Hi Andrew and other responders;

I tried all sorts of resistor combinations, but never across the
function leads,,,, wish I would have thought of that, sounds very
promising!

As far as I could tell the decoders (I had 4) never took any
programming.

A friend of mine sent them to me because he couldn't get it to work
on his system (he has Lenz), so, in the end,,, I programmed them with
my digitrax throttle after I cobbled together a programming track. I
never use a programming track on my layout, always bring it in to my
sproggy for real programming!

Anyway, I programmed them and sent them back to him, so I can't play
anymore. But I'm going to pass the function output resistor idea to
him, he also has sprog,,,,, maybe that's the key.

I'll report back if I find anything further.

Thanks all!!
Phil

--- In sprog-dcc@..., "andrew_croslanduk"
<andrewcrosland@...> wrote:
>
> Phil,
>
> There's a similar problem reported on the Digitrax list, message
> 104253, where someone was trying to program with an NCE system. The
> advice was to fit a load across a function wire. The OP never came
> back to say if it worked...
>
> A resistor in line with one SPROG output will not help in this
case.
> That's the fix for sound decoders, to limit the current, which
isn't
> usually required for SPROG.
>
> Start with a resistor between a function output and the blue wire
of
> about 120 ohms and go down in value from there, or try a 12V grain
of
> wheat bulb. A LED+resistor will not draw enough current. This
assumes
> the decoder switches on the function outputs to generate the ACK
pulse
>
> Have you tried different programming modes?
>
> Did the decoder actually program? Even though you aren't getting an
> ACK, it may well be programmed.
>
> I will be off-line for a few days, but please post how you get on
and
> I'll check when I return.
>
> Regards,
>
> Andrew
>
> --- In sprog-dcc@..., "Phil Dunlop" <pndunlop@>
> wrote:
> >
> > Good Day all;
> >
> > I have the above set up, and just recently, like yesterday, tried
> for
> > the first time to program a digitrax TF-4 function only decoder.
> > What a dismal failure, sigh.
> >
> > I've never had a problem with this set up before, done Tsunami,
> > Loksound, Soundtraxx, and Digitrax motor control decoders, all
with
> > no problem.
> >
> > Don't know if it's a sprog or decoderpro problem. I tried direct
> to
> > decoder connections, and various resistor ideas trying to
simulate
> a
> > motor load, etc. Decoderpro reports an error "stopping due to no
> > locomotive detected". It's pretty adamant about it. It's not
the
> > decoder, I was able to program one on a digitrax programming
> track.
> > Did Digitrax design a decoder that only works on their system in
> > spite of what the instructions say? Am I doing something
stupid??
> > Any ideas would be appreciated.
> >
> > Cheers
> > phil d
> >
>