Digitrax Zephyr and Fast Clock Operations with A DT400

Model Railroader Electronics and DCC
1

OK so I am using my DT400 fastclock and am confused on where the fastclock function is actually performed in the DT400 or Zephyr.

I ask because sometimes the fastclock gets hung up and does not advance to the next hour. Example, at 0059 it does not advance to 0100 it goes back to 0000. Is that a problem with theDT400 or the Zephyr. It mainly happens when I have fasttime set to a value of greater than 1. When this happens it is difficult to “edit” the fasttime using the DT400 keypad or knobs. Sometimes the minutes cannot be changed and sometimes the hours cannot be changed; it is never consistant. The only way to fix it is to unplug the DT400 from loconet turn the Zephyr off, then back on and plug the DT400 back into loconet. That usually fixes it. Sometimes continued fiddling with the DT400 knobs will do it but rarely.

I do not have an external fastclock and only one DT400 so I don’t know if it is a problem with the DT400 I have or the Zephyr.

I know of no way to adjust the fastclock via the Zephyr and have concluded it can only be adjusted via the DT400 which brings me to another question. If I add another DT400 would the time on both DT400’s be in sync? What happens when you change the rate on one DT400, does it keep both in sync? And if I added an external fastclock to loconet would they all stay in sync? The Zephyr manual doesn’t give much info on fastclock operations. Only by reading the DT400 manual did I realize I could utilize fastclock operations which makes me wonder if it is a function of the DT400 or the Zephyr.

From my reading I assume the fastclock is a function of the Zephyr but you need a DT300/400 to utilize it.

Does this make sense?

2

Your question makes perfect sense.

The clock itself would be a function of the Zephyr, but you need a throttle capable of displaying it (DT100, DT300, DT400) to make use of it. An external display, such as the Logic Rail Technologies Loconet Fast Clock would work, too.

I’m not familiar with any reports of issues with the Zephyr and fast clocks. I do know that the way that the clock is implemented on the Chief (and so presumably on the Zephyr as well, if it has clock functionality) gets into some pretty complicated math games and self-correction when you look at the technical side of how they do it.

On our layout we give our crews UT4Rs, so we use Loconet Fast Clocks placed around the layout and in the crew lounge/bullpen. We use one of them as the master clock, which overrides the clock in the Chief. After we got all of our clocks onto the same revision of LNFC firmware (we’d bought them over a period of several years) we have had no problems.

3

The Zephyr doesn’t actually have the clock in it. You need a constant clock source to update the DT400. If you have a Locobuffer or PR3 or some other itnerface and a copy of JMRI there’s a fast clock in there which can synchronize to your PC’s clock and send the clock updates to Loconet. All throttles that plug in that support the fast clock will be updated to the time provided by the source. The Zephyr supports a clock but cannot be the source.

–Randy