Weird happenings in MTS3

[KeithT]

Today I had a charity open day.
From 8am to 9am all tested perfectly including the hard wired Crazy Car dodgems.
At 10am the first visitors arrived and mayhem ensured.
Neither of the two Massoth XLS encoded locos would respond correctly to the commands. Pressing 4 for a station announcement might produce a long whistle next time it could be braking sounds. I swapped from wireless to tethered then swapped the control unit for a spare but the same happened. A loco might stop then set off on its own or reverse, often with the lights flashing.
Several times on pressing a key for the loco coded 3 would produce (wrong) response from the one coded 2.
False analogue worked perfectly on my Bachmann locos.

What on earth is happening? Is it possible that someone nearby has a transmitter pushing out a very strong signal? I can't think of anything else.
I mentioned the dodgems, they worked perfectly early on but not later. Probably sheer coincidence.

On the subject of open days I am posting something in the Electric Locomotives section.

 

[Paul M]

Today I had a charity open day.
From 8am to 9am all tested perfectly includingbthe hard wired Crazy Car dodgems.
At 10am the first visitors arrived and mayhem ensured.
Neither of the two Massith XLS encoded locos woukd respond correctly to the commands. Pressing 4 for a station announcement might produce a long whistle next time it coukd be braking sounds. I swapped from wireless to tethered then swapped the control unit for a spare but the same happened. A loco might stop then set off on its own or reverse, often with the lights flashing.
Several times on pressing a key for thebloco coded 3 would produce (wrong) response from the one coded 2.
False analogue worked perfectly on my Bachmann locos.

What on earth is happening? Is it possible that someone nearby has a transmitter pushing out a very strong signal? I can't think of anything else.
I mentioned the dodgems, they worked perfectly early on but not later. Probably sheer coincidence.

On the subject of open days I am posting something in the Electric Locomotives section.

Open day it is I'm afraid! Only lasts about 8 hours, cured by shutting the garden gate and absolutely no visitors! Also see thunderstorminmiddleofdroughtitis, (same cure), and willsticktoanythingbutwhatyouwantitism usually relieved by bad language and throwing things!

 

[mike]

It be the open day lurgy

 

[KeithT]

It be the open day lurgy

It has to be, all is now back to normal.
Even the dodgems are working.

 

[Tim Brien]

I have seen it before when building a loco. The drive will test fine until the final assembly of body to chassis and then nothing. Disassembly, check drive is fine then reassembly and all works. Railways, while enjoyable, are designed to test our patience.

As an example, yesterday, a customer returned an LGB locomotive as it would move one-quarter turn in either direction and then lockup solid. From memory the loco tested fine but that was some time previously. My mistake in that I did not test immediately prior the sale.

I disassembled the drive and upon removing the motor found that the drive wheels would lock after a quarter turn in either direction. I removed the rods and all axles freely turned. I reassembled, moving the rods to the other side of the loco but not reversing them and the drive worked perfectly. Theoretically simply placing the rods on the opposite side of the drive should not have had an effect on the mechanism but fortunately it did. If the axles were unevenly spaced apart and I had attempted to install the rods incorrectly then obviously it would have impacted on the drive operation. Of cause I was pleased with the outcome but it still has me baffled.

 

[Paul M]

I have seen it before when building a loco. The drive will test fine until the final assembly of body to chassis and then nothing. Disassembly, check drive is fine then reassembly and all works. Railways, while enjoyable, are designed to test our patience.

As an example, yesterday, a customer returned an LGB locomotive as it would move one-quarter turn in either direction and then lockup solid. From memory the loco tested fine but that was some time previously. My mistake in that I did not test immediately prior the sale.

I disassembled the drive and upon removing the motor found that the drive wheels would lock after a quarter turn in either direction. I removed the rods and all axles freely turned. I reassembled, moving the rods to the other side of the loco but not reversing them and the drive worked perfectly. Theoretically simply placing the rods on the opposite side of the drive should not have had an effect on the mechanism but fortunately it did. If the axles were unevenly spaced apart and I had attempted to install the rods incorrectly then obviously it would have impacted on the drive operation. Of cause I was pleased with the outcome but it still has me baffled.

Nothing strange about that, for me that's totally normal