Our club currently has Digitrax but we have had some issues with it shutting down during periods of prolonged heavy use, such as during our annual Open House. Our electrical guys have been pretty thorough in trying to determine the cause but have really been unable to find a specific reason. The current thinking is it might simply be human error from those members using the throttles accidentally hitting the shut down button. That function has now been disabled and many members are now using their phones as throttles but we haven’t tested the layout to see if the problem has been “fixed”.
Be that as it may, these issues have opened up the discussion on whether we would be better off scrapping Digitrax in favor of NCR. We have a string contingent of anti Digitrax members who feel we should abandon it, sell off our components, and switch to NCE. As President, I am of the opinion that I need to be convinced of the need to do so, as are several other key members of the board such as the layout manager and treasurer. It is an expensive action to recommend to the membership that the club should pursue, but if the benefits are worth it, I would support the transition.
Would like to hear some some of you guys on your opinions on the two systems and whether one is really that much better than the other, and why. Hopefully this topic doesn’t open up a HUGE can of worms, I would just like to hear some rational, commen sense thoughts about the systems and their comparative strengths and weaknesses. Thanks in advance for any replies, Dan.
Find and fix the issue you have. My club has been using Digitrax for over 20 years and don’t have issues with it “shutting down”. Exactly what do mean by shutting down? Is it track power turning off? Or is the Command station turning off? A heat issue due to the location of the CS and boosters maybe needing better air flow?
Power supply to the CS starting to fail? I’ve seen this on Digitrax and NCE.
If you are going to switch, I would second Rich’s suggestion to go with NCE.
Having said that, I really think that Peter has the right approach. There are literally thousands of Digitrax systems working properly around the world. If most of them had shut down problems, Digitrax would have been out of business long ago.
Have you contacted Digitrax directly? If not, I strongly urge you to do so.
Maybe all you need to do is to divide the layout into smaller blocks and add a booster or two.
Something you might also want to check is the current draw of each locomotive. If, for whatever reason, several of the locomotives are drawing more power than usual, you may be inadvertently overloading the system.
Sorty all - total brain fart this morning. MRC is NOT an option. Meant to type NCE instead. That’ll teach me to try and post too early in the morning.
Sorry all - total brain fart this morning. MCR is NOT an option. Meant to type NCE instead. That’ll teach me to try and post too early in the morning - before my first cup of coffee.
“NCR” will buy you a cash register, which is NOT any good at operating DCC. “NCE”, OTOH, is very good at it.
That said, I agree with the suggestion that tracking down the reason for the shut downs is more important than switching DCC systems, at this point in time.
Q: Was there a layout change that took place right before your club started experiencing these shut downs?
What exactly do you mean by “shut down”? More details would help.
Probable cause is overheating of the booster. They need air flow around the heat sink, and if they are being overloaded, they will shut down to protect themselves from overheating.
Are the boosters contained within an enclosure which limits air flow? That could cause issues over time when in heavy use.
Maybe they need a fan to move air across the heatsink(s).
Spreading the load across additional boosters is another solution.
Scrapping the entire DCC system would be a large expense in both time and money. Finding the cause and solving that will save a lot of money, with a nominal cost in terms of spending time to figure out the cause and solutions. Adding a couple of additional boosters would probably be less costly in terms of time and effort too.
I would point out one other reason for solving the problem instead of scrapping the system. There is the possibility that the problem lies outside of the DCC system. As I suggested, perhaps the locomotives are drawing more power than expected, or there is some sort of problem with the track and/or feeders. You could spend a fortune on a new system only to have the problem recur.
I suggest that you create a list of possible causes and eliminate them one by one in a methodical manner. Then you can decide whether or not to switch to NCE (which personally I would be in favour of simply because it is a much nicer system to operate).
Sounds like overheating to me but could be user error. If you change out your system you could just go with a newer Digitrax. The real difference I think personaly between NCE and Digitrax are the throttles. I personaly like the Digitrax as you can get old school feal throttles and very simple ones. NCE does some advanced stuff easier so it boils down to what kind of members do you have and what do they all have at home also if only a test setup.
I was an alumni member of my old college’s model railroad club for a while. Everytime they had an open house, the layout would shut down repeatedly. From what I could work out, it was underpowered. I made a point when I built my home layout to avoid that so it is (I’m sure) overpowered, with three boosters spread out around the layout.
FWIW I started with Digitrax, but found their radio control system to be very hit-and-miss, even with multiple receivers. I switched to CVP, and can operate from anywhere in the basement with just one receiver.
I am not the electronics guy in our club so all I can tell you is that during periods of prolonged heavy use the operating system simply shuts down so that everything stops. Overheating does not seem to be the issue, it has been extensively checked into (although the way things stop operating would seem indicate that could be the problem). Current thinking seems to be that users are inadvertently turning the system off via their throttles, or that more boosters are needed.
What I really want to know is if there are specific pluses or minuses between the two operating systems that would indicate one is far superior than the other.
Are you monitoring LocoNet with JMRI or another tool? If it’s user error with the throttles, that will tell you right away. And even if it’s something else, LocoNet may still give you a clue.
No. DCC works the way it works. Basically the major differences between any two DCC brands are ergonomics, and in some cases the philosophy of how some task is handled.
the MD&WV club has been using Digitrax without such problems for decades during long week long open houses. The club has air conditioning and it does have fans behind the boosters
the layout has lost track power for no apparent reason. our best guess is people inadvertently hitting the wrong buttons on the new controllers. There are menu items for turning it on/off with the DT602d controllers. Power is quickly restored when using those options
section 5.4 of the DT602d manual says to press Power/Back key to turn track power back on
I think you have a short in the track that is caused by a gap being spanned as it heats up. Seen a gap compleatly close on mine by a temporary short that finally permanintly shorted, only way I would have ever found it.