Thanks Marc, that describes some of what I'm seeing.? The blind write sounds is what is happening, with the 308 message and the behavior that I experienced.
Based on that, just to see the engine move, here's what I did and am still am not able to get out of idle mode/unable to control anything with the throttle.? I have the track connected now to the Main track output.? I've been starting up JMRI by first starting Decoder Pro and instantiating a throttle from there.? Is there some kind of mode or settings that I might need to reset in Decoder Pro to get the throttle instance to work?? As I've mentioned in a prior post, the throttle does display the default names of the functions in the buttons (ie. Bell, Horn, Short Horn, etc. vs F1, F2, etc.). Based on this, I'm guessing that this represents some level of communication with the decoder (my assumption).? I know from experience that changing the decoder from "Programming Track", "Programming On Main" and "Edit Only" has no effect, I only can turn the idle sounds on/off from the throttle.? Any help is greatly appreciated.
