I have a DB150 as a booster to my Z command station. Remember that when you add the booster it is powering a 2nd power district. You need to gap both rails between the DB150 district and the Z district. They do not interfere with each other.
See this link on the Digitrax support web site
http://tsd.digitrax.com/index.php?a=1071
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
Dave,
One or the other has to be set up as the 'booster'. The manuals for each describe how to do this:
Zephyr - Page 44 - Set option switch 2 to to 'C' make it into a booster/throttle only
DB150 - Page 31 of the current EB Manual - place jumper between 'CONF A' and 'GROUND'
You will now have a total of 7.5 amps of output for your trains. You can either have the Zephyr or the DB150 as the booster - but not both. With the Zephyr as the command station, you will be limited to 10 engines running at the same time, but have full CV readback and a seperate proggraimming track.
With the DB150 as the command station, you can run 22 trains at the same time, but have no CV readback, and the program track is not seperate(that feature of the Zephyr is disabled when it is a booster). For most home layouts, the 10 engine limit is not a big thing(you can still have a lot of engine addresses on the layout, but are limited to 10 active engine addresses). Myself, I would go with the Zephyr as the command station. I like the seperate programming track, and the CV readback.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
Separate districts also mean separate power buses for each district.
Co-owner of the proposed CT River Valley RR (HO scale) http://home.comcast.net/~docinct/CTRiverValleyRR/
Doc in CTAlso, plug any hand held throttles into one Loconet port and daisy chain those; plug the booster (or boosters) into the other Loconet port and keep them on a separate daisy chain
I am curious about this advice, I have not heard of this being a need or requirement?
I don't think most of us with home layouts have to worry about that too much. On a larger layout - it's not a bad idea. If something interferes with the cabling from a command station to a booster, it could set the booster to producing power to the track with no valid DCC signal - leading to runaways, although if you disable analog conversion in each decoder this wouldn't happen. Also if something goes wrong, like a bent pin in a UP panel, you could be cutting off all downstream boosters.
That's also why they came out with the Loconet Repeater, so you can isolate segments of the Loconet so a fault in one won't shut down your entire system. Again, overkill for most home users, but for a large club, with multiple boosters, lots of UP5s, plus radio modules and block detectors and signal controllers - it's good design to isolate things with the LNRPs so that the most vulnerable part - the throttle plug-ins - can't cause havok on the rest of the system. This is the weak spot of the system - the mechanical connection.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Doc in CT Separate districts also mean separate power buses for each district. Also, plug any hand held throttles into one Loconet port and daisy chain those; plug the booster (or boosters) into the other Loconet port and keep them on a separate daisy chain.
Also, plug any hand held throttles into one Loconet port and daisy chain those; plug the booster (or boosters) into the other Loconet port and keep them on a separate daisy chain.
I've never heard that restriction, either. I believe that it is important that the Loconet cables be properly wired pin one to pin one. I am pretty sure that that is one of the applications where standard 6 wire phone cables won't work properly.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Dave why do you want to add the DB 150? Before I bought my SEB Simon 1966 brought over his Zepher so I could give it a test run. I did not like the controls on the Zepher (no easier to uses than my Bachmann E-Z) so I went with the SEB. But, while it was hooked up it ran around 6 to 8 engines with no problem on a 174 square foot bench with around 300 feet of rails.
In fact, the only reason Simon has the DB 150 is because he was looking for a DT 400 throttle on E Bay and scored a SEB like mine cheap.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
cudaken Dave why do you want to add the DB 150? Before I bought my SEB Simeon 1966 brought over his Zepher so I could give it a test run. I did not like the controls on the Zepher (no easier to uses than my Bachmann E-Z) so I went with the SEB. But, while it was hooked up it ran around 6 to 8 engines with no problem on a 174 square foot bench with around 300 feet of rails. In fact, the only reason Simon has the DB 150 is he was looking for a DT 400 throttle on E Bay and scored a SEB like mine cheap.
Dave why do you want to add the DB 150? Before I bought my SEB Simeon 1966 brought over his Zepher so I could give it a test run. I did not like the controls on the Zepher (no easier to uses than my Bachmann E-Z) so I went with the SEB. But, while it was hooked up it ran around 6 to 8 engines with no problem on a 174 square foot bench with around 300 feet of rails.
In fact, the only reason Simon has the DB 150 is he was looking for a DT 400 throttle on E Bay and scored a SEB like mine cheap.
i was wondering too why you'd add the DB150 as a booster when you could just use it as the command station and use the zephyr stand alone for programming with CV readback? i concluded the OP either still wants the use of the zephyr throttle, or perhaps the jump ports also, which would in effect cost him 3 throtttles to use the DB150 as a command station? ( can a zephyr be used as just a throttle and get its power from the loconet cable like a UT4? ) and thats if he even bought an SEB to get the DT400? he may not even have one??
locoworksi was wondering too why you'd add the DB150 as a booster when you could just use it as the command station and use the zephyr stand alone for programming with CV readback?
Since he already owns both, why not use both?
locoworks( can a zephyr be used as just a throttle and get its power from the loconet cable like a UT4? )
If you check the Option Switch settings for the Zephyr http://tsd.digitrax.com/index.php?a=374 you can use it as a booster/throttle by turning off the command station capability. I suppose you could just connect the loconet and not bother to connect the track power, leaving it as a throttle only, but why not gain the extra power district afforded by the booster,
RE: Separate loconet for throttles and boosters. Yes this is more appropriate to large deployments and has to do with potential congestions on the ethernet aka loconet.
Some references: http://www.rr-cirkits.com/Notebook/LocoNet.htmlhttp://www.wiringfordcc.com/booster.htm (see item 4-3)http://www.southernexchange.net/digitrax.htm (scroll down to loconet)
Doc, thanks for the links, interesting reading that provided me with new information. My layout certainly is not large enough to warrant such precautions, but it is still interesting to read about possible issues.