How can I mu several engines with the Digitrax system, so that I can bring them back without having to MU them all over again? So far, when I MU three or more engines in a consist, all is fine until I dispatch the top engine. Supposedly, all I would need to do if I wanted the entire consist again, would be to access the top engine and the whole consist would be enabled. But this does not happen with me and I cannot figure out why. Any help would be appreciated.
WHICH Digitrax system, and which throttle?
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have the Chief and the DT 400.
On my home layout I have the Super Empire Builder with a DT400r and a UT4r. At my club we have a Super cheif with DT400r's. With the top loco entered on the right throttle and subsequent loco's on the left throttle you should be able to dispatch the entire consist and reaquire it on any throttle at any time as long as the consist has not been de MUed or the memory of the command station has not been cleared. Your DT400 should be able to aquire the entire consist on either the right or left throttle.
Are you losing the consists only after turning off your system? If so, the battery inside the DCS100 is probably dead - that's what's used to hold information in the memory when power is turned off.
Otherwise, if you simply dispatch the top loco and do NOT use the MU +/-, the consist remains connected inside the command station. This can also cause confusion when you forget a particular loco was consisted and it either runs erratically or it takes off unexpectedly when you run a different loco. To start in a known state, see the section at the back of the manual for resetting the DCS100 and clearing all consists and loco information. Then build your consist and try again.
I will check out the battery. It seems strange though, that the battery would be used up so soon. It has been only about 5 months or so, and the railroad is only run a couple times a week for an hour or less with only me running one or two trains (max six engines total).
How long do batteries normally last?
Mike
Two things: the less you use the system, the more the battery gets used up. And batteries like that have an annoying tendency to be either dead right out of the package or already have used up when brand new. I've seen too many reports where someone was getting the low battery indication and were about to send their unit in for service because they put a brand new fromt he store battery in and it STILL beeped. Got a second 'new' battery and - no more beeps.
However - if your battery is low you will get a series of beeps when you power the system on. If you're not getting that, the battery is fine. You might want to try just doing a reset to clear the memory and make sure everything's clean. A lot of odd problems with any device that has a computer in it (like the DCS100) can be resolved by making sure the memory is clear of any possible stray data.