Digitrax AR-1

I have four AR-1’s on my layout which I operate in DCC with an NCE PH-Pro 5 amp system. All four units work just fine.

I do not own any Power Cabs. As much of a fan of NCE as I am, I continually wonder about the merits of the Power Cab to operate anything but a small DCC layout.

I have heard of a lot of problems with the use of PSX-AR units with the Power Cab, and I wonder if the same is true with the Digitrax AR-1. It just seems to me that the Power Cab isn’t powerful enough to handle things like reversing units, at least not multiple reversing units.

Rich

The Power Cab is a different animal than the Pro- Cab set ups.

Thanks for letting me know.

I was just letting the OP to watch out for reverse loops if using a PC.

I have been following with interest. I have the Pro-Cab-R, so I guess I am OK.[C):-)]

Thanks everyone.

Brent

Richhotrain: I’m using the AR-1 on a WYE. I finally got it set to trip only once, ran trains, all good. A few days later I came back to run trains and now the AR-1 is multi-tripping (constant) when power is on. I recently read something about having to adjust the PM-42 district when using the AR-1.

Any thoughts on why the AR-1 is multi-tripping? Is it related to needing to adjust the PM-42

Thanks.

The only time that I experience constant tripping of one my four AR-1’s is when something is bridging the gap, confusing the AR-1 between normal polarity and reverse polarity.

I suppose that the PM42 could be the problem. Are you using the PM42 to control more than one AR-1 unit? You might try disconnecting the PM42 or rewiring the AR-1 without the connection to the PM42 to determine if the PM42 is involved in your problem.

Rich

The PM42 is also capable of auto reversing. I suspect that might be the problem.

If the AR-1 is downstream of a PM42 section you may have to adjust that PM42 section to trip at a slower speed so the AR-1 has time to do its thing. The default speed of each section is ‘standard’ which should be fine, if you changed them to ‘faster’ or ‘fastest’ this could be a problem with an AR-1.

–Randy

Thanks guys. You’ve all given me some ideas for approaching this. Tomorrow’s a railroad workday, so I’ll let you know if the problem is solved and how.

When you get conflicting advise, I would always start with Randy’s. He’s the apparent Digitrax expert in here.

I just know with all Digitrax parts it works. A friend’s layout has DCS100 - PM42 - AR1 on a reverse loop and it’s dead nuts reliable, even on low current draw N scale locos (his layout is N scale).

Of course he has an old BD16 block detector, supposedly they don’t work with an decoder that have high frequency or supersonic drive withotu giving false indications - he has an utomated trolley loop that depends on those block detections to keep the trains from runnign into one another and it too is completely reliable - and all his decoders have high frequency drive.

–Randy

Randy et al: Thanks guys. Last saturday we methodically went through the different combinations of AR-1 and PM 42 speed setting, trying to determine which setting resulted in the shortest stall. ( The AR-1 is downstream from the PM 42.)

The best result was the PM 42 set slow and the AR-1 set fastest. This produced NO stall when traversing the gap at SLOW loco speeds (yard speed). However, there is some delay at “road” speed, which is fine, as slow speed would be most appropriate anyway.

Thanks again! Happy Railroading.

Joel aka Owen W in CA