This might be a little long in telling but I believe it is necessary
I have been using the Digitrax Empire Builder for about 4 years. I have had
different types of problems including electrical shorts of one kind or another
and managed to get everything working again usually from using search on
a number of different MRR forums.
Today, after about 5 weeks of absence I finally made it to the train room. I turned on the power and ran several different engines, after 10 mins I lost
all power, and the idicator light, on the DB 150, for being off line was RED.
I did the usual things to find a short without solving the problem!!! I finally disconnected all wires from the track and I still have a short/ off line
indicator light being on.
I have used a different power pack, different connecting wires and STILL the
RED light stays on. Can someone give me any ideas.
del
This is a job for Digitrax! It really sounds like you’ve got a serious failure of your DCC system. You’ve already demonstrated that it’s neither the track nor the power supply.
Lenz, BTW, has a 10-year warrantee. Digitrax is only 1. So let me tell you a story…
Once upon a time, I bought a pair of Bose 501 speakers. I ran them for years. Worked great, and then one day the woofer crapped out. Bose, to me, is a local company, so I hauled it into their headquarters/lab, because after contacting them, they expressed an interest in the failure. They owed me nothing - these things were 10 years old at least. But, they believed in their product, and after looking at the speaker, they said, “No, it should not have failed. Here’s a new one.”
To me, that’s the way to run a business. Maybe Digitrax will be the same way. They have a good reputation, and any good engineering company is very interested in fault analysis.
Boy, sorry to hear t-whistler…hope it is not too bad of a repair or replacement cost. Mr. B may be right about DigiTrax. Certainly won’t hurt to ask. Just goes to show that you need a tad more railroad time in your busy schedule. You have to FORCE yourself to go to the layout room once or twice a week and run trains for 30 minutes. Does wonders for me!!
I had a similar problem not too long ago with my empire builder. The whole system was locked up and it just beeped at me. I didn’t have the continuous light like you have though. I fixed it just buy doing a factory reset on the system. I don’t offhand remember how, but I got the info from the Digitrax website. And I believe it was in the manual as well. Hope this possibly helps. Good luck.
A call to Digitrax ((770)441-7992) will probably be all that you need to do. Dave is a Godsend, he will help you with anything. I’ve used Digitrax for better then five years and am very pleased with them. He also will not make you feel stupid when you are.
t-whistler,
PLEASE let us know the response you get from Digitrax. I am ready to start into DCC and have been looking for the " right " company as this is a big investment. The way a company responds to a problem like you have is a good way to evaluate the company and their policies. I am sure others will want to know the results. THANKS.
Ray ---- Great Northern fan.
A quick troubleshooting test, if you have an old DC power pack and loco (even a cheap trainset one, as long as it works). Since you disconnected the pack from the rails, connect the trainset pack, put the DC loco on the track and see if it runs. If it’s OK, then there’s little chance a wiring problem cause the DCC pack problem. A short in your wiring can fry the pack if the overload protection fails.
Also, when you call, make sure you know the difference between a short and an open. An open is just that, an incomplete circuit. Volt meter will read maximum and the Amp meter will read zero. A short means the circuit is taking another path that’s short of the load (motor, light, etc) Volt meter will read low and Amp meter will read maximum until the overload protection cuts the power.