Model Railroading > Digitrax DS64 Problems

Are any of you successfully using DS64 stationary decoders to control Tortises?

I purchased my first DS64, hooked it up and it threw the first turnout a few times.  After that, it got so hot it melted the platic over the ventillation grill and all four of the outputs showed about 4 volts, not enough to do much of anything.  I sent it back to Digitrax, but they are taking so long to fix them I bought 2 more in the interim so I would not have to delay.  Got the first one wired up, and the turnouts on the first one were working just fine, so I installed the second one.  Three of the turnouts were working fine on the second one, and then something happened and it failed in the same way when I installed the 4th turnout, by getting really hot and showing only 4 volts on the outputs.  The really strange thing is that the failure on one DS64 caused the other DS64 to fail in exactly the same way!  They both use the same DC power supply and are connected by loconet, but that is it.  Looks like I will have to send these DS64s back to Digitrax. 

Has anyone seen behavior like this?

Does anyone know if Tortises can fail in a way that basically creates a short circuit?  That is what this seems like.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a stationay decoder from another manufacturer?

How are you powering the DS64?  With a wall plug or through your track power?

Did you reprogram the DS64 to work with slow motion (Tortuise) switch machines?  It comes from the factory set for selanoid type machines.  See pg 5 of your DS64 instruction sheet if you need to change it.  I am successfully using DS64s with Tortuise machines, however I am powering them from the wall outlets individually

Sean McCaffery

I have switched SW1 to "c" in order for them to work with Tortise like turnouts.  I power them from the fixed DC at a central power pack.  It is a MRC Tech II Railmaster 2400.  It supplies about 14 volts.  I have always worried 14 volts might be too high, but when I corresponded with Digitrax tech support, they didn't say anything about it.  Perhaps I should try powering each one individually from wall outlets, using the Digitrax PS14 or something, but that also puts out 14 volts, so I don't know how that would make things different.

EDIT:
Never mind, I just read the DS64 instruction sheet and power can be either DC or AC at 14 v.


Does the DS64 prefer AC over DC for the supplied power? If that is the case you will want the ACC connections off the power pack though they may be 16 vac.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/27/15 08:57 by fbe.

The DS64 manual lists 3 ways to power your DS64:

1.  Through track power on in TRKA/TRKB
2.  Through an external 12-14 V DC source on AX1(-) and AX2(+)
3.  Through the Digitrax PS14 power source on the modular jack

I don't want to use track power since it will take valuable current from operations.  I am currently doing the second option, but don't know if that is somehow causing my DS64s to fail.  I suppose the PS14 is the next thing to try.

Dear ?,

Join the wonderful Yahoo Group for Digitrax where you will get the best tech support and advice possible.

Bruce

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Digitrax/info

 

brfriedm - good call!  I signed up and saw some discussion on a problem very similar to mine.  Hopefully that will to resolve it.

Turns out the problem was that I connected and powered up the DS64 to the Tortise turnouts BEFORE I set SW01="c" for stall type turnouts.  This caused the DS64 to operate the Tortises as double solenoid type machines, which is the default, and which apparently will blow out all the outputs on the DS64 as soon as it powers up with Tortises connected.