Everything is looking good but trying to get the radio to work properly, very...unworking..to put it bluntly with only rare shows its ..err...trying to work.
Any thoughts on getting the radio working properly, done all the tries in the manual.
Brand new arrived today all correct parts there (yesterday now) see quoted.
davidmbedard Dear Lord, we need more information.Check list:1. Got the PS12 plugged into the wall and into the UR91?check 2. Got a 6 connector telephone cable to go from your Loconet to the back of the UR91? Is the cable in good repair?check 3. Which throttle do you have? Does it have an R in its name on the label?DT400R 4. Do you have a fresh 9 volt in the throttle? Is it in the right way?check, working when unplugged (LCD screen responding) 5. Do you have the radio ears on the 91 standing up the correct way?tried 20 degrees, 180 degrees, haven't tried straight out from unit yet, bench tested only so far throttle right next to unit 6. Have you plugged in your throttle to aquire a locomotive?manual says to plug it in to to the loconet (using the 91r unit here) test loco (PCM Y6B runs) 7. Does your throttle work while it is plugged in?check, also works when plugged directly to DCS100, radio unit not connected 8. Does it work on your other panels/command station?check, directly on command station, radio unit not connected, no other units, bench testing. 9. Is your throttle in good repair? Brand new, battery correct. Lots to check....David B
Dear Lord, we need more information.
Check list:
1. Got the PS12 plugged into the wall and into the UR91?
check
2. Got a 6 connector telephone cable to go from your Loconet to the back of the UR91? Is the cable in good repair?
3. Which throttle do you have? Does it have an R in its name on the label?
DT400R
4. Do you have a fresh 9 volt in the throttle? Is it in the right way?
check, working when unplugged (LCD screen responding)
5. Do you have the radio ears on the 91 standing up the correct way?
tried 20 degrees, 180 degrees, haven't tried straight out from unit yet, bench tested only so far throttle right next to unit
6. Have you plugged in your throttle to aquire a locomotive?
manual says to plug it in to to the loconet (using the 91r unit here) test loco (PCM Y6B runs)
7. Does your throttle work while it is plugged in?
check, also works when plugged directly to DCS100, radio unit not connected
8. Does it work on your other panels/command station?
check, directly on command station, radio unit not connected, no other units, bench testing.
9. Is your throttle in good repair?
Brand new, battery correct.
Lots to check....
David B
Haven't tried any other locations for the reciever yet, they reccomend up high in the middle of the room. This is just a bench test, loco on 3 ft track. The radio operation seems to show it wants to "try" to work, doing the throttle "00" test reversing the direction and watching the track status light (track to reciever connectors NOT used) I tried throttle next to reciever, walked away a distance tried, on occassion I would get a response (light changed..once, was able to turn power off/on) but this was very rare. punching the reverse button repeatedly..nothing, moving the throttle around..wooops there it did it in this position,uhm not again tho...wassamatter here... duh...
plug it back in, perfect, manual says it automaticially switches between radio/loconet modes.
Apparently plugging it in is supposed to verify that the radio is working properly, still a fresh newbie here as it just came yesterday with a quick test. Reciever has a pushbotton on the circuitboard, when depressed the IR LED comes on. BTW the radio LED does come on, is supposed to flash when it gets a radio response I believe.
Like I said it seems to show signs it "wants " to work in radio mode, but for now, not much success.
Everything else is fine. Run the engine, toot the whistle, play the bell, turn the headlamp on, etc etc
Just tinkering I set both L/R knobs on the same throttle, reversed directions for each knob, the loco runs in the direction of the last direction setting punched, so running the right knob forward, turning the left knob does not make it go backward...hehehe , punch the left knob direction, ahh it goes backwards...I do things like this running tests a full workout.
No stranger to electronics here, solder, built my own circuit boards, made my own signal stuff, computer stuff like crazy so go nuts explaining anything. I will try other locations for the reciever today and keep tinkering. Any suggestions welcome.
I need a long tether somewhere tho, extension, who sells what the Digitrax uses locally?
Keep in mind that the radio throttle does not send the message until the knob and/or button motion has stopped. Slow response on radio is a frequent complaint that can be traced to knob twiddling.
Martin Myers
mfm37 Keep in mind that the radio throttle does not send the message until the knob and/or button motion has stopped. Slow response on radio is a frequent complaint that can be traced to knob twiddling.Martin Myers
I'll keep that in mind while I check more.
Update, moved everything off the bench to the layout area, have modules EZ to setup reccomended, temp raised high module system placed on it so its over the layout about the center of room.
Still erradict with same tries, however touched antennae lead green wire with hand and held throttle in left hand outstretched high, body became a conduit to move RF signal, I was able to command the Y6B around, reverse, forward, toot the whistle, ring the bell on radio.
Untouch, back to the problems.
They say don't add wire to the antenna but they do say you can multi-connect other UR91's together using the green wire connecting them all together.
or rather, wire onto the PC board not the green wires.
There is a very active Yahoo Digitrax Group.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Digitrax/
These forums are good but the Yahoo Digitrax group is more specialized.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
If you can plug your DT400R throttle into the cable port on your UR91, and the engine runs fine: your DT400/Loconet cable/Super Chief are fine. My UR91 is mounted in the fascia at about the 45" level. I have great radio contact from 20-25 ft away in the layout area. As long as you have a good battery in the throttle(and I mean 'fresh'), I would suspect that the problem is in the UR91. Wireless throttles 'eat' 9VDC batteries. I doubt if I get more than 4 hours out of a battery. Intermittant operation usually is a sure sign of low battery voltage. I would go out and buy 'fresh' batteries and 'test' before returning the hardware.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
will try fresh fresh batterries, the ones I used I doubt it, tho I checked them.
I read the IR and radio is supposed to work together. The DT400R has 3 LED's on it, the middle lights up when the power button is pushed.
The 2 outer ones dont, prolly IR, I have a radio shack IR detector, would help determine if their working.
I use these radio things at work and they pretty well work like crazy, why the digitrax aughta too.
The one that lights up with the power button is the flashlight LED. The other two are the IR transmitters.
When you plug in, select a loco, and unplug - what does the display say? Does it say IR and the battery voltage, or Ra and the battery voltage? It defaults to whichever it 'sees' first, so if you have it pointed right at the UR91 when you unplug it may be going right to IR. Try covering the two IR LEDs when you unplug it, or plug in some distance from the UR91, like in the other jack on the DCS100, to select a loco.
Also - just checking - you DID hook the PS12 to the UR91, right? The radio will NOT work reliably without the external power.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
just went and tinkered again on the system. A good experimenter will try this and try that.
I had the tether connection from the command box to the reciever on the left hand connector.
I switched it to the right hand connector on the reciever.
Talk about fidgetyness, it works perfect. Interstingly there is a little yellow dot on the reciever connector I hooked it to...hmmm..\
Now...what the difference between the left and right connectors? polarity maybe...
You are talking about the Loconet ports on the back of the unit - Right? On my setup, the Loconet cable from the command station is plugged into the LH port(Looking at the front of the UR91 faceplate). The RH port is daisy-chained to a UP5 about 25' further down the layout. I would not expect the cabling to be that specific. Did you use the small supplied Loconet cable that came with the UR91? Look at the RJ12 cconnector on each end of the cable - Holding them 'side by side', you should see the same wire color pattern on each connector. Stretched out, one connector is 'up' and the other should be 'down'. Normally this does not make a lot of difference, except with boosters - and maybe a UR91? This is very strange.
It's past 11 PM - I am not going downstairs and experiment.....
Jim Bernier
I tend to think theres an AC polarity issue. If I could reverse the command station power plug (120 AC, but is polarized big/little flat pins) it might do the same problem in reverse. I tend to think the AC is reverse polarized on itself and fighting itself.
I haven't tried not using the reciever power supply yet just as a test, but theoretically it would work just powered from the command station but they don't reccommend that because of the power drain on the system.
The small power supply is AC out, not DC.
The polarity (phase in AC) shouldn;t be an issue unless you have some really messed up house wiring. The input to the UR91 where the power supply connects has a diode to convert it to DC anyway.
Both jacks on the back of the UR91 should be identical - as far as I know in all the UP devices, they are directly wired in parallel, with a tap off to the circuitry. In other words - a trace leads directly from pin 1 of the left socket to pin 1 of the right socket and so on. Plugging in to oen or the other shouldn't matter - unless the socket itself is damaged. If one of the pins has slipped over it could either make no contact or short an adjacent pin when the plug is inserted. However this is usually fairly obvious when you look at it and also it usually makes the plug hard to insert.
rrinker The polarity (phase in AC) shouldn;t be an issue unless you have some really messed up house wiring. The input to the UR91 where the power supply connects has a diode to convert it to DC anyway. Both jacks on the back of the UR91 should be identical - as far as I know in all the UP devices, they are directly wired in parallel, with a tap off to the circuitry. In other words - a trace leads directly from pin 1 of the left socket to pin 1 of the right socket and so on. Plugging in to oen or the other shouldn't matter - unless the socket itself is damaged. If one of the pins has slipped over it could either make no contact or short an adjacent pin when the plug is inserted. However this is usually fairly obvious when you look at it and also it usually makes the plug hard to insert. --Randy
For devices that do not require railsync (this includes throttles) you are correct, they are identical. But do note that not all jacks on all UP panels have railsync. On the front panel they use these pins to provide power to throttles.
http://www.digitrax.com/kb/index.php?a=541
Engineer Jeff NS Nut Visit my layout at: http://www.thebinks.com/trains/
Which is why I said both jacks ON THE BACK.
something I'll look at when I do some circuit tracing sometime, depending how grounding is done.
I would say technically in normal layout circumstances it will not matter if the loconet pins are the same or reversed, but if the 2 connectors are actually reversed in their pin connections that could make the difference for the reciever using its power supply.
What clues me is the reciever was working, but just barely it seems, going to the other connector solved it. I'll look at the reciever closely later and report back. If both the loconet and the reciever power supply give power to the reciever, there is some kind of connection between the 2, reverse the AC somehow it may cause wacko things to happen, something digitrax would have to look into for the reciever design because it should work in either port.
I wasn;t talking about flipping the Railsync polarity - however other than for a downstream booster or a BDL168 using Transponding it really doesn't matter. The phase of Railsync is critical for transponding, and if the Railsync is reversed going to a downstream booster, the Rail A and Rail B outputs will be flipped.
Where there more likely is an issue is with the Loconet signal. Since there's two wires assigned to Loconet, peopel assume it's also differential like Railsync - it's not. This is probley the root of the 'problem' although I'd have to see a circuit trace of the two back panel jacks on the UR91 because it shouldn't make a difference since they shoudl be exactly in parallel with each other. But here's what can happen. Each of the two wires labeled for Loconet ostensibly carries the same signal - ie wired is parallel. Only - they're NOT. Not unless certain devices are connected - plug a throttle in anywhere, for example, and they are connected because inside the throttle both wires are tied together. You can see this using the LT-1 tester. At least on a Zephyr, and I figure it's probably the same on a DCS100 or DB150, only ONE of the Locone tlights goes on if the only thing plugged in is the LT-1. Plug a throttle into the other Loconet jack and - bingo, both lights go on (at that point ALL the light sont he LT-1 should be on, or you have a wiring problem). What is probably happenign is that the UR91 circuit is connected to Loconet B and the DCS100 is connected to Loconet A - thus no signal back fromt eh radio to the command station. Plug the throttle into the front port and it functions fine because it connects to both Loconet wires.
Somewhere there are pictures of a simple 'loopback' connector which is just an RJ12 plug with the two Loconet pins jumped. You plug this into the end of the Loconet bus to make sure both wires are 'live' even with no throttle attached.
UR91 has termination built in on the board. Pins 3 and 4 are shorted just like throttles. UR91 is basically a throttle. It receives the info from a radio throttle then puts it on loconet just like a plugged in throttle.
Railsync reversal shouldn't be problem either. The steering diodes take care of that. Matter of fact, railsync isn't needed at all.
Old first run UR90's didn't have loconet termination built in so they needed either a throttle plugged in somewhere or the homemade "loopback" plug to work properly. Digitrax fixed that a long time ago.