DO you have the cord between the ACM and the control box?
Are you doing the steps on the throttle in the order exactly as I listed it?
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
yes randy, i have everything connected as per manual and as you said i should , i have done everything the manual says to do, step by step, with manual beside me as doing it, not sure if it is a digitrax issue or not, i am going to a buddy,s place on sunday and see if it works on his layout, just heard back from walthers and are working on issue they say, and might issue me a return auth, so we will keep trying to figure it out , just a long time to hear and talk to people at walthers, maybe real busy this time of year maybe , spent alot of money buying all this turntable and extra boards to not work ffor me .
thanks Paul
well just got back rom my buddy,s place and he has the same exact setup that i do as far as digitrax system and turntable and a acm board, while i was there i programmed his acm with no problems what so ever, so unhooked his board and hooked my acm and nothing, easy with his and would even accept any decoder packets at all, what at least i am relieved it,s not me , but the board, but the funny thing is this is my second board, so not sure what itt is, now time to get ahold of walthers
Hi Mel,
Sorry I haven't gotten back to you - had a very bad tear to my rotator cuff, surgery and recuperation. I'm just now getting back to my train. Did you get your setup to work? Mine works - I have the 12 volt relay switch board and the ACM working together with the original Walthers controller. When the turntable arrives at each of my storage tracks, the relay clicks and power goes to the tracks. I can't get the numberpad to work yet, but I'm pleased with my progress. Let me know how your status is and I'll be glad to go step-by-step through what I did to get it to work.
Eric
I too have mine working as aquarius describes. However, not before I sent the ACM to Walthers for a firmware update. There was a glitch in a bunch of them that Walther's fixes. Works without fail now, properly activating the appropriate relay for the stall selected. That's with 24 stalls.
Good information Randy. I've just installed the 130' version of this with the ACM and your instructions worked first time with my Digitrax system.
My only hitch is getting the Turn function programmed into my Digitrax system. The instructions are a little breif on just want has to happen to program this funtion.
instruction #8 states (my comments in italics)
To program the Turn function, use the manual rotation controls (I'm assuming they are talking about those on the blue control box?) to move the bridge to any unprogrammed location.
but what do you do then?, or am I missing something here?
thanks in advance. I might add that the turntable has performed flawlessely so far in the week or so I've had it up and running.
Ed.
Sounds like something is missing - next page, back of page? That's like the first step in the process, for whatever reason the bridge can't be at an already programmed stop when setting this up, but there has to be something else after you've moved the bridge to some unprogrammed location.
Ed A instruction #8 states (my comments in italics) To program the Turn function, use the manual rotation controls (I'm assuming they are talking about those on the blue control box?) to move the bridge to any unprogrammed location. but what do you do then?, or am I missing something here?
It looks to me this to program reverse into the TT
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
Well that makes sense. Step 8, then Step 9.
Thx Henry
I think 9) is a stand alone instruction without 8) required beforehand.
I've programmed the reverse postion function by just executing 9) with the bridge anywhere, programmed or not. I'm pretty sure from playing around with it that 8) is not a pre-requisite for 9) to work because the first time I programmed the reverse function I didn't move it to an unprogrammed location and it still programmed the reverse function just fine, but it's possible I suppose. Doing 8) then 9) does program the reverse function, I just tried it, but it also will accept the reverse position program command with the bridge at a programmed position....so seems inconclusive
I agree with Randy, it's like there is an instruction missing. I think i'll try Walthers support and see what they say.
thanks guys
No, it's a series of instructions. Do step 8, then step 9. With the bridge manually moved to a non-position (step 8) the display would show -- instead of a position number. Step 9 then says to Throw the DCC switch address you want to use for reversing - therefore it is a continuation of the process.
I've been following this the last few days and have probably a stupid question. I have an older 90' Walthers turntable from a kit which I will assume is not DCC friendly. Is there a way to make it so, and if I can do that, is there a way to add the advanced control? As it stands now, my turntable bridge is non operable as it lights the short indicator on the power distributor (PSX4). Where do I start?
J.R.
You can't automate it with this stuff, the built up Walthers turntables that have automated controls are completely different from the kits. The electronics and the motor drive are all in the turntable bridge. They really shouldn't have called the second version "DCC" - all they mean is that you can program it to be operated via DCC, both versions upport using DCC as the track power.
The old kit - I think that has slip rings to power the bridge. You need an autoreverser to feed the bridge track so you don't get a short when turning a loco 180 degrees. There's a motorizing kit but it does not have indexing or any of that. And retrofitting it to use one of the various commercial index drive systems - you're better off just buying a whole new turntable.
My personal feeling is that something as eye catching and a focus point like a turntable ought to be near the front of the layout, not shoved off in the back, and all this fancy electronic indexing just isn't needed when the turntable is up close. A simple motor drive and a momentary switch are plenty, just line it up by eye. SLightly biased, I suppose. We have 2 turntables on the club layout. One is an older one, not Walthers, but it has a simple motor drive and is run by an old DC walkaround throttle stuck to the fascia with velcro. That oen ALWAYS works. ANd we have one of the original Walthers built up ones, the pre-DCC version, witht he control box and all. No matter how carefully things get cleaned out, it has never really worked. Someone did say that whoever installed it screwed up the measurements and the space wasn't cut out quite big enough, maybe that's the case. But it doesn't even power up, even after careful cleaning of all the contacts. The controller lights up, but any attempts to rotate the bridge do nothing. The engine temrinal module also has the transfer table - that one at least TRIES to move, but seems to bind - there I believe that the hole was cut a shade too small and it's warping the base a little, causing the bridge to jam. But at least it does respond to the control box.
Thank you for the response Randy. I had fitted the turntable with the usual DPDT switch for the bridge track hoping that would work. Easy enough to fit another autoreverser especially since I have also decided the yard should have at least one seperate zone. Yes I am less than thrilled with the mechanism part of the turntable but it does work though it is notchy and sounds more like a cement mixer than a real turntable. I spent an inordinant amount of time on the thing and I'm loathe to just walk away from it. Worst case since I did fit the turntable, round house and back shop at the front edge of the layout I can just fit the auto reverser and use the "hand of God" to move it once the drive eats itself. Funny the knots we can tie ourselves up with for a relaxing hobby...........
I was confused when I first started working with the ACM and have written some documentation about wiring and relays.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wzyv80yieb9yp69/ACM%20Details.pdf?dl=0
Let me know if there are questions and I will try to answer them.
That said, my current problem is setting it to 'home', or the equivalent to track 00 on the blue control box. I am using JMRI if that matters.
Thanks, Bill