Place a copy of your manual and a red pen next to the phone. Now, every time the phone rings with a question, check the manual for the answer. If it is wrong or missing, make a notation.
Give a copy to engineering and ask them to note any changes into the manual. Now you have accurate mark ups to update your manual, all for free.
Hire a tech writer via 1099 or have someone update it in house.
LION is over 50. As a matter of fact LION is (almost) over 65. LION never ever even thought of DCC, that could make on C sick, you know. Well the zookeeper does not give LIONS very much money, so DCC was a no go from the git to, but the LION stole some DCC ideas and put them to work on his railroad. But of course now the LION and only the LION are responsible for how it works.
Him bought a big 15 amp regulated power supply for the railroad, and then imbedded resistors into the tracks to slow the trains down for stations. So far so good. LION used 1/2 watt 5.1 ohm resistors about 10 inches apart leading into the stations. Our maintenance department said that they would be ok since no train would be on the circuit long enough to heat them up.
So much for theories… Train derailed, the resistor had to carry the load, the transformer, rated at 15 amps saw no problem and kept putting power on the tracks, the resistor caught fire, and now I have a new kind of subway car with scorch marks on it. The fire, no more than a burning match, was startling but easily blown out, and would likely enough gone out on its own once the resistor stopped passing current, but now LION has power cut off switches all around the layout. Once hint of a train down, and I cut the power.
LION also installed a 3 amp fuse in his circuit. Him has tons of them as they come in each of those sets of LEDs that he cuts apart for the lamps.
So do like the instructions say or the zookeeper will take away your trains.
If a wire of improper size is used somewhere in a critical location, usually too small, the protection device may not trip. (Does the ‘quarter test’ ring a bell?) If that happens, it is possible that the small wire gets hot. (Acting like the filament in a light bulb.) Maybe it is too close to something that is highly combustible under the layout and causes a fire.
This is not meant to scare anyone and would rarely happen. BUT - this is why instructions should be followed. If the instructions are wrong, then what?
Please, no one tell the OP that some of the components he purchased are known, in the state of California, to cause cancer… Perhaps he should set it up and play with it? That would be step 1 for me… David B
As a recent purchaser of a Super Chief Xtra let me share some of my experiences. Put a fuse between the power supply and the base unit. That one is based on work experience at industrial equipment builders. Use a 15 volt DC setting on the power supply. Moving the base station switch to N scale changes it to 12 volts. The short sensing ability of the base station is pretty good. Have fun getting 6p6c straight thru cables for the UP5. I bought some mail order. If you do your own decoder installs you will need 30 ga wire. It is some much easier to work with than slightly larger gage wire. Home Depot now stocks Klein 30 ga stripers at their stores. Don’t have reversing sections on my system. Wait till you try to program a Tsunami on the program track. Nothing happens. Program on the main, select address 00 then put your 4 digit address in. As I had a power supply and I needed a walk around throttle the Super Chief was the lowest cost DCC option for me at the time. It’s not perfect but DCC is a lot of fun to play with.
Super chief is the cheapest option? Really? Why did you overlook the Super Empire Builder? Guess what? It’ll program anything, no matter the sound chop involved and it is cheaper that the only option you purchased. The problem is that uneducated model railroader such as yourself and the OP give this hobby a bad name. All you have to do is google “tsunami programming” to see what is involved. Lazyness in this hobby is no excuse, however that is where we are headed. Sigh. I assume that the “gods” of these forums will quickly delete my response for personal reasons. The squeaky-clean appearance of these forums is misleading. Model railroader has a duty to keep the advertisers happy, and anything negative is quickly removed. Next time you or anyone makes the purchase, why not ask about the product FIRST rather than waste forum space with buyers remorse threads. David B
I AGREE with David B. laziness is growing fast. Many want someone else to solve their problem rather than reading a good manual or how to book and learning for them selves. There are some situations we model railroaders run into where the book and manuals won’t cover, but for the most part they do. All I can say is that what ever system you invest in, study the manuals and read. read. read. A good attitude is important also but to me, PATIENCE IS THE PRIME MOVER of building and operating a model railroad. That’s my thoughts! Doug
RTFM!!! - that is what many of computer guys said in the early 90’s when I had issues and questions. Some of us do not always know the proper questions to ask and it is a learning process. MR is a hobby for most of us and to chide another is really a form of ignorance. If you do not want to answer a question do not answer it. IMHO [angel]
No offence to you or anything, But did you ever consider, that the questions or issues you had asked, the computer guys, that they did not know themselves and that was their response to saving face??