Trial run of Simons 1966 Zepher on my bench

[cudaken]

 Simon was so kind to come by and bring over his Zepher, UT 4 and TH 400 so I could give it a test before I power mine up.

 It was pretty simple to hook up, specialty with Simon doing all the work. My first impression was the Zepher was way more work to control a train on the fly, plus I do not like the fact when you take control of the engine it changes to the speed the throttle is sat at. With E-Z Command speed does not change till I move the throttle. Using the E-Z lets say I am running number 8 engine at 60% power, If I want to sound the horn on number 3 and it is sat at 20% power. I would hit number 3 then function and sound the horn engine will stay at its speed. With the Zepher number 3 would jump to 60% speed when I take control of it.

 After a little hands on time, that can be control some what. Hit the Loco button, punch in number 3, then move the throttle to where number 3 was running and hit Loco again and take control. Not that ruff, but still a little more work.

 Then we hooked up the UT 4. First thing I saw then Simon, when a Engine was controlled by either the UT 4 or TH 400 it slowed down? Tried it a couple of times with the Athearn RTR SF SD40-2. Top speed was cut down on the hand holds. That seemed odd to Simon as well as me.

 On the UT 4 it self, mine is going back! Knobs for setting the engine number is way to close to the speed knob. Plus I like to run the layout in the dark.

 Next Simon hooked up his TH 400, thing went south for a while! All so part of the fear I have of more complex DCC systems. When Simon plugged in the TH 400 we where running my Blue Line GE AC 6000 on the C line. When it was plugged in, the Blue Line lost sound, and back up light came on while running forward? Simon tried a couple of times to reset the decoder to default, with and with out the motor decoder. Then we pulled up the site and found the post about Blue Line decoders, after that Simon got it running with no problems. So that is a Plus and a Minus for Digitrax. He was able to fix the problem, where I would not be able to with the E-Z.

 Next we want to see how many trains we could run at the same time. We ran 3 PK 1000  F3's in a constant, PK 2000 SD 7, BLI Hudson with sound, BLI Heavy Mike with sound, Athearn Dash 9 and the Blue Line GE AC 6000 with sound with no problems unless you count Simon running the F-3's in to the coal cars the Dash 9 was pulling.

 Two things the Zepher does way better than the E-Z, running constants and DC engines! I have 4 PK 1000's 3 have decoders and one B unit does not have a decoder. Simon had speed matched the 3 with decoders on his bench. After the speed matching, here at my house they where fighting each other on the E-Z. With his Zepher they ran perfect. Now a funny twist to this part, both A's have a decoder but only 1 B unit has a decoder. When I was setting up the constant, I did not open the shell of the B to see which one had a decoder. With the E-Z a DC engines hums like a broken door bell. All I did was set a B unit on the track and it did not make a racket, so it must be the one with the decoder!

 Ran the F's and they ran great. Then Simon stop the train where I was sitting, I could hear just a little hum. Turns out the B was the one with out the decoder!   It all so is a testimony to the pulling power the PK 1000's engines. Two engines where dragging a none pulling B unit and 25 cars with no real effort.

 Main short coming for me and the Zepher? With my eye sight, I could not read the number for the keypad.

 With having the PR 3 coming and want to use the computer to run the trains and not liking the UT 4 at all. Simon thinks I would be better off with the Super Empire Builder. With out the need to read CV's feed back and the better hand held guess I will be taking the Zepher back and seeing what kind of deal I can get on a SEB.

 I can see why so people love the Zepher, just don't see (pun) it being right for me.

             Cuda Ken 

[rrinker]

 Hmm, those wierd happenings plugging in the different throttles seems REALLY odd. Unless Simon was in such a hurry trying to show you everything the Digitrax stuff could do that he was 'stealing' locos already selected on the Zephyr console. This happens when you have a certain loco number dialed up on one throttle and someone else dials up the same number on a different throttle. With a paid of DT400's this actually works as a 'trainer' mode, the last command is the one the loco responds to (all because of the encoder knobs). Say you and I each have loco 100 selected on different DT400's, if I speed it up, it will go faster, and your throttle display will reflect the faster speed. You can slow it down, or turn on the lights, and my throttle will show the lights being turned on, or the speed reduction. However, if the second throttle is a potentiometer throttle like the UT4 or the Zephyr console, if you leave the knob alone on the potentiometer throttle and I increase or decreast speed on the DT400, the train will change as I commadned it, but then when I stop adjusting, it will go back ot whatever speed the potentiometer knob is set to. On a DT400, if you try to 'steal' an already selected address, it warns you and says Steal=y? on the display. The UT4 flashes one of the LEDs, and the Zephyr console says St, so it's not like you are blindly steeling locos with no idea. If you cancel the selection when the steal warning comes up, the original throttle remains in control.

 Told you you would liek the encoder knobs on the DT400. No issues at all switching back and forth between locos. Easier to consist, too. AND you can run two locos or consists at a time and have control of both of them. Did Simon get to the part where you just push on the knob to reverse the train?

 Yes, it's all somewhat more complicated than the EZ, but part of that is because you can address the locos with any number from 1 to 9000+, not just 1-9. But at last you will have a use for those numbers on the locos. Oh and you like running with the lights out - there's a flashlight built in to the DT400!

                                                     --Randy

 

[simon1966]

rrinker

Digitrax stuff could do that he was 'stealing' locos already selected on the Zephyr console

 

I think you are right Randy.  We were bopping around from loco to loco, throttle to throttle and frankly I can't recall exactly in what sequence these events occurred.  It certainly was noticeable that the top speed of one loco in particular was greater when under Zephyr control than under UT4 control.  Never noticed this before on the home layout, but with all the switching and stealing we were doing your explanation is probably it.

The Blue line scrambling was most odd.  My DT400 seems to have developed a fault.  When I plugged it in, the layout shut down, the DT showed hieroglyphs on the display.  A mild thump fixed it, but the shutdown was enough to scramble the sound decoder in the BlueLine.  I had to factory re-set it to get it to work again.

Ken, Chrisopher's eyes lit up when he looked into the box and spied the Santa Fe passenger cars.  He had them setup and ready to run before I could chase him off to bed.  I bet they have run a few laps today while I have been  away.

Anyway, having seen Ken struggle with the labeling on the Zephyr (labels too small or eyesight too bad, you pick) and seeing his clear preference for the encoders of the DT400 and his desire for a walk around throttle, the SEB with the PR3 looks like the best bet for him at this time.

[cudaken]

 Pretty sure we where not stealing from each other all the time, if anything I am sure it is the miles of wires under my bench. I did pick up a 100 suitcase connectors yesterday from Harbor Freight. I hope to get rid of some of the wires today.

 Randy, I had use both kinds of throttles at K-10 Model Trains on OP nights. But, I was controlling just one engine, short comings of the UT 4 never came to my attention

simon1966

Chrisopher's eyes lit up when he looked into the box and spied the Santa Fe passenger cars

.

 I glad he like them, I promised I would send them over 4 weeks ago.

                           Ken