Hamltnblue Is there a way to run 2 consists on the 402 throttle?
Is there a way to run 2 consists on the 402 throttle?
A few years ago, for a test I did run 2 Universal consists on a DT400R throttle. I first built a Universal consist in the usual manner, dispatched it, acquired it and run it on the left knob. After that another Universal consist was built and controlled with the right knob. This was the only time I did it there is probably other ways to do this. I am thinking maybe building an Advance consist to be run on the left knob and a Universal or another Advance consist on the right knob.
Jack W.
Thanks, I think I'm still a bit too much of a Digitrax newb to keep up with that post LOL .
Springfield PA
Two things to remember which will probably be the keys. First, the 'top' address of the consist does NOT have to be a real loco address. You cna have train 1 as a consist which has locos 2111 and 2113 on point. Of course, the top address has to be one that doesn't exist - if you make consist 1 with locos 2111 and 2113, and you happen to have old 1-spot sitting alongside the roundhouse, it's goign to move along with the consist. But the point is, the controlling address of the consist does NOT have to be the address of any loco in said consist.
Point 2, dispatching a consist does NOT break it up. This has caught people unawares when they select a loco and when they start to move it, another one on the opposite side of the layout starts moving as well. Oh yeah, they used to be consisted. So you can dispatch a consist and later aquire it on another throttle and all the assigned locos will run. In fact this is the only way to get a consist on the UT4, the UT throttles do not have the capability to create or break up consists, but you can create one on a DT throttle and hand it off to the road engineer who has a UT 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.
Hamltnblue. Is there a way to run 2 consists on the 402 throttle?
Yes.
Build you first consist. When done, make the right throttle active. Press "LOCO' then press "Disp" . The top consist address is now "dispatched" to the system and any throttle can acquire it including the DT402's left throttle.
Now build your second consist with the DT402. When done, the top address for the second consist will be controlled by the right throttle.
Now make the left throttle active, press "LOCO". Select the top address of the first consist the press "LOCO" again. The top address of the first address will now be controlled by the left throttle.
If you want to go even further. Let's say that first consist is a pair of helpers and you want to cut it into the train being pulled by the second consist. Just press "MU" then + and the first consist will be consisted to the second consist. All locos will now be controlled by the right hand throttle.
To remove the helpers, press "MU" then - . The helper consist will be removed from the right throttle and be back in control on the left throttle.
Martin Myers
Thanks I'll give it a try.
As far as the dispatch is concerned, what exactly does it do? Free the loco or consist up for someone else to pick up?
If so how do you clear the loco buffer? I though I read that it should be cleared now and then to prevent it from filling up.
I don't know if it's on his site, but on the DIgitrax group on Yahoo, Don Crano gave about the most detailed and comprehensive overview of what all that means and just how the Digitrax loco 'slots' work that I've ever seen. I don;t think anyone pulled it out and made a file of it, but you can check the files section there as well as Don's site. Failing that, you can search the message archives for his message.
Dispatching does release the loco for another throttle to pick it up, but a loco at speed step 0 with no commands sent to it for the timeout period (choice of two by setting OpSw 13 - either 200 seconds (default) or 600 seconds) will be purged, if not in consist. A consist will not be purged unless it is first broken up. There's actually an intermediate state but the bottom line is that if you always stop a loco when done with it and dispatch it, you will never see the Slot=full error indicating there is no room for the command station to handle any more locos.
Oh yeah - out of the box the DCS100 is defaulted to 22 slots, you have to change OpSw 44 to allow for 120 slots. But unless you really need to run that many locos simultaneously, don't do it, the system will perform faster if it only has to scan 22 slots. In JMRI there is a Loconet Slot Monitor utility that will display the status of all the slots, including the system reserved ones that are used for dispatching, the program track, the fast clock, and configuration info. Don't worry, it's 120 total slots PLUS the system ones. By looking at the slot monitor once you have a PR3 or other interface and reading Don Crano's wrtiteup, you'll have a pretty good understanding of what's going on inside. Oh yeah, using the slot monitor you can see that there are only functions F0-F8 managed internally - liek I mentioned early, F9+ are handled by the throttles since the system is peer to peer. That's why I can plug my DT402 into my Zephyr (Zephyr only does up to F8 on the console) and get F0-F28.
Edit: Here's an item from the Digitrax Tech Support Depot that somewhat explains the slot states: http://tsd.digitrax.com/index.php?a=1444 It's for a DB150 but the DCS50 and DCS100 work the same, just with different numbers of slots. There's a bunch of good info int he Tech Support Depot, not all of it is simply copied from the manuals.
Thanks for the info.
Getting lots of reading in the last few days.
I actually ran across the purge function. I was reading the manual some with a couple of loco's idling and the DCS100 beeped 3 times. I thought it was an error code and looked it up. Apparently the system purged one of the loco's I had been using earlier.
Yup. You can turn the beeps off it it's annoying. By myself in my room, it's loud. When we have the modular layout on display in a public location you'd never hear it.
I'll leave them on for now while I get used to it. It did come in handy while testing sections with for shorts with the quarter trick. Actually I used the back of the NMRA track gauge.
The only one you can turn off is the purge beeping, it will still beep on power up and on a short, or other error.