THis is retarded all I want to do is run trains not learn calculus or quamtum phyics.Why is the learning curve so big when all I want to do is run trains.You buy this part you need another part to go with it O but they don’t tell you THAT!!!.I’m starting to get relly mad about the whole thing.O don’t bother calling any support phone numbers they are to busy picking there F ing nose.
Don’t sugar coat it. Tell us how you really feel about it.
What “parts” are you talking about? Your complaints do not even relate to the hobby I am engaged in. If you have DCC you need a basic system and a decoder in each locomotive and EVERY MANUFACTURER MAKES THAT CLEAR IN THEIR LITERATURE. If you’re using DC you need a power pack (transformer), some track, and a locomotive and you’re in business. Please tells us SPECIFICALLY what has you upset without references to nose picking, etc. and we’ll try to help.
Hook two wires up from the power pack to the rails. Plug the powerpack in. Put the train on the track. Run trains.
Or is there something more to simply running trains?
Wayne
I have a digitrax zepher I bought 3 broadway limited trains a sd-40 and 2 switchers.I can’t program the adresses into them without a booster for the program track.I’m just frustrated .
Actually, Newtonian physics is generally sufficient for most train running. Unless you absolutely insist on having a moebius loop or a “WHY” track.
I studied quantum physics at MIT. I’m a bona fide rocket scientist these days. But I will not take on installing a dishwasher, and I’ve never been able to get the new VCR to record when I wasn’t actually in the room. I refer all questions about cell phones to my 14-year-old daughter.
It’s the way things are. Trains are no worse than assembling a bicycle or filling out your tax forms. People are working 5 days a week to make everything better, which usually also means more complicated. I’m working 2 days a week to kill brain cells with beer. If it were the other way around, I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to post stuff on this forum.
Barent,
I can understand the frustration. Some further questions need to be asked:
- Did you buy the Zephyr as a starter set? (I’m assuming no, since you don’t have a booster.)
- Where/Who did you buy it from?
- How big is your layout?
I’m also assuming you bought all this on a whim, without doing much research first? Hang in there, Barent. Fill us in on a few more details and we’ll see if we can give you a hand with it.
Tom
There have been several threads here devoted to the problem of programing the BLI locos. From what has been said in those threads it appears the problem is more with the BLI equipment drawing too much power for all of the DCC systems that have seperate programing leads. Something to try is to remove ALL other locos and decoder containing equipment from the main part of the layout. Then place the loco you want to program on the track (Main part - not the programing track) then try to program the loco. But and I repeat BUT!! make sure there is no other programable equipment on the track or you will reprogram it as well. The digitrack Zepher is built with the program track leads on purpose to be able to use less power for programing thereby reducing the chance of frying a decoder that has been installed wrong, etc.
I have the Super Empire Builder which does not have the program track leads on the command station so I have a seperate track as a programing track. I have to make sure the power is shut of to the main part of the layout with a DPDT toggle to be sure not to change all the addresses on my locos. I have done that only once. Took me an hour to figure out why the locos couldn’t be called up at the throttle… LOL
Hope all works out for you!
The Zepher only programs through the program track. If it lacks the power to handle the BLI locomotives then then another system will need to be used. I was trying to program my locos with out the program track and got nothing. I had forgotten that it required a seperate track and called Digitracks trying to figure it out . They said it has to have the seperate hook up , cause in program mode the normal out put does not respond. Maybe you could use a seperate programer ( one that hooks to the computor). I cant remember what they are called. hope this helps.
Want to use state of the art TECHNOLOGY? Then go through the learning curve.
Let me see if I can clear this up a bit:
The coexistence of phenomena which require both a wave and a particle picture is called a wave-particle duality, and is at the heart of the modern theory of running model trains and quantum physics.
In this theory the molecules of a train cannot have arbitrary energies but instead are quantized - the energies can only have discrete values (i.e. DCC) . The magnitude of these energies is given by the formula
E = nhf, (2)
where n = 0,1,2,… is an integer, f is the frequency of vibration of the molecule, and h is a constant, now called Planck’s constant:
h = 6.63 x 10- 34 J s .
Einstein came up with an explanation of the photoelectric effect (i.e. ditch lights) which built upon Planck’s photon hypothesis of BLI locos. In this theory Einstein assumed that photons have an energy equal to the energy difference between adjacent levels of a blackbody:
E = hf. (5)
When these photons hit the metal (i.e. track) , they could give up some or all of their energy to an electron. A certain amount of energy would be required to release the electrons from their bonds to the metal - this energy is called the work function, , of the metal. The remaining energy would appear as kinetic energy of the released electron. Thus, the maximum kinetic energy the electrons could have is
KE max = eV0 = hf - = - .
As we shall see in some examples later, for macroscopic objects such as model freight cars this would require sizes of slits of the order of 10- 34 m or so, which is much outside present-day technology. However, for electrons the sizes of slits required are of the order of 10- 11 m or so, which are readily available
Please be aware that MTH has patented all of these principles and will sue anyone who attempts to plug in their model train using any of the above paramaters
As a disclaimer, the above applies only to HO, O-Scale and N-Scale are much mo
Your first mistake was not reading the book ‘Model Railroading for Dummies’. You got a computer instead.
You need to go back to the guy that sold you the digiitrax and buy the booster since your existing system can’t cut it, - or have HIM program your BLI engines for you.
But the trains CAN’T just go in a circle! That would violate the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and would mean that Schroedinger was just wasting his time and might as well have spent his life carefully laying and ballasting brass track. Heisenberg clearly stated that you can find what you want at your LHS, or you can afford it, but not both. Schroedinger, on the other hand, was calculating the wave functions which we see whenever it gets too humid in our train rooms, and the roadbed lifts and warps.
The wave/particle duality may also be used to explain the inherent problems of running DC and DCC simultaneously.
Man… don’t even think of having an aquarium!! Fish are much more complicated than trains. Every hobby must have a minimum of research and study. For example: If you’re into making wood chairs, you must know that if you buy a drill, you must also buy the bits. If you’re into seascape painting, you must know all the things it requires, and know the chemicals to combine the different pigments. I’m new into reef aqauria, and I had to study something about marine life and biology, also something about water chemistry and plumbing. MR is the same thing. You must know a minimum of basic electricity and/or electronics. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to do PHD in electric engineering at MIT, but at least know the difference between AC and DC, polarity, what’s a watt, a volt an amp, etc.
OK, I have a Zephyr, I also have 2 BLI locomotives. I have had no problem pregramming the BLI Loco’s on the programming track of the Zephyr. I have not purchased a booster to accompli***his. Have I just been lucky, or am I missing something?
The BLI engines draw a ‘lot’ of current, and yes, sometimes you cannot get them programed without a programing track ‘booster’. TTX(Tony’s Train Exchange) has such a device that sits between the programming track leads and the track. The wonders of sound equipped engines! I have had trouble programming a P2K USRA 0-8-0 with the decoder in the tender - all of the other stuff was drawing current. Took the decoder out, attached it to my Loy’s decoder jig and reset it/programed it.
BTW, that ‘PowerPax’ unit sells for about $50. Many of the smaller ‘starter systems’ will not put out enough juice to handle the BLI current hogs…
Jim Bernier
ROTFLMAO!!! [:)] As I sit down at my workbench tonight to work on my latest project, I will raise my 12 ounce long neck filled with a certain barely based adult beverage in your honor, sir!
Regards,
Burlington John
Also don’t forget the law of entropy(or the second law of thermodynamics), which states that your train collection will tend to spontaneously move toward a state of greater disorder, making it impossible for you to find what you need at any given instant without expending energy to organize it. As a corrollary to this, don’t forget that any money expended can’t be recovered fully.
Program BLI locos on the main using Ops Mode on the Zephyr. Works great.
–Randy