Recently I updated my CS2 to the current software versions (CS2: 4.2.8(4), GFP: 3.81) and today I saw an information message which I have never seen before.

"Mfx locomotive Lok-1 :The readout of the settings was not successful."

I was running three locos which have all been registered with this CS2 for some time. They all have names, none of which are Lok-1. I did not open the configuration page for any of them or ask for a readout from a decoder. They all seem to be operating normally, but after a few minutes of running these messages started to appear. I can acknowledge the message but after several minutes it reappears. Until I acknowledge the message I have no control of my trains, which is obviously not good.

Has anyone else seen this problem or know what might be causing it to occur?

Thanks.

Thanks for your input Jean.

That is interesting, because I thought that once a decoder was registered and listed in my loco list registration was complete, but what I saw suggests that you are correct. I have never gone back and done the second small registration by calling up each loco and activating a function. I guess it was happening in the background and as long as it was successful I would never know that it had occurred. It was odd because this did not happen the first time that I ran my system after this update but on the second run. Yesterday I started the CS2 up again and I never saw that message, so I guess that it is now OK. My fear was that this would continue and prevent me from operating my CS2.

Regarding where the loco is located during initial registration I had my only MFX registration failure when I tried doing it "on the main". It did start the registration process but it did not finish and I was left with a partial registration and no control of that decoder. I removed it from my loco list and registered it on the programming track and then it was fine.

As the old saying goes - you learn something new every day.

My CS2 has been mostly stable for about a year and a half but now it is acting oddly once again and I am curious to hear if anyone has seen any similar behavior.

I currently have just 5 mainlines running. They are powered by the booster in the CS2 and two external boosters and I have only a single train running on each line. So this is about the most basic layout that I can imagine.

Everything has been fine for 3-4 weeks until two days ago when I once again got the mysterious pop-up message that the readout of Lok-1 had failed. But everything still continued to work normally and eventually I parked my trains and shut down the CS2.

But yesterday while running only two locos (one on each external booster) my MainStation app froze and the CS2 display was replaced by a red square in the upper left of the screen. At that time MainStation reported that it had lost its connection to the CS2. I hit the stop button to halt the running trains and when I pressed the stop button again the CS2 display returned. It did not appear to have rebooted but just temporarily lost its display and communication with my tablet. I restarted MainStation and then restarted the same two trains and after just a couple of minutes the same thing happened again. I was not in a debugging mood, so I just shut it all down.

Today I was able to start up and run all five of the trains without a problem or making any changes. I did delete the entry created for Lok-1, but otherwise I didn't change anything else. I have no clues as to the mysterious mfx registration attempt and whether that was related to CS2 failure, so I am at a loss as to what to investigate next. I also had one instance of something other than the CS2 triggering a function on one of my locos. I don't know if I need to replace this CS2, which is running the most current software, or if the problem is elsewhere.

If anyone has any insights, they would be greatly appreciated. It is almost time to deploy my yard and get many more trains up and running but I would prefer to get this simple layout working correctly before I add more things to the mix.

Hi Jean,

Interesting idea, which I had not considered or have even seen discussed. My WiFi router is currently located very near to my CS2 and some of the boosters.

In the same way that your router caused phantom M88 detection, mine could be inducing phantom feedback which the CS2 might see as a failed mfx registration. It might also be the cause of the function triggering that I sometimes see, with no sign that it came from the CS2. I will try locating my router further from my CS2 and see if that solves my problem.

If you idea is correct it could explain all manner of odd behavior in that whole system.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Hi Jim
I am glad if can be of any help (not sure but trying ).
Have a merry Christmas and lets enjoy our families and stay safe.
Jean