I finally jumped into the world of DCC. I purchased a Digitrax Zephyr unit to get me started. I'm having some major issues and I hope somebody can help. I bought some decoders from Digitrax. Not sure which ins now. I've programmed the decoders but something I believe is wrong with the wiring. I just weird a basic rail a of the track to rail a of Zephyr. I've programmed my locos. Now it gets strange. One of my Locos only moves when the "brake" on the Zephyr is on but, it only moves at 1 speed and does not speed up or slow down with the throttle control. When I switch to,forward or Backward th Loco,stops. When I program mynsecond LOCO it won't move at all. I do have steel wheels in my rolling stock but I have made sure the insulators are on the same side of the truck and when placed on the track all insulators face the same way. I also,have some cars with steel wheels with plastic axles. Can somebody please tell me what I am doing wrong?
A Zephyr has two sets of terminals, one for the main track and the other set for programming on a programming track which is separate from the main track. Were the engines running on the main track when they were still set to "0" for the engine number. The programming track is where the engine road number is set for the engine such as "6798" or something. Read the booklets or find a local DCC nut to help you.
Take a step back and go to the beginning of the instructions. If you bought the Zephyr sed and it didn't come with the instruction manual, you cna download it on the Digitrax site, for the original Zephyr it will be under the retired products section.
FOlow it exactly. It tells you which wires to hook up where, and has you run a non-DCC loco (you can skip that if you converted all yours) and then has you operate a DCC loco. If you've already programmed an address then use it instead of 3.
You may want to try resetting everything. In the back of the Zephyr instructions there is information on how to set OpSw values. You want to close OpSw 39 to do a full reset on the Zephyr itself. To reset a decoder, it depends on what brand they are. For Digitrax decoders, you program CV8 to 8. The main thing this will do is reset the address to 3, so you can put it on the track and select address 3 and it should work normally.
--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 believe this is the Manual, PDF, give it time to load:
If You need it.
http://www.digitrax.com/static/apps/products/starter-sets/zep/documents/ZephyrManual.pdf
Take Care!
Frank
Well I cleaned the track a bit. It did seem to help some. Now the coded Loco runs but still runs forward on the reverse position. That's not a big deal. I can just switch the lead wire to the Zephyr unit. Maybe a God project for the weekend
If it's running in reverse under DCC control, you won't be able to change its direction simply by reversing polarity/phase by swapping wires in the outputs. You need to change a CV to alter the direction of travel.
Or swap the motor leads.
CV29 is the one to change for direction. By changing CV29, your lights will work correctly to.
Check here and scroll down to page 34.
If the forward headlight is on and you are going backwards, you need to change CV29 to indicate reverse direction.You need to also inspect the engine itself. Some RR ran them cab forwards, some ran them cab backwards. Most railroads stuck a small "F" on the running board frame to indicate "Front" When your switch is in forward, it should be moving in the direction of the front. (Obviously)
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!