We have a club in Siloam Springs, Arkansas and we have had a run away loco problem since we installed our Super Chief on the club layout. There are times when we operate that a loco will take off and no one with a throttle programmed for that loco has control over it. The emergency sometimes seems not to stop the loco and the only way of stopping it is to manually pick it up off the track and then go re-program the loco. This has happened several times and not the same loco every time. We have asked Digitrax and gotten no where. All the installation seems to be correct, so your guess is as good as ours.
Replace your system with a Prodigy Advance and your problems will be over.[:D]
The difference in enjoyment of operating a DCC railroad and a block controlled DC layout is enormous. I operate two railroads bi-weekly, we converted one to DCC four years ago, the other railroad is still stubbornly DC, how anyone can even want to operate with DC after the experience of operating DCC is beyound my understanding. So Dave553 you are missing out on more than you can know by staying with DC. I pitty your railroading experiences because your cup is not even a quarter filled. I can not only operate four locos in consist, while the yard master is making up my train, I can make up my consist individual loco by loco until it is the correct amount for the train I’m goin to haul, wether it is 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, or even 7 locos. After doing that I fell much better about backing my consist on to the assigned train and hauling it away. After I drop off part of my train at the next yard I drop or add a couple of locos at this location if needed. It just adds to what you experience when you are operating (‘Playing with Trains’).
I can almost guarantee that you have people just picking their loco off the track and not verifying the speed was set to 0 first. If address 1234 was set to speed 70 before the system was turnedoff, when it’s turned back on, loco 1234 will be set to speed 70. And the instant loco 1234 is put on the track - off it will go. It is very important that all members be instructed to verify their throttles are at speed 0 when they finish running.
The other thing that can greatly help with runaway locos is to turn off the analog conversion in the decoders. When running on a DCC layout, that feature isn’t needed, and allows a possible loophole where the decoder does not see the DCC signal and then thinks it is on DC power, with the result being that it takes off in one direction or another. This is controlled by Bit 3 of CV29. Subtract 4 from the current value of CV29 to disable analog conversion.
With the DB150, I don;t know how you wired a programming section, but there should not be any locos connected to the track output when switching in and out of programming mode. If you have a toggle switch that disconnects all but a short section of track for programming, be sure to exit program mode BEFORE flipping the switch. This period when the DCC signal is first coming on line is when the decoders can miss seeing
I’ve got to agree with rrinker on DCC vs DC control. I ran cab control on my last layout. Four cabs, four or five reversing sections, what fun wiring was! When I wired my new layout with DCC one main power bus is all that is needed and I tap off it to feed the track. However…IF I were adding DCC to an existing cab control system, I would keep two cabs and wire the DCC into one cab, leaving the second cabe as is to run any DC locomotives.
Hurray for good old straight DC. Someone shure did a good selling job on DCC. How about the young kids that don’t have a fortune to spend on model trains? Well good luck any way with your DCC. I still prefer a smooth quiet running loco on straight DC.
Well, thre’s the $50 Bachmann system…
And if your locos run smoothly on DC, they run just as smooth on DCC.
–Randy
I am looking to get a second throttle and am considering a UT4. I have been doing research to see if people are satisfied with them (it’s why I got into this forum and read this topic). One of the things I have read in several reviews is that the UT4 can not access 4-digit addresses in the 2-digit band (0-127).
In other words if you have a decoder that you wi***o assign say address 59 to you have to assign it literally as 59 (the 2 digit address) and NOT 0059.
I haven’t looked into the DT300 but it could be the same protocol.
With Digitrax, Addresses 127 and below are ALWAYS 2-digit. Addresses 128 and higher are ALWAYS 4 digit.
The cutoff point between 2 digit and 4 digit varies from system to system because of the VAGUE wording of the NMRA specs, and NCE even allows either/or, or even both at the same time - 35 in NCE is 2-digits, 0035 in NCE is 4-digit.
The UT4 throttle can access any Digitrax address. The UT1 was limited to 2-digit addresses from 00-98, unless the address was first aquired on a different throttle and then dispatched. The UT1 would then pick up the most recently dispatched address by using 99.
–Randy