Diitrax Empire Builder system on a very large basement layout. It has operated flawlessly for over 12 years. Tonight as I was switching the yard I got 1 beep and nothing runs. Went over to the command station and the power on light on the left side was blinking very fast.
Ok.
Shut the system down in the usual manner, unplugged it from the wall. Waited what seemed like a LIFETIME. Plugged it in, power up the usual way and get the single beep as usual.Use DT400 to power track. All UP panels and command station show power.
Ok.
Cannot access any engine, change lights etc. Nothing.
Tried the quarter test. Get the beeps and station shuts down as normal with the exception of the yard area.
Where is my problem? There are no districts, only the one DB150. I assume the yard and adjacent trackage to the right as quarter test does NOT result in a shutdown?
On the right side of the dt400 screen there is a little black dot. It should be lit solid. If it is flashing you must press the power button and the Y button to get it lit solid again. Sometines it takes several tries.
It’s on and power dot is solid. I use the DT400 for power up and off only. Normal operations are with UT1, 2 and 4 throttles. I prefer them. Like I stated above, it was working fine and then it was like someone unplugged the whole layout. Switcher still has headlights but won’t move. Cannot access any of the 30+ engines. Wife says UP panel track status lights are orange as are the command station status lights.( I’m color blind.LOL!)Throttle lights are green.
All indicators are normal.
Thank you for your input. I’ll keep working on it !
If by “the light on the left is blinking fast” you mean the green power LED - your power supply may have failed. Or something in the output drive of the command station has failed. Take a meter and measure the track voltage – I’ll be it’s very low. Test the power supply, if it’s OK then the DB150 needs a vacation to Florida.
I don’t have a Digitrax system, but I see a few things that lead me to think something happened with the yard area.
Since your layout is large enough for districts, it might be time to start installing them and in the meantime implement a “divide and conquer” strategy to solve the problem. Get some insulated joiners or cut some gaps to isolate the yard tracks from the rest of the layout. You will need to isolate the track power bus as well, and make sure the bus is fully isolated by checking every feeder. Hopefully, your track bus maps well to your track plan, but you may have to snip a few feeders.
If the problem is in the yard, once you isolate it the rest of the layout will run. Then, it’s time to remove every car and inspect every inch of track to find that truck screw that’s fallen off or whatever. You might even find a loose wire when you’re checking the feeders below.
Is there a posibility that two throttles have the same locomotive address in them?
Unplug all throttles and see if the quarter test works everywhere.
Your system seems old enough to have a battery in the DB150. Maybe it died?
Is there an engine sitting just at the right spot on a switch to short that area out?
Is there an engine sitting on the gap of a revering zone?
Before ripping into the track, remove all locomotives from the track. A decoder might have died. Put one locomtive back on and try to run it. If it doesn’t run try another locomotive. If it doesn’t run, start looking else where.
There is a memory chip in the DT150 (thats what the battery is for) It might be full. Check Digitrax web site on how to clear the memory. Probably unplugging the unit and removing the battery.
At a recent ops session, a somewhat similar situation occurred to the Digitrax system where one power district went down during the session and strange things occurred in other power districts. Low track voltage when the system would power up and shorting the tracks seemed to be at least trying to function normally. Eventually, we tracked the problem down to a UP5 throttle panel that had gone bad (even with red/orange LED lit). Fortunately, the bad panel was the first in line from the command station so we found it fairly quick. We disconnected the UP5 from track power, the power supply and the loconet. The loconet cable was then extended to the second UP5 panel in line and the whole layout came back up operating normally. You might try isolating each UP5 on your layout to see if you have a similarly bad unit.
Pulled all but one of the 37 engines. Don’t tell SWMBO I have that many, please.Put one back on . No joy. While I was dicking around pulling engines off layout, got the 3 beep “address purge”.
All throttles but the DT are unplugged.
Couldn’t find a battery access type panel on the DT or the DB150.
I’m getting worried a trip to Florida is in my future. Although I think I bought this in like '95 or '96, so a pretty good run!![:D]
WHatever you do, do not accidently set the multimeter to amps and then connect the probes across the track. You’ll just blow the fuse.
Also try with everything except the power supply disconnected from the DB150. Just power in, no loconet cabes, no wires to the track. Plug the DT right in to one of the front panel jacks.
THere is no battery inside the DB150. Only the DCS100/200 have an internal battery for backup.
