I’ve been using a new Digitrax Super Chief Xtra Duplex for a few weeks now. Almost everytime I fire the system up, it seems something was not retained from the previous session. After I turn on the power supply(s) and Command/Booster, and then turn on the throttle (inverting the battery), the throttle initializes. I turn on track power. And one or the other loco may have lost it’s address entry, or no sound, etc. After fiddiling around for a few minutes, turning everything off, then on again, pressing the throttle knobs and such, somehow I eventually get everything to work. What sequence of events gets me to this point I don’t know. Occasionally everything starts up as it should.
Is there some sort of procedure that I have to follow for both shutting down and starting up the system so I don’t encounter these problems. I really hate spending the first 10-15 minutes trying to get everything back to work.
Sounds like maybe the coin cell battery in the DCS100 is dead and not retaining the settings. There’s actually space inside for 2 batteries, but only 1 is needed, the second slot is so you can replace the existing battery with a new one and not erase everything, but if the original one is already partly dead…
I’m confused. When you say the “loco may have lost it’s address entry”, what does that mean? That the decoder lost it’s address or that it’s no longer in the throttle? The first is a decoder problem; the 2nd may be a command station issue, but do you expect the throttle to still be controlling the same address after you shut down both the command station and the throttle?
When you say the loco has no sound, do you mean that it is silent upon layout start up? Or that the loco won’t make sound no matter what? In either case, that sounds more like a decoder issue. Many modelers, including myself, prefer not having every sound engine start up upon layout power turning on. Most of us consider that a blessing.
Is tethering before powering up the command station/booster the required way of doing this? Honestly, I’m pretty sure I’ve always been powering up first, then turning on the throttle. Not always that way, but that seemed most logical since the command station would be fully operational and “broadcasting” already once the throttle is powered up. I have noticed that tethering the throttle “after the fact” seems to have something to do with correcting the situation but still requires some additional fiddling around.
The throttle loses the address. Yes, I expect the command station and throttle to remember/retain the settings from the last session.
All the locos involved (BLI Blueline on one train & BLI Paragon on another) are still set to factory default with the exception that the two Paragon E6 have their address changed to the engine #). Yes, they will sometimes make no sound at startup. Track power is on, car & engine lights on, all sounds not functional. This is after I’ve put the engine address back in the throttle. Then I need to reboot everything again, or several times. Tethering the throttle seems to take me on a path to solve what ever issue I’m having but often still requires some additional playing around with the throttle. Locos don’t move either. Then all of a sudden everything works.
I’m still having issues with this. Digitrax says the DT402D throttle does not have to be tethered (except during the initial installation).
The only thing consistent that I can find so far is that when I turn track power on, the loco & cars lights come on. The loco addresses are usually there (sometimes one or the other says flashing SEL). Regardless, I have to press loco, reenter the loco address & press enter. At this point the throttle sometimes asks “Steal=Y?”. There’s nothing to steal, only one DT402D throttle in use. Even if the Steal=Y? message doesn’t occur I still have to press Loco and select the loco address and press enter for both the L & R throttle to get the locos to respond to sound or speed.
So far, Digitrax tech support has been pretty much useless on this issue. I’m beginning to think maybe the throttle is defective. Everything is brand new.
some sound decoders wont make noise unless the engine is addressed. I believe that the digitrax throttles don’t send any engine commands until the engine is addressed. Perhaps your issue is soply a combination of the two?
I doubt it. As I get further & further into to this I experience more and more unexpected results, and things continue to get worse.
I tried re-programming the “lost” loco address. It won’t program. After a few tries, and then a few tries using different Program modes everything was lost, no address that I had been using are shown or recognized. The DCS100 started beeping continuously. Now I can’t even select a loco address to use or program.
Time for a rest. I think you must have messed somethign up with all teh program attempts. Plug the DT402 into the DCS100 directly, and change the switch on teh front to Ops. On the throttle, press Switch and enter 39 and press Close. Put the DCS100 switch back to Run, turn off all power, and wait a minute then turn it back on.
If you select a loco address, then select another by just pressing Loco and entering a new address, the first one is not released. Next time you select it, you will probably get the Steal message. If the first loco was not completely stopped, and all the functions were not turned off, it will be kept alive in the command station as still active. Trying to reselect an already active loco is what generate the Steal message.
The system does not remember previously selected locos on the throttle when you power off the throttle. The throttle does rememebr the last used loco so you can get to it by pressing Loco and the number should come up, then press Enter. But if you shut down the system and take the battery out of the throttle, anything active is lost. The command station remembers ebcause it has a battery backup in it, so if the loco was not properly dispatched (it’s in the manual what to do when finished with a loco) it will be remembered int eh DCS100 memory as active - again this results in the Steal message. If the loco is set to speed 0 and all functions turned off, the command station will efectively clear it out after (default) 600 seconds, in which case selecting that address again will NOT result in a Steal message.
I finally got to speak with someone from Digitrax (Nate) who was extremely patient and helpful.
We basically had to reset everything, including locos. He said to press Loco after entering the address instead of Enter. Basically an experience thing. He said he’s found that pressing the Loco button seems to work more consistently. The other thing was waiting 15+ seconds after turning track power off before turning it back on so that the sound decoder has enough time to reset. Part of the issue may be because of the particular locomotives involved. He said “there are exceptions, like the Broadway Limited Paragon” and apparently mine fit the bill. So some extra “forced” reset & address programing (reset multiple times) to make sure everything was written over.
While everything is now operating correctly again, the one thing I haven’t done is turn off all power, I’ve only turned off track power and pulled the throttle battery. Hopefully when I turn everything off later tonight, everything won’t have turned back to the previous issues.
Just for the record, IMO, the end user shouldn’t have to follow some kind of specific power up/shut down procedure, so I hope that’s not the case. Hopefully it’s just my newbie ignorance not understanding the nuances yet.
Well, it’s back to ground ZERO. And I’m starting to get a little …
About 4 hours ago I turned track power off and pulled the throttle battery, leaving the DCS100 & UR92 powered. I put the battery back in the throttle, turn on track power…and NOTHING, except for the loco & car lights lighting up. No Sound. No THrottle. The loco addresses are displayed.
If I have to got through this nonsense everytime this junk is out of here. DC worked all the time without any issues. I’m spending more time trying to get things running everyday than I have time left to run the damn things.
What do you mean when you say no throttle? Does the throttle power on? Does it control track power? If you hit loco and the existing address strats flashing and you press Loco again, do you now have control? If not, something may not be right. If you DO - then it’s working. The only non-volatile memory in the throttle is that you access by doing the throttle setup to configure the throttle - taking out the battery wipes everything else out.
I have an older Super Chief with a couple DT400’s and use some JMRI/Engine Driver throttles, and I never have problems like these.
To power up, I first turn on power to the LocoNet (I have several UP5’s that I supply external power to) and the PM42 via a power strip. Then I turn on power to the DCS100, and set the switch from Sleep to Run. The DT400’s may or may not be plugged in during this part of my process as it makes no apparent difference.
Once the DCS100 is in “Run” for a short while (maybe 10-15 seconds) so the LocoNet is stable, I power up my DS64’s. Then I use one of the DT400’s to turn on track power, and select one or more locos on one or more throttles, and away I go!
Shutting down is the reverse: Dispatch all the locos, turn off power to the DS64’s, set the DCS100 back to sleep, power it off, then power off the LocoNet and PM42.
Takes maybe a couple minutes to power up, and a couple minutes to shut down. Not a long time, and doing it in a logical, repeatable manner minimizes issues.
I have a Super Chief and multiple 402D throttles. Sometimes when I first put a battery in a throttle, the last loco used appears to be selected, but doesn’t respond to controlls. I just press the Loco button twice and everything works fine. It seems like I just had to select the displayed loco again.
I’ve had a Digitrax Super Chief, two DT400Rs and four UT4R throttles for 12 years and I was very satisfied with their operation. About a year ago I decided to make the Duplex plunge.
I regret doing that!
I sent the DT400s back to Digitrax for the upgrade and bought 2 UR92s. Beside the issues Arto is dealing with I’m very disappointed in the range of the throttles.
I bought a third UR92, mounted them up high, near the ceiling and tried both up side down and right side up (ground plane effect). Tried different channels. Still, I frequently get the white, blinking LED that indicates no signal. Often, the function commands go unresponded, i.e. no response from locomotive even though the function shows in the throttle display. I learned about the 2.4Ghz “donut hole” where I can be five feet away from the UR92 and can not get a signal. Digitrax claims the UR92s range to be “up to” 300 feet? I unplugged my network wireless router to be sure it wasn’t interfering but that made no difference.
Selecting an address wirelessly is a 50-50 proposition so I just plug-in anyway like I used to with the DT400R. I sank almost $500 in the upgrade (I bought an additional UT4D, too).
Sometimes when I select LOCO, then press in a new address, which may take several attempts to finally get the numbers I want, then I press LOCO again it goes blank, then back to SEL LOCO
If you’re getting frequent white LED flashes then either there is something else interfering on 2.4GHz, since unplugging your router didn’t do anything, or there is a loss of power to the UR92. Do you have cordless phones? I have my wireless router and right next to it my SmartThings hub, both 2.4GHz, and neither device has an issue connecting to their respective client devices - they use vastly different channels. Digitrax Duplex can use channels that WiFi routers aren’t supposed to use. You can also use the tool from Digitrax that uses the UR92 to scan the band to find the most unused channel, you need a computer and a Loconet interface.
You DO have a PS14 plugged in to the UR92, right? and a known good proper Loconet cable, not a phone cable (crossed) subbing because ‘it shouldn’t matter’? Also check the firmware and radio software versions in both the UR92 and the throttles - there have been several updates to both that address many of the issues people have. They are two seperate things - the UR92 system firmware and the radio module, which is a piece Digitrax just buys complete and integrates into their hardware. Both have had updates. Same with throttles.
Our club layout is modular and runs as a large donut, 28 feet across and the length varies depending on what the space is at a particular venue and how many people are available to help with setup and teardown. We’ve gone past 180 feet long now - in that configuration we do have a second UR92 down near the engine terminal at the far end, the primary radio receiver is on a pole about 1/4 of the way from the other end. Most people run trains from inside the donut hole, but people do go outside and walk around, and we hand off the throttle and let kids run the trains as well, mostly UT4D throttles - because some of the people can’t even spell DCC. Outside of an occasional fat finger of a loco address (and then wondering why their train doesn’t move when they crank the throttle wide open
I’m kind of inclined to agree with what Ed/gmpullman said.
Today I turned the system on, and then off, four times. The first two times were within a few minutes of each other (less than 600 seconds). The other two times had an hour or more betwen turn on/off. In all four instances I DID NOT have to push the Loco button to get fully operational. The loco addresses were displayed each time. All I had to do was turn on power to the system (the PS2012 & PS14 are plugged into a power strip so I just turn on the power strip to turn on power to everthing else) turn a throttle knob (either L or R) and the loco on that throttle would start up. Same with the other throttle.
This is completely the opposite of what happened last night where I had to select loco address of one or the other loco by pressing the Loco button and press Enter (or Loco again). It seems just one loco has to be re-selected to jump start both throttles most of the time. I haven’t verified yet whether this is due to the component start up sequence, or something else (id: put the battery in the throttle first, then power up the DCS100, or reverse)
As for duplex reception, I’ve been able to get fairly far away - out of the train room, down the short hall, and into the music room on the other side of the house and still have wireless connectivity. On the other hand, there are locations at the side of the layout just 10’ or less from the UR92 that have issues.