Digitrax Setup Help

[tcf511]

I'm trying to help a friend setup DCC on his layout. I have a Zephyr and it was very simple to set up. My friend let a dealer talk him into the Super Chief Premium and we're having fits. His layout is O Scale, 2 rail and point-to-point with no loops or blocks set up. He has 2 Atlas Locos, one with an NCE decoder installed and one we are running as 00. After some trial and error, we can generally get it working but every now and then the system loses its mind. He was describing powering the system up and having both locos take off wildly and out-of-control which led to a couple of derailments but nothing on the floor.

I went over to help and twice while we were standing there with track power turned off, the system beeped three times and he got a text message that read R--PS. Both times, he could not take control of the engines. Once, we could watch the speed steps increasing while not touching anything. I finally figured out that we need to select the locos again from scratch. We can't find anything in the manual or website that refers to R--PS. Any thoughts? 

 

[selector]

If you don't get a useful answer here before too long, try the Digitrax forum or go to Yahoo groups and find a digitrax discussion group to see if they can suggest something.  Mind you, placing a phone call directly to Digitrax is likely to get a solid answer much quicker.

[jbinkley60]

I'm trying to help a friend setup DCC on his layout. I have a Zephyr and it was very simple to set up. My friend let a dealer talk him into the Super Chief Premium and we're having fits. His layout is O Scale, 2 rail and point-to-point with no loops or blocks set up. He has 2 Atlas Locos, one with an NCE decoder installed and one we are running as 00. After some trial and error, we can generally get it working but every now and then the system loses its mind. He was describing powering the system up and having both locos take off wildly and out-of-control which led to a couple of derailments but nothing on the floor.

I went over to help and twice while we were standing there with track power turned off, the system beeped three times and he got a text message that read R--PS. Both times, he could not take control of the engines. Once, we could watch the speed steps increasing while not touching anything. I finally figured out that we need to select the locos again from scratch. We can't find anything in the manual or website that refers to R--PS. Any thoughts? 

Turn off analog mode on the decoders.  I do that on all of my locomotives and I've never had a runaway since.  What you have is that you are running an analog locomotive with the 00 address and then you have the NCE decoder that may also be responding to the analog zero stretching but also trying to respond to the DCC.  Turning off analog on the NCE locomotive (and any other locomotive with a DCC decoder) should solve the run away problem.  Analog mode should only be turned on if you  are going to run a locomotive on a pure DC layout.  Digitrax offers 00 for locomotives without decoders, not for locomotives with dual mode decoders. 

Page 99 in the manual explains the R--PS display.  It happens when you untether a DT400 and it is running on battery but you don't input any throttle commands for 3 minutes.  It is the throttle power saver mode for the battery.

Page 38 has the information on what the various number of beeps indicate.  3 beeps is: 

A loco address has been "purged" due to non -use.  This is informational only. Refer to the DCS100 Option Set Up Section for information on customizing loco address purging.

 

 

[jamnest]

I have a Digitrax Chief (DCS 100).  Make sure your Chief is set to "O" Scale.  Make sure there are no shorts in your locomotives.  Decoders come from the factory with a default address of "3".  Put the locos on the programming track and check the address of the locos with the decoders.

I would also recommend that your friend invest in a Digitrax PR3 and download decoder pro for programming his decoders.  Using decoder pro is much easier than trying to program from the throttle.  With the PR3 and Decoder Pro you can also use your computer as multiple throttles.

I agree with the above advice to not run decoders in analog mode.

[tcf511]

Thanks guys for the replies. I'll look up how to turn off analog on his NCE decoder. I'll probably be the one to buy the PR3 and decoder pro. He will only have one or two decoder locomotives. I already have 5 but having been doing too much to them other than basic running. I can take my laptop to his house when he needs help. I'm pretty much a novice at this stuff my self. My layout is torn up some right now as I reroute some trackwork. It should be running again in two weeks and then I'll start learning more about Digitrax and DCC. Thanks again.

[retsignalmtr]

i have noticed that with the digitrax controllers like the dt400r and the ut4r the rubber buttons sometimes stick and will cause the speed setting display to rise without touching any of them. you can tell which one is stuck by looking at the controller from the side. this has happened on my home layout as well as at my club. locos running away when power is turned on could be that the loco was never dispatched properly when being shut down. a member of my club has a habit of picking up his locos while running to remove them from the layout at the end of a meeting. the next time he uses that loco it resumes running at the speed it was running the last time and he thinks something is wrong with the command station. when you get the r-ps display and turning the control knob doesn't bring back control you will have to plug the controller back in to regain control. the digitrax manual is sometimes dificult to understand but you will learn best by repetition. when dispatching a loco the speed must be at zero or the command station will continue to send out commands to that decoder. one thing i do on a regular basis is to use command station option switch # 39 to clear the command stations memory of any decoders that were not properly dispatched as well as all mu'ed locos no longer running together. you don't have to remove the locos from the layout when doing this as it won't change any decoder settings.

[tcf511]

Thanks I want to develop good habits as I expand the use of DCC on my HO layout. I'll look up in my Zephyr manual how to the command station switch #39.

[WSOR 3801]

If you have Decoder Pro, you can use the computer to clear out unused slots.  The Loconet Monitor also helps with troubleshooting other problems. 

[ChrisNH]

 My friend let a dealer talk him into the Super Chief Premium

The Zephyr is relatively low current. While it does sound like your friend got up-sold.. I would think a few O-Scale locos with sound could quickly max out the zephyr..

Chris

[wjstix]

KIM that loco ID "00" is used to control non-decoder equipped DC engines. Put the engine on the programming track and find out what it's loco number is (the default from the factory is 03), then punch that loco number into the Digitrax system and see if it responds OK.

[ukrailroader]

Hi,

    If you put a loco on the program track and it does not have a decoder you get the message No D on the DT400 readout.

 ukrailroader