Hi, I’ve read the manuals and done a search on this website but can’t find any reference to the problem I’m having. All of my turnouts are controlled through DS64s and I want all them to start operation in the closed position. I’m finding that after Powering-On some of them snap to the thrown position despite leaving them closed. It’s always the same ones, as well. This seems to be regardless of whether I Power-Down through the system or just turn off at the mains. I’ve concluded that it must be something fairly simply (I hope) but I’m just missing it.
You can program a route that will set all your switches to your desired state with a single switch command then issue that command just before shutdown, or just after startup.
Thanks for the replies Phoebe. I must admit I struggle with the Digitrax manuals. I had looked at Option 6 and set all the turnouts as closed before Powering-down but it seemed to make no difference.
When I Powered-on this morning everything stayed no switches were thrown and I thought things were solved. Having other things to do, I turned off immediately. However, when I turned on this afternoon switches were thrown again. Damn!
I’m going to set up a route to throw them all closed as you suggested. Then I study what’s happening over a period of time and see if I can deduce a pattern. There must be one.
If you close option switch 6 then the turnouts should not do anything at power up Yet Thrown (factory default) at power on, all DS64s and their 4 outputs powerup automatically to their last state. But, when the option is set as Thrown, if you haven’t changed their state since switching off they would do nothing anyway when you power up. Both the positions of option 6 seem to suggest nothing should happen in my case.
If you close option switch 6 then the turnouts should not do anything at power up Yet Thrown (factory default) at power on, all DS64s and their 4 outputs powerup automatically to their last state. But, when the option is set as Thrown, if you haven’t changed their state since switching off they would do nothing anyway when you power up. Both the positions of option 6 seem to suggest nothing should happen in my case.
That sounds like an extremely logical way to proceed and I shall follow. Before doing so. I’m going to put everything back to default to see if that gets rid of any of the gremlins.
I’ve sorted my problem out! I reset the DCS100 switch 39 to closed, which clears all routes, loco rosters, and mobile decoder info and consists.
When initially setting up routes I used numbers above 32 thinking that I could use any numbers as long as I had no more than 32. Not so, I found out on reading the manual carefully.
Everything appears to be just great. I’ve got all my routes sorted out and when I get my DS64s linked together with Loconet I’ll make a route to set the all the turnouts to closed which is how I’d like to start each session.
Each DS64 can have 8 routes each operating 8 switches. The routes can be cascaded (one route running another route) as long as the next route is on a different DS64.Since I have 9 DS64s, I can run up to 72 routes, or with cascading can run one route with up to 36 switches.
Exactly. If I use the command station and make everything a global route then I am limited to what the command station can hold. For a DCS100 that is 32 routes with 8 commands each total across the layout. Depending upon the size of your layout, this may or may not be enough. You can cascade routes up to 3 levels deep, so you can extend or cascade reusable functionality but that can get complex and tricky, if you start running out of routes.
At the moment I’ve got 6 DS64s and 26 routes so maybe soon I’ll have to link up the Loconet and put the routes on the DS64s.
I guess another advantage would be if the DCS100 decides to reset itself you don’t have to re-programme it! Last night I was having trouble setting CVs on a loco I purchased on Ebay, which just wasn’t accepting an address. I pressed the enter button three times in a row (frustration) and the DCS100 just cleared itself of all of its settings; only routes in this case.
I’ve managed to get that loco sorted now anyway, so all I’ve got to do is re-programme the routes!
You brought up another good reason to use the DS64 routes, if you need to reset the command station for any reason. One thing I haven’t gotten working yet is sucking the DS64 configs into Decoder Pro. I believe it can be done but I need to spend some more time with it.
As long as you have given each DS64 a board ID, you can just select it off the menu. It reads the DS64 configuration just fine. Unfortunately, it does not read or program routes.
Thanks. I have the same configuration. I was looking to be able to backup the DS64 configs, especially the routes. The OpSw values are of little value because mine are all standard. Backing up and restoring the routes and Option Switches would be of value. I pulled down the 2.4 manual and they state nobody has written the commands to pull the routes because the route support in Decoder Pro is so much better. It may be but I don’t run my layout from PanelPro. Maybe someone will or I’ll find the time to dig into it in the future.
Well I seem to finally understand this problem. When I said previously that I had it sorted I was wrong. It just happened to be intermittently right for a couple of days!I posted the problem on the Yahoo Digitrax forum and I quote the reply I got from Rock Pizza: “This is a known problem and Digitrax is aware of it. However they will not be
working on a fix until they get the problems with their new duplex radio worked
out. A work around is to turn the power on to your booster first wait a second or two
then turn the power on to the DS64’s.”Hope this helps anyone looking for answers.