I'm sure they're fine. Was just poking fun
Springfield PA
One of the first extras I got for my Zephyr was a DT400 throttle. AFter using the DT400 I will NEVER use the Zephyr console nor a UT4, I can't stand limited range potentiometer controls. Plus with the encoder on the DT400 you can select between running locos and none will change speed since the absolute position of the knob has nothing to do with the speed. Plus it displays the speed, so you cna be sure to be at 0 before dispatching a loco.
And Hmltn, in all the years I've had my Zephyr I don;t think it has ever acted up in any way that was not immediately traceable to me trying to do somethign counter to the instructions. I don't have any Tsunami decoders, but I've had no problems programmign anything else I've tried - QSI OEM, QSI Revolution, ESU, Digitrax, and old SOundtraxx LC decoders all programmed just fine. And I think the onyl time I actually did an OpSw 36 or 39 reset was after the time I tried to see how many locos I could run before it overloaded. I had 8 or 9 going, couldn;t keep them from hitting each other for long, but I also even shorted the track and they recovered - that was 4 sound and 4 or 5 non-sound all at the same time. After that it was just easier to turn off the track power and do a reset to clear the loco info than try to run through and stop each one. In short it ahs been 100% reliable and dependable. It's still my command station, although the track is powered via a DB150 configured as a booster.
--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 have fallen victim of not totally stopping a loco before changing locos in my throttle. I guess when I am dailing through the one I am letting gets clicked up a notch and few minutes later I notice it has slowly worked its way part way around the layout.
Actually I don't normally use a power cab but a PR3 for programming.
The layout has a super chief. I sold my Phpro but keep the power cab for a backup programmer and tester.
I haven't used a Zephyr but lately have been seeing a few odd things about them on the forums.
Never had a problem with mine. Of course I read the instructions first. Try some random gerfingerpokin on your PowerCab and see how quick you can mess things up. In the other thread we have someone using the NCE lighting and NCE recovery macros on Digitrax decoders. I am still not convinced that doing so hasn't inadvertantly changed a CV to at least partially cause the lighting issue. Those options apply ONLY to NCE decoders and not any other brand. It even says not to use them on other decoders, I read THAT manual too.
I really don't know why people make things harder than they are. It's VERY simple to select and run a loco on any DCC system. Most of them explain the steps clearly in the first few pages of the manual. The disconnect seems to be when the example uses address 3, assumign you have a new decoder fresh out of the package, but now you've gotten to the point where you have other numbers, or maybe you had someone install a decoder and program it for you since you haven't gotten that far. Thing is, the steps are exactly the same but instead of using 3 you use whatever address the decoder was programmed with. EXACTLY the same. Unless you have NCE, then you have to know if the address 50 was programmed as a long or short since they have to be entered differently
The good thing here is that the chosen locos and decoders are about the simplest most fool-proof installs you cna do, it takes longer to get the shells off the P2K units than it does to install the deocder. Hard to even get it plugged in backwards because of the space in the weight where it fits. The issues here seem to be simply procedural. The Zephyr is extremely easy to use, but like all electronic devices is mindless and will do EXACTLY what you tell it to. If a loco isn't set to stop, it won't stop. If a loco is consisted to another and never removed, it doesn't automagically get removed because the system thinks that's what you 'meant' to do.
The more I hear about the zephyr the more I want to run out and buy one.
What addresses are they all set to? You listed 5 and 26, what about the other two?
The creeping one is probably because you didn;t set the speed to 0 before dispatchign it. WHich you might not be doing. For the creepign one, select it and verify you have control. Stop it, AND move the direction control to the Brake position. Then press Loco, then Exit.
Getting "busy" sounds like you are trying to program in Ops Mode? Do you have a program track connected to the pgm a and pgm b terminals so you can do programming there?
You may have leftover stuff in the Zephyr's memory. Look in the back of the manual for the instructions to use OpSw 36 to clear the memory and start from there. That will clear any loco settings and MU consists so you cna start 'clean' and try again. There are only 2 ways for a single loco to also make another one or another consist move: either the single loco is part of the consist, or the single loco and the consist share an address. Since Digitrax allows you to'nest' consists, you may have had the single loco consisted with one of the two in the consist that moves with it, and if it never was removed properly you can create another consist that then still retains information that the single loco is part of it. The OpSw 36 reset will clear all of that information.
I'll assume that you know how to use a program track.
Place each one of the 2 giving you trouble on the program track at a time.
Set CV8 to a value of 8 and the decoder will return to default and it's address will be 3.
From there you can start from scratch.
Before doing this try to set cv19 to 0 on each loco to see if it fixes your problem
Proto 2000 SD60's with DH163LO decoders
Hi Randy,
It's Brian again, these loco's are 2 SD60's by Proto 2000, I'm using DH163LO's and they are both doing the same thing. None of the other decoders are performing like this, so I assume that it's something else( unless there're both bad, which is hard to believe). More to ponder.
Regards, Brian
I'm sure the decoder is fine.
Start by undoing the MU and work on each loco. If you get in a bind you might have to reset the decoders on the mis-behaving loco's using a program track. What model and make are the loco's?
There are 4 decoders involved, #'s 05 & 26 are MU'ed. I think it's a bad decoder!! I changed the address on one of the loco's and it still did the same thing, but the other loco seems to be ok now. I noticed that one of the individual loco's is creeping along all by itself without calling on it. I also attempted to put the loco in question back to factory default, but it keeps give me a busy signal. I've been puzzling over this since last night. Thanks for the quick reply.
Sounds like somehow you are adding the third loco to the MU rather than selecting it individually. Make sure the MU light is not on when selecting the third loco. Also, what are the addresses of all three decoders invovled?
I have MU'ed 2 loco's, but when I dial in to move another loco, the 2 MU'ed loco's move with the other loco. When I separate the MU'ed pair everything is ok, and the loco's move as I dial in the #'s for each individual loco. I have a Zephyr. With drop in decoder's in the loco's.