I have a Zephyr control ststem. I I took an engine with an address of 97, and MUd another loco with an address of 26 to it. The 97/26 consist ran fine. Then I exited the 97/26 MU, and addressed another loco with an address of 53. I blew the horn, just to verify I had control of the new loco. Then I opened the throttle, and the 53 loco moved out normally. But so did the 97/26 consist. I reprogrammed the 53 loco to 68, and put it back on the layout. When I opened the throttle the newly numbered 68 moved out, along with the 97/26 consist, but only the 26 loco was pulling, dragging the 97 along. Short story, the 26 loco responds to 3 different addresses. It is a Soundtraxx DSD 101LC. Why would it respond to three different addresses, or maybe more. That was all I tried.
SOunds liek when you broke the consist, 26 was still selected, so when you selected 53 it consisted with 26.
Make sure you remove each loco from the consist and un-select the lead loco as well. SO if your initial steps were to select 97, then select 26 and hit MU +, to clear it out completele select 26, MU -, and select 97 and press Loco, Exit with the speed at 0 and the direction in brake to truly clear 97 from memory. Then select a new lcoo and it shoudl run liek normal without any of the others moving.
Follow the steps in the manual EXACTLY. It's been a while since I tried a consist on my Zephyr console, I think I remembered it right - I usually use a DT400 these days.
--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've heard of consisting Pacers...but never Gremlins...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I usually just give a couple locos the same address. But I have been setting up various MU consists, just to get more familiar with the system. Most of my locos have sound, so if I give them the same addresses, two or three locos in a consist will all blow the horn or ring the bell at the same time, which is why I have been playing with the MU feature.
It also appears when I exit a consist, and go back to it, it has to be MUd all over again, or only the lead loco pulls, dragging the others. Lots to learn with this DCC stuff.
hobo9941 I usually just give a couple locos the same address. But I have been setting up various MU consists, just to get more familiar with the system. Most of my locos have sound, so if I give them the same addresses, two or three locos in a consist will all blow the horn or ring the bell at the same time, which is why I have been playing with the MU feature. It also appears when I exit a consist, and go back to it, it has to be MUd all over again, or only the lead loco pulls, dragging the others. Lots to learn with this DCC stuff.
I wonder how many guys do what you do, that is, assigning the same long address to all of the locos in a consist. My preference is to retain the individual, unique, long address for each locomotive and assign a unique consist number to the combination.
Rich
Alton Junction
Using the same address in a consist works OK. But with sound locos, they will all blow the forn at the same time. If you had sound only in the lead loco, or programmed the horn and bell to 0 on the trailers, I don't see why that wouldn't work.
Another thing that happened during my MU testing. I took two locos and speed matched them, and made sure they both were running in the forward direction, with the controller in forward. But when I MUd them, the the loco I added to the consist ran in the reverse direction from what it had, before MUing, and fought the lead unit. I put them on adjoining tracks, on my two track mainline, and they ran in opposite directions. But when I cancelled the consist, and addressed them separately, they both ran in the same direction again. This happened with three different MRC decoder locos. MUing them changed their direction of travel from what it was before MUing them.
hobo9941 Another thing that happened during my MU testing. I took two locos and speed matched them, and made sure they both were running in the forward direction, with the controller in forward. But when I MUd them, the the loco I added to the consist ran in the reverse direction from what it had, before MUing, and fought the lead unit. I put them on adjoining tracks, on my two track mainline, and they ran in opposite directions. But when I cancelled the consist, and addressed them separately, they both ran in the same direction again. This happened with three different MRC decoder locos. MUing them changed their direction of travel from what it was before MUing them.
I really can't see how this happened unless there was operator error during the consisting process. I have NCE, which asks you which direction any units added to the consist should run. So if the lead unit normally runs cab forward, and the second unit has to run in reverse to go in the same direction, the system prompts you to make this change. If you unconsist the units, they will revert to their normal travel directions. Although I don't know the Digitrax process, I'm sure that it functionally accomplishes the same thing.
hobo9941 Using the same address in a consist works OK. But with sound locos, they will all blow the forn at the same time. If you had sound only in the lead loco, or programmed the horn and bell to 0 on the trailers, I don't see why that wouldn't work. Another thing that happened during my MU testing. I took two locos and speed matched them, and made sure they both were running in the forward direction, with the controller in forward. But when I MUd them, the the loco I added to the consist ran in the reverse direction from what it had, before MUing, and fought the lead unit. I put them on adjoining tracks, on my two track mainline, and they ran in opposite directions. But when I cancelled the consist, and addressed them separately, they both ran in the same direction again. This happened with three different MRC decoder locos. MUing them changed their direction of travel from what it was before MUing them.
Are you using the Zephyr as the throttle or do you have Digitrax wired throttle as well? Some of the MU stuff you described I had going on when I started in DCC. I have the DT402 so I can see which direction both of my locos are going before I MU them together. I am not sure of the Zyphr has that option on the screen as I have never used one. What you described is either you switched direction of one the locos when you MU them.. such as maybe you backed up the lead loco to the consist and you MU'ed before you put the lead loco direction forward again (done that more than once). And what you descibed in your earlier post is what they call in the manual as a nested consist.. You have two locos MU'ed togethers- say 203 and 4687 and then you add them to lead loco 7345. Now when you break the consist, you still have 203 and 4687 as an MU. Again I have done that, accidently put in the wrong loco number which was part of a consist and now I have two trains running on the layout in different directions.
Yep. This DCC requires a little more attention than normal. I have simply lifted locos off the layout from a MU consist, and substituted another loco. A few days later, I can't remember what the last address was in the loco I took off the track. The reason I am doing this, is that I have a lot of locos on a display shelf, that have not run in a long time. I have been trying to run them all, and make a list of any needed repairs. Also, they seem to run better if I use them now and then.
Need to take the extra time to remove them before taking the loco off the track, then these wierd things will not happen.
There are different types of consisting, the default used by NCE is not the same as used by Digitrax, hence the difference in operation. NCE uses CV19 advanced consisting which by default in decoders means none of the functions work (there are two CVs to set to enable which functions operate in a CV19 consists) which is why NCE also adds the 'top' loco by actual address so that at least one horn will sound when you hit the horn key, that of the lead loco. WHen you swap ends, it then aliases in the new lead loco and takes out the old one, so that the horn, bell, lights, etc. work on the loco now int he lead.
Digitrax uses command station consisting by default, no changes are made to the decoders of any loco in a consist. The command station remembers this information and sends identical speed and direction commands to all locos in the consist (so if you physcally uncouple a pair of locos and put them on oppoisite sides of the layout, WITHOUT breaking the consist - they will both move). If you consist three locos and only 1 has sound, it does not have to be the first loco since you cna dial the address of the sound loco on the second throttle knob of a DTxxx throttle and control the sounds while speed and direction are controlled on the other knob, which is set ot the consist address.