I had an extra UT-1 so I sold it to a kid at the club. It worked when I sold it to him then a couple weeks later, I saw him borrowing a controller. He said he wanted to run a MU. Later, I tried using the UT-1 and it wouldn’t work. It flashes like it connects to power when I plug it it, but then the lights go out when it clicks into place. It won’t acquire any of the locos. It fact, it doesn’t light up like it is seraching rather the light has a very low glow.
I asked the kid if he dropped it or yanked it out of the socket. He gave me a guilty start and said “no”.
Sounds like the locos that you were trying to acquire were on other throttles. Get someone with a DT400 to steal a loco and then dispatch (dump) it from their throttle and then try acquirig it with the UT1.
SpaceMouse,
Does it have the “heartbeat” LED flash/blink on the far right?
Also make sure that the UT-1 isn’t in switch mode. I know our UT-1’s used to get screwed up if they were in switch mode and then unplugged before going back to loco mode.
Hmm… I’ve never heard of that happening before with that LED. That’s a new one on me.
Switch mode on the UT-1 allows one to throw switches from the throttle just like the DT400 does…except that it’s not as easy. IIRC, you hold down RUN/STOP and hit “ACQ”. This makes you go into switch mode and the LED in between the numbers goes amber. You can now change the numbers to the switch address, using the “ACQ” button to throw the switch one way or the other. You then must change the numbers back to your loco address before leaving switch mode, or you will lose control of your train and other unpleasent things can happen.
I don’t have much to add here. I think Paul probably has it right, it accidently got into switch mode. The LED flashes when the speed is not the same as the loco you are trying to aquire, but that should be very noticeable. If what Paul suggests doesn;t help, it could be that the potentiometer has failed, pushing down on the knob or trying to turn them past the physical stops can break them.
And before anyone looks at Paul’s message about going into switch mode and goes “OMG, Digitrax is SO complicated” keep in mind the UT1 was really meant to be a simple engineer throttle. Control train speed and direction, turn the lights on and off, that’s about it. The replacement UT4 doesn’t even have the switch mode anymore, all it can do is drive a train. On the full-featured DT400 throttle it works liek every other DCC system, press the SWITCH key, enter an address, operate the turnout. No wierd key combinations or anything.
If you’re a real masochist dig up an old UT2 throttle and program a speed table with it. Why Digitrax ever thought someone would want to program with a throttle that has no display and no number buttons is beyond me… DT100’s might not have been the easiest thing in the world but at least they had a display so you could see what was going on and what values you were programming into what CV.