I had a technical question for a Digitrax rep, so I explained the question in a short email. Now I know email ain’t exactly the best way to do business…BUT…the response I got makes me almost want to rip out my decoder, mail it back to them and start buying someone else’s product… Has anyone else experienced anything like this?
Care to elaborate on what it is they said that makes you want to tear out the decoder?
So far, I haven’t needed to talk to Digitrax directly. I’ve had any questions I’ve had answered onthe Digitrax group on Yahoo. Lots of us live on there, and you’ll usually get a user-supplied answer faster than Digitrax can get back to you.
Email is increasingly difficult to conduct business via because of the prevalence of these idiotic spammers. If i ABSOLUTELY needed to contact somone I never communciated with before, I would hesitate to use email. Aftter a dialog is established, that’s different. Most spam filters accept a reply to a message generated by the person behind the filter, but with unsolicited communciatiosn from the outside in, you take your chances with the wording of your subject, and the content of your message. And overzealous blacklist sites - my personal domain was blocked by Verizon for some odd reason, I had to contact them so that Verizon users could get emails from me. Until someone gets their act together and actually does something about the spam problem that costs EVERYONE in terms of bandwidth and time lost, email will become increasingly impossible to use other than as an internal communications system. And I don’t mean better quality filters - that’s not the solution, that’s a workaround. PROSECUTE spammers and deny them future access to the internet. SPAM is theft, plain and simple.
–Randy
Yeah, I did. It was their customer service. I had asked about accelleration and decelleration rates for the DH123. My locomotive does NOTHING for a VERY long time if I have the rates on anything higher than say 10. This seems wrong to me. The way I perceive it, the rates should be immediate, but gradual…if you get my meaning. Immediate to react, but gradual to accellerate or decellerate. As it is, unless the rates are on zero, It won’t move at ALL for a long time. I had it on 50 and counted 12 Missippi before it would move. By the same token, I have another locomotive with a Soundtraxx ( I know, different brand) decoder and when on 50, it reacts immediately, and accellerates gradually to match my programmed variable. I was very polite asking about all this and the response I got was “You’re lucky it even moved in two days set on 50.” That’s it? That’s the great customer service? Like I said, I know I’m comparing apples to oranges with the different decoders, BUT the Soundtraxx uses the same CV variables. I guess if all else fails, I’ll just set it to zero and use the throttle for my accelleration and decelleration rates.
YOu need to find the right setting for CV 02 (starting voltage). My BLI hudson did the same thing until I got fed up and played with that CV’s settings only yesterday afternoon. What a difference!
Start with a low value, say 10, and work up in increments of ten.
Hint: make sure you are programming only that loco. Do you know how to ensure that others don’t get programmed at the same time?
Yeah. They can’t be programmed if they ain’t on the track. When I put it on one, that doesn’t even work right. The locomotive hesitates before it moves even on one. That just ain’t right.
I have emailed Digitrax several times over the last five years. When I wasn’t clear in my message, they would invite me to call and talk to a technician. The tech was always polite and resolved my problems. Their email repsonses were helpful and resolved my problem.
I have shipped decoders and my throttle back for repairs and have always received them in a timely manner. Sometimes, they didn’t charge me for the repair.
I have the highest regard for Digitrax’s products and services.
Hope this helps…Ken
My frustration level has a lot to do with this, too. I have tried bunches of times, with no success. I’m sure Digitrax didn’t mean anything the way I perceived it. I’ve dealt with them in the past as well and they were great then. It’s probably just me.
I have only had to deal with the techs once when I miss wired my booster and blew it up. We swapped several emails until they had enough info and told me to send it in for repair. It took almost three weeks but even though it was several years old and my stupidity that fried it they didn’t charge me. I thought the entire process was actually quite pleasant and professional. As a result I use only digitrax on my layout. Well except for sound modules. And when Digitrax comes out with theirs I will certainly give them a shot.
Terry
If you don’t have one, go to the Digitrax web site and download the latest copy of the Decoder Manual it has EVERYTHING in there. Page 36 of my version covers the acceleration setting (CV03). At least on Digitrax decoders, the value here is how many tenths (1/10) of a second it takes BETWEEN EACH SPEED STEP. Not from 0 to wherever you cranked the throttle. Couple that with a loco that needs speed step 15-20 before it even moves (try setting CV02 to whatever speed step the loco first moves, or 5 or so on either side, til you get it working just right), and you could be sitting there for a LONG time. CV03 at 50 would mean 5 seconds between speed steps. x20 to get to step 20 when the loco first moves, that’s 100 seconds, more than a minute and a half, from the time you turn the throttle up until the loco first starts to move. If you counted 12 seconds, well, then the loco starts running around step 2 or 3 - set CV03 back to 0 and get CV02, start voltage, set first. If the loco runs too fast at full throttle, you will also want to adjust the TOP (CV05) and MID (CV06) settings as well - make it run the speed you want FIRST, then add CV03 and CV04 acceleration and deceleration values.
Digitrax support people are also know to clown around. Their old site had quite a humor section - a lot of it things customers said, and things support answered with. Probably not a good idea for their first contact with you, but I’m sure the comment about getting it to move in a week was meant as a joke.
–Randy
I’m sure he meant it that way…but after four hours tinkering with the thing, I didn’t need a joke. Thanks. You splained it better than Digitrax did.
I have had my Digitrax system for about 4 years and everytime I contacted them by
email they were quick to respond. I had a post about " a short is a short conclusion"
and the details they sent me were exactly what I needed. I like this system and the customer service and would recommend it to anyone.
Del
The people at Digitrax have always been prompt and courteous when I have called or E-mailed them. I have had no trouble with my Digitrax system. The three or four times I did contact them was with their techs about decoder set-up or service.
Good people IMHO.