"A DIGITRAX AR1 QUESTION"

[TrainsRMe1]

HI All

I have a question, on my reverse loop, I'm using a AR1 to reverse the polarity, I ran a test loco into the loop, and here's what happened, the loco caused a short and traveled the opposite direction,  could someone show me a diagram of a AR1?? I want to see if I wired it correctly, or I might have a bad AR1.

THANKS GUYS N GALS!!

[MisterBeasley]

Is this a DCC locomotive operating on a DCC system?  I have seen similar behavior test-running a DC engine in DC mode on my DCC system.

An AR-1, like all auto-reversers, will only work on a DCC system.

[TrainsRMe1]

I ran an analog loco first, I do have four DCC locos, I'll test my DCC locos, would my Big Boy have problems,  it's DCC equipped.??

[richhotrain]

Is your layout DC or DCC?

Rich

[TrainsRMe1]

My layout is DCC

[TrainsRMe1]

It's DCC

[richhotrain]

TrainsRMe1

My layout is DCC 

Well, that is weird then if it was a DCC loco on your DCC layout. There would be no reason for the loco to go in the opposite direction. I have had AR-1 auto-reversers on my DCC layout, and that never happened.

Was it a DC loco that performed that way?

Rich

[MisterBeasley]

TrainsRMe1

I ran an analog loco first, I do have four DCC locos, I'll test my DCC locos, would my Big Boy have problems,  it's DCC equipped.??

If you used an analog DC engine on a DCC system, that's probably the result you would get.   A DCC engine should work properly.

[BigDaddy]

If we had some understanding of your previous problem, where there was a short in the return loop, we might be able to give better advice

[hornblower]

I use Digitrax AR1 reversers on my DCC layout and they all work as designed.  However, I never run analog locos on my DCC layout. Since your layout is already DCC powered, I would recommend converting all of your DC analog locos to DCC as soon as possible. If your budget is getting in the way, the NCE D13 decoder is pretty cheap and quite reliable (no sound though).  They are not hard to install and most analog locos don't require much, if any, work to isolate the motor.  

[mfm37]

Your AR1 worked perfectly. It changed the phase to match that of the adjacent track to correct the short and your DC (analog) engine reversed because the (polarity) was now reversed. If you were powering the track with analog DC, the AR1 would do the same except each time the DC engine reversed across the gap, the short would re-occur. Auto reversers won't work properly with analog engines even when using address 00.