us that we had forgotten to remove my only mfx loco from the track, and it had in fact also been the target of the programming changes we had made to my friends loco, including changing its address.
This surprised us a little, because in order to get his loco decoder into programming mode we thought that we had to remove power from it, and restore power once we were sending a stream of Motorola direction changes as the first packets it would receive. Thus we thought that other decoders would not have gone into their programming mode.
It turns out that because I have my Intellibox set to start up in power OFF mode, after the reset we did each time, it correctly did not switch track power on. Since I pressed the green power button after sending the change direction command for address 80, the first packets sent out after power on, were the plain Motorola packets, enough to make any mfx style decoders jump into programming mode. (This in fact means it is much easier to get the decoder into programming mode with the blinking lights.)
So that explained why my mfx loco had gone off the rails and we set about reprogramming it, including a factory reset.
As we were testing that loco, again using F2 and various functions, we heard a buzzing. I followed the sound of the buzzing, and found my
mobile crane (
46715) had raised its jib all the way up and the hook was pulled all the way up! We found that it too had had its address changed! It too was jumping into programming mode! Using the various functions was activating the delicate motor of the crane and doing crazy things.
So, I have updated the mfx instructions at
http://cabin-layout.blogspot.com/2005/08/mfx-Decoder-Intellibox.htmlWe thought that we could rectify the crane by doing a factory reset, but alas after doing that, we could not get it to lower the hook! :-(
So the moral of the story is,
remove all modern Märklin decoders from the layout when doing any programming on the main.