Dear Friends
I've been using a Zephyr Xtra to run my son's trains on the new model railroad we're building, and previously I was getting 12.2 volts all over the track, even at the ends of the sidings.
Now I'm getting 0.5 to 0.51 volts all over the track.
The unit isn't in programming mode.
The Track Status light is orange. I thought it was supposed to be green. I'm pretty confident in my track power wiring. I think something may have gone wrong with the Zephyr.
Would any of you have any knowledge that may help me in this situation?
If so, I'd appreciate your advice. Thank you.
--Jaddie
Jaddie:
The Zephyr Extra manual indicates that the light should be orange if track power is on. I would disconnect the Zephyr from the layout and test the voltage at the track outputs. If this id OK then there is a layout wiring problem. If not then it's time to call Digitrax.
Joe
Just a couple of troubleshooting questions and things for you to try:
1. Have you added any track since your original test with 12+ volts?
2. Have you added any wiring? Disconnected and then reconnected any exisiting wiring?
3, I doubt if you have crossed any wires, otherwise you would be getting the "short circuit" signal.
4. Track and/or probes dirty?
5. Volt meter in the right setting?
6. Conduct a test right at the back of the command station and see what it reads. Place the 2 probes right on the set screws for the wires. This will give you the best "output" reading.
As someone already said, the track status light is supposed to be orange
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Sounnds like you used address 00 and left it in near full throttle in one direction or other. Try selectring address 00, then make sure the throttle is at stop and the direction handle is in the brake position. See if that changes your track light color. Try it in one direction and full throttle and then the other, you should see the status light more green in one direction (more like light orange), and more red in the other (almost all red) - it never really goes green. Just maje sure you put the throttle to stop and the direction to brake before selecting another loco.
If this doesn;t clear it, try using the instructions in the back of the book to do an OpSw 39 reset to really clear out anything in the Zephyr. If this doesn't fix it, then you probably have a faulty output and it will need a vacation in Florida (Digitrax HQ). But odds are pretty good it's just that address 00 is dialed up and wasn't released properly.
--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 suspect you have your voltmeter set to DC instead of AC.
Dear Randy, Robert, & Everyone
Thanks a bunch for responding to my question.
I thought I was supposed to have the multimeter set to DC and 20. It's DC on the track, right?
It could be that the MTH loco is confused again. It'll make its sounds but won't move and had been working well earlier in the session.
I'll try an AC setting on the multimeter and Randy's suggestion in the morning when I get back to the layout.
Thanks very much for responding. Y'all make this pursuit so much more enjoyable.
The track power isn't DC it's a type of AC so the AC setting on your meter will give you a good estimate of track voltage. If you want a little more there is a method outlined in your Zephyr that lets you measure each half of the output to give a total. Is your problem with just the one engine? Do your others perform OK?
The way Digitrax generates the DCC signal, you can measure with the meter on DC. Measure between Rail A and ground, and then measure between Rail B and ground. They should be the same or very close, within a tenth of a volt or so. If they are vastly different, it's that Address 00 is in use, if one of the two measurements in 0, there's a hardware problem. The sum of the two is the approximate DCC track voltage.
I shuddered when I saw the name MTH. As Rrinker may remember (after trying mightily to help) I've had issues of my own with MTH engines running on a Zephyr layout (long story).
Randy's already pointed out how to reset your Zephyr. If your MTH loco needs the same you can do a factory reset on the main (get every other loco off the tracks first or it will reprogram all of them) by selecting loco 55, changing cv55 to a value of 55. Should get the loco back to square one.
Stu
Streamlined steam, oh, what a dream!!
Dear Stu
I was in a flying hurry tonight and didn't even turn on my son's MTH locomotive. I did the Loco > 00 > Exit, though I didn't confirm its effect. I'll get to that in the morning.
I couldn't get HO Spencer to travel over a kinked solder joint in a curve, so I replaced the piece of track. I had to go pick up my son at gymnastics and didn't have time to get to even one-tenth of what I'd hoped to accomplish.
Should we choose Athearn from now on? If they don't sound as good, is the solution as simple speaker upgrade?
Y'all know so much and I appreciate your sharing your valuable knowledge with me. I have a lot of knowledge about digital imaging and photography. If you have any questions about that stuff, please feel free to email me and I'll do my best to help you.
By the way, the track voltage thing hadn't changed. When I put the multimeter on AC and 200 (?), it read the same 12.2 volts all over the track, just as it had before. It reads 12.2 volts even at the ends of all three sidings.
JADDIE WROTE THE FOLLOWING POST AT SAT, OCT 27 2012 8:00 PM:
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Hard to say for sure. Athearn is my other brand, but I haven't spent any significant time with their sound-and-dcc units; just a dc switcher I plonked a digitrax DH123 into. What I do know is that while MTH locos are gorgeous and sound great, they're not true DCC; the protosound units run on MTH's DCS system, so on a DCC layout they are -- for all intents and purposes -- running in compatibility mode. Jaddie, being into digital imaging you've likely spent enough time on computers to know how well that goes.
Athearn, at least, is true DCC. That usually means fewer issues when running, programming, etc...