any idea what would cause the dt400 throttles to go to “idle”???..that is all you get on the lcd screen…this has happened on both of my clubs layouts…unable to determine what has caused it…could both throttles have fried at the same time??..i am a little bored at the moment since i live in upstate ny and have about 120+ inches of snow out my window…thanks…tim
my club has the digitrax empire builder radio with the dt 400 and i have the same system on my home layout. we have had that happen on our layout several times and were able to plug the throttle back in to regain control. it had also happened with the ut4r’s that some of the club members have. i have not had it happen on my home layout though and i use my throttle at the club. you might try clearing the memory from the base unit. if that dosen’t help try calling digitrax. i had some problems and they were pleasant and walked me through trouble shooting the system. i hope you live in a two story house.
plugging the throttle back in does nothing…lcd will still read “idle”…it powers up and immediately will say idle on the screen…how do you clear the memory??
Checklist:
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The booster is ON not in SLEEP MODE
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Batteries are good
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Plug in and hit “EXIT” a few times, Cured?
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If unplugged hit “EXIT” a few times, Cured? (Radio only)
If not Cured, RAND R. HELP! is required.
I only get “Idle” displayed when my DB 150 toggle is in the power off position. I have never seen it otherwise. So, it sounds to me like a power down at the power module, although I suppose something internal to the DT 400 could cause that display.
Hello
go to www.digitrax.com
right hand side click on digitrax tech tools
scroll down to trouble shooting (7) click on it
click on general troubleshooting & tools
scroll down about 3/4 of the way down till you find throttles.tells about if your throttle goes idle
see if this helps I dont know if it will but it is worth a shot
csxtrains
the memory is easy to clear but before you do it is the track power dot on the diaplay flashing with the idle displayed? press and hold the stop button then press the Y+ power on button and then the power on dot should be lit steady. to clear the memory of the base unit ( i am assuming that you have a db150) you must put the right toggle switch to the OP position. disconnect the 6 wire loconet cable from the front of the unit. the dt400 must be plugged into the base. press the switch button (upper right of the dt400) to enter the switch mode. use the throttle knobs to dial the option that you want to change (memory is option switch 39). when the option is dialed in it will display a t in the readout. press the c button on the lower center of the dt400 to change the t to c. then throw the right toggle switch to sleep mode. then return the toggle to the run mode. the base will beep eight times. this will erase any addresses that were stored in the base as well as the info of any locos that were mu’ed but it will not change anything in the decoders. this procedure is the same for the dcs 100 too. i hope this helps you.
If the display reads idle when plugged in you aren’t getting any Loconet signal, but are getting power to the throttle. Does it do this when plugged directly into the command station, or only at a panel downstream? If only at a panel, you probably have a bad cable. Also check the socket to see if any of the six wires have jumped out of their slots and have shorted out.
You will also get the IDLE display is the Mode switch on the command station is set to Sleep. Make sure it’s in Run.
–Randy
track status light is ok…this happens on any port between two different layouts with two different throttles…i will do some more investigating and let you all know what we found…thanks for the input!!..tim…buried alive with snow in central new york
Different layouts AND different throttles? Something is very wrong here then. Even if these are radio throttles, they wouldn’t display idle when plugged in to a loconet port. Is there ANYTHIGN in common between these two layouts? That’s where to look. Do other throttles work OK? Perhaps someone accidently changed the configuration of the DT400. It has several configuration settings you can change, which are listed in the manual. Along with a few settings that they explicitly tel you not to change. I suspect that they are for either eatures not yet implemented or factory test purposes. If they got changed, who knows what might happen.
–Randy
They go back to Digitrax, don’t ask!!
test the loconet cables with the decoder tester that came with the system. a contact pin out of place in the modular plugs or sockets could be the culprit. all four of the diodes in the tester will light if the cable is ok.