odd question from someone who's been reading here for a couple a years but here goes. I'm in the stages of gluing track down after over a year of track just thumbed tacked down for testing . never had this problem when thumb tacked and no solder and feeders @ 6-10' .
I just added a digitrax 402 hand held to my Zephyr and am using two trains for testing as I glue down & solder track as I go .but I'm only using 1 set of feeders @ this point. when using the 402 and setting the throttle to say 45 it goes fine for a bit then on its own train stops and throttle says 0 but the sound from the qsi doesn't miss a beet . is this a sign or dirty wheels or lack of feeders or may be both ? please tell me its not my new 402 throttle ...
now I did clean the loco wheels but they looked clean & new and it did seam to solve the problem, oh I'm HO,p2k s w/qsi locos .
some how I pictured a sputtering type a action from dirty wheels ...thanks Jerry ....
PS Ill be adding feeders today and that just make this a moot post
That's a sign that you still have the loco selected on the Zephyr as well as the DT402. With the loco operating on your DT402, bring it to a stop, make sure the speed says 0. Then hit Loco and Exit to dispatch it. On the Zephyr, select the same loco, and make sure the speed knob is all the way at stop, and put the direction lever in Brake. Press Loco then Exit to dispatch it there. Now go back to your DT402 and try running it again - should be fine now.
When the sound keeps right on goign, that's not a sign of lost power. The speed suddenly dropping to 0 in the DT402 display - that's the Zephyr throttle also trying to control the same loco address.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Strange. The fact that the sound doesn't miss a beat suggestts that it's getting power. I wonder why the throttle is showing 0. I assume no buttons are being hit while this is going on?
Springfield PA
oh Randy ,you just hit on something .there was a faint clicking sound coming from the zephyr when I was trying throttle up on the 402,and I do keep the brake on the zephyr even when the zepher thottle is still on ,when not in use ....You the man Randy
Oh so your the guy that sent bad Mo Jo to my layout eh BIG JERR? I just had that happen 20 minutes ago with the same two Digitrax.
NAAH just kidding about the Mo Jo. But I did have an engine on both throttles and the 2nd engine did exactly the same thing. I finally figured it out right after the problem. Not hard to have an engine on both throttles though, I just have to be more careful.
Sure like the Zephyr-xtra and the DT402-------Nice!!
Wadda ya mean I'm old ? Just because I remember gasoline at 9 cents a gallon and those big coal burning steamers.
Using option switch #39 occasionally will clear the throttles memory of all locos that have not been properly dispatched or are running on more than one throttle. You should also use it if you get a SLOT MAX display on the throttle.
TA462 If you have one loco on one throttle and you try to aquire the same loco on a different throttle it will ask you if you want to "STEAL" it. If this happens then you need to dispatch it from the first throttle or just hit the + yes button to steal it on the second throttle. You can't have the same loco on two different throttles at the same time.
If you have one loco on one throttle and you try to aquire the same loco on a different throttle it will ask you if you want to "STEAL" it. If this happens then you need to dispatch it from the first throttle or just hit the + yes button to steal it on the second throttle. You can't have the same loco on two different throttles at the same time.
With Digitrax, yes you can have the same loco on more than one throttle. It's called 'Slot Following' and it's in the manual. This allows, say, an adult to supervise a younger operator and override their throttle if they are goign too fast, or are not stopping before hittin another train or something. If all throttles are encoder throttles, liek the DT400/402, this works pretty well, because the two throttles don;t fight each other unless one person is trying to speed up and the other person is tryign to slow down at the same time. But when one throttle is a potentiometer, like a UT4 or the Zephyr, it will fight agaisnt the other throttle because every time the potentiometer throttle sends a control packet it sets the speed for the knob position, whatever that might be. The encoder throttle accepts this as the new setting . In Jerry's case the Zephyr throttle was set on 0 so as he increased the speed on the DT402 all was fine but as soon as he stopped touching buttons ont he DT402 and the Zephyr throttle sent out a packet, it set the speed to 0 and instantly stopped the train.
Correctly following the instructions in the manual for releasing locos from the throttle will prevent this from happening accidently.