I recently tried using the wireless feature on my Digitrax 400 handheld but couldn’t get it to work. The handheld works fine plugged into the UR91 receiver but when removed the command station doesn’t respond. The handheld indicates it has been removed from the receiver (the wireless icon in the upper left appears) but the receiver doesn’t pick up the messages. This is from point blank range so it is not an interference issue. What might I be missing? Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Brad
Just a couple of suggestions
Is the battery good?
Try getting farther away from the receiver. You may be “overloading” it
BB
The battery indicated showed 8.4V when turning on the DT 400 which should be good (the manual said it should be fine above ~7V).
I’ll try moving away from the receiver and see if that helps.
When you unplug the DT400R with battery installed and a UR91 properly connected to the Loconet, you should first see the battery voltage (as said, above 7v should be fine). After that, the display will change and should say either “ra:00” (or something like that) or “ir:00”. Make sure that it says “ra” as that indicates that “radio mode” is enabled. What most people don’t know is that you can change your DT400R to work as a radio or infrared throttle…and that the UR91 will operate as both a radio and IR receiver.
BTW, if your DT400R does say that it is in radio mode, try changing it to IR. When in this mode, it’s just like a TV remote, so it will be mostly line of sight to the UR91. And if it works for IR and not radio, then at least you know that something’s working.
If the radio doesn’t work at all even after doing all of the above, you’ll probably have to send it back. Digitrax is usually pretty good about it.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
It did say ra:00. I’ll try switching it to the infrared mode and see if that works.
may be on a different channel, they have several channels available to prevent interference between multiple setups, like at shows. otherwise sombody with the club across the hall might get controll of your loco if it has the same address.
Brad, do you have the UR91 powered by a wall wart or are you trying to run it off loconet power? Just a thought… The UR91 needs to be powered by a wall wart to work properly.
river_eagle,
Digitrax only has one radio channel. There was talk about releasing a “B” radio channel, but it was discovered that their initial idea that the radio receiver could only handle 8-10 throttles was overly conservative (according to when I asked them years ago).
However, what they do have is that each throttle has the ability to have a unique address programmed into it that would stop outside interference…like at a show. But it’s all the same frequency.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
that’s what I meaning to say, but “channel” seemed a easier concept to grasp. digitrax: Loconet ID change, page 68 0f DT400 manual
The UR91 is plugged in to the wall using a 12V adaptor that came with it. However, is there anyway to test whether the adaptor is working? I ask this because the UR91 appears to function the same way whether it is plugged in or not (the green radio light is on regardless but none of the other lights).
Try unpluging the UR91 from the loconet. If the green light is still on, the 12 volt wall wart is working. Just a random thought here… You are using a DT400R (radio) throttle, right? They usually have a short (one foot) long cord to plug into the loconet. If they sent you the wrong throttle, it would explain the problem. You also might want to make sure that the loconet cables are properly made for use with loconet. Standard 3 pair phone cables are not made correctly to use with the UR90 or 91 as the cable is reversed end to end. That is, wire 1 is wire 6 at the other end of the cable. I had a problem with getting a UR 90 to work due to that. If all is well (ie: you have the right throttle and the wall wart is working and cables are good), I would call Digitrax and they should be very helpful.