Model Railroading > Digitrax Purging

With the modular club having been setup in a new location and spending the last couple weeks getting the Digitrax DCC system working properly (had various issues with Digitrax, Module Wiring, phase alignment, and a bad circuit protection card). I've come across another issue with the digitrax system that I want to fix. I setup a short train with a single locomotive to run around while I did some track laying on a module. Previously I had set the DCS200 to set the speed of all purged addresses to 0. Seemed like a sensible precaution. Well every 200 seconds the DCS200 would purge my address and bring the train to a halt. It didn't matter if the throttle was plugged in or on the radio channel (DT402R throttle). The issue is further compounded in that trying to just turn the speed knob to restart the train does nothing, I no longer would have control over the train, and would need to plug in to reacquire the locomotive. Thinking back over the years of using Digitrax, this seemingly would be a root cause of many run away trains and panicked operators that I've witnessed. I did increase the purging time from 200 seconds to the max 600 seconds, but really wish the purging time could be as long as an hour or two.
But I also read that the throttle should be sending out a signal every 100 seconds to reset the purging timer if the speed is greater than 0. That is apparently not happening. What settings can I use to make that throttle keep the DCS from losing control of the locomotive while it's running around at speed? Or am I going to need to disable the purging altogether? Anyone else floored that the Digitrax manual does not mention using the loco and exit keys to directly release an address from the system instead of merely dispatching it?

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Hi Ted,
​Our club has a Digitrax system as well and ours goes idle (purges) the same unless actions are done on the throttle to rest the timing. Also we inform our members to always exit or dispatch their numbers when not operating their trains to keep the storage low in the system. Is there an answer to all this? Most have found with their personal layouts that the answer is NCE. LOL

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Oh good now there is more I will need to learn now that I belong to a club that has Digitrax. At home I have NCE more and more I like it due to the fact it seems very user friendly and it likes me. Oh well will figure it out some how.

Ted's problems are similar (but not identical) to Digitrax mysteries I've encountered when operating on a friend's layout equipped with the system.  One night everything came to a halt for half an hour while several of the operators--Digitrax users all--huddled trying to resolve a mystery involving a locomotive that at some point had apparently not been properly "dispatched" when its work was done.   Seeing all these experienced guys mystified by whatever the Digitrax system had swallowed that they could not clear up was a lesson to me.  When the time came for my own DCC purchase, I went with MRC.

From what I have seen of Digitrax, its capabilities are profound, but so too are its complexities and mysteries.  For a system (DCC) that was supposed to simplify wiring and the like, it certainly seems to be both overly complicated, and frequently so sophisticated as to throw up hard to solve problems.

Art House



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/16 07:40 by aehouse.

If Bluetooth is indeed as promising as it appears, the whole command station concept may be antiquated in fairly short order. Old, re-purposed smartphones & computers Bluetoothed to fairly unsophistacated decoders (battery or track-powered) portend to a be a less complicated, more versatile and more cost-effective way to control trains than today's DCC setups from any manufacturer. Give it five years, we'll see.

Sorry, this is kinda rubbing your nose in it I know, but heck, my own large layout now under initial construction is going to need a sophisticated (read: EXPENSIVE) DCC setup in very short order. I'm really at 6's and 7's about how to proceed, since I think we may be at a watershed moment.

Otherwise, have you checked with the Y! Digitrax group? (sorry, Todd)

EO

Just a little bit off topic, sorry.

 I've seen new smartphones at Best Buy for $19.99.  They are the pay per minute variety.  Don't buy any minutes.  Via wifi download the appropriate JMRI or Bluetooth program and run your trains. 

Larry

ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ
 

Our club in Blissfield, MI has used Digitrax for about 20 years.  We have never been successful at keeping the roster down by exiting locomotives.  Sooner or later, we get the SLOT MAX notice.  We sometimes run up to 10 trains during open houses, with changes and operating sessions usually involve every locomotive in the place.  Digitrax actually told me once that the best thing to do is dump the memory now and then.  That's DCS op switch 39 to "c".  We do it ahead of a lot of activity and rarely have a problem.  Digitrax has given us a pain in the posterior now and then, but decided to stay with it rather than switching............due to the very big cost.  We use a DCS-200 with 6 boosters.

Joe Watts
Blissfield Model Railroad Club

At SoCal Free-mo I have been using JMRI Slot Monitor to manage the slots.  Auto purging is turned off, I simply check the number of slots in use every two hours or so, if we are over 60 in use then I clear those not in use.  I little extra work, but allows me to make intelligent decisions and still avoid "Slot Max".

As an NCE guy, it's interesting to listen to the problems people have with their digitrax systems.   NCE is so user friendly and seems to have a fraction of the problems.

~DWF

The answer should be obivious, scrap the Digicrap and awitch to NCE!
cf7

Usual cast of Digitax haters. It never ends.

Anyways, It is true. Digitrax is harder to use and it does require atleast a 4th grade education to understand so it is used correctly. Sorry some of you are struggling so much. My recomeendation is to to read the manual. If you can't read it, then let me know and maybe we can arrange to meet up and I will read it to you over a beer or two.

​Bruce 

brfriedm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Usual cast of Digitax haters. It never ends.


With good reason.

Art,

If u want, u can stop by and I can read u the manual. U would have to bring the beer. Let me know. Thanks Bruce

aehouse Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> brfriedm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Usual cast of Digitax haters. It never ends.
>
>
> With good reason.

brfriedm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Usual cast of Digitax haters. It never ends.
>
> Anyways, It is true. Digitrax is harder to use and
> it does require atleast a 4th grade education to
> understand so it is used correctly. Sorry some of
> you are struggling so much. My recomeendation is
> to to read the manual. If you can't read it, then
> let me know and maybe we can arrange to meet up
> and I will read it to you over a beer or two.
>
> ​Bruce 

There are two strikes against the average Digitrax user: 1st,  the manual was not well written to begin with. 2nd, men start working on the problem, then when all else fails read the manual.

Dear ?,

Manual reads fine to me. U are welcome to come by with Art and I can read the manual to the both of you and answer any of your questions. You would have to bring some more beer also.  If I am not here, there's a kid down the street who is in the 4th grade and he can read the manual and answer your questions but you would have to bring apple juice instead. Let me know.  Thanks Bruce

70ACE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> brfriedm Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Usual cast of Digitax haters. It never ends.
> >
> > Anyways, It is true. Digitrax is harder to use
> and
> > it does require atleast a 4th grade education
> to
> > understand so it is used correctly. Sorry some
> of
> > you are struggling so much. My recomeendation
> is
> > to to read the manual. If you can't read it,
> then
> > let me know and maybe we can arrange to meet up
> > and I will read it to you over a beer or two.
> >
> > ​Bruce 
>
> There are two strikes against the average Digitrax
> user: 1st,  the manual was not well written to
> begin with. 2nd, men start working on the problem,
> then when all else fails read the manual.

brfriedm Wrote:
-
> Manual reads fine to me.


You have to be joking, those manuals have been chock full of spelling and grammatical errors, and they never bother to correct them going on for more than a decade. They are also missing key information such as using loco-exit to directly release addresses from the system. I remember visiting a rather well known layout with digitrax, and there was additional locomotives being used on the layout when the slot=max error came up. All the manual says is to "release addresses from the system" to avoid the error. It doesn't really tell you how to do that. There are many other similar issues with the manuals that I've come across.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

Someone needs to write "Digitrax For Dummies"?

Posted from iPhone

I read it once and it gave me all the answers I needed. I hit "Slot Max" once in my life and that was all. After reading the manual on how to dispatch engines correctly, I never hit it again. That is the problem with folks at clubs. All they want to do is run their RTR engines with their RTR cars around in circles. They never dispatch their engines at the end and all they do is fill up the slots. My layout is bigger then most club layouts. I have guests all the time and I show them how to correctly dispatch an engine which takes all of "2 seconds". Really 2 seconds.  I have shown 4th graders how to do it and they get it on the first try. 

And as Barry Draper spoke, there are some good tools that you can hook up(JMRI and Locochecker) to your Digitrax layout to monitor slot usage and and the ability to release used or static slots. The tools are point and click and take seconds to use.

But, instead of using these "freeware" tools, people just want to whine and moan and complain. They will use their computers all day long, but ask them to use it for a simple task like monitor slots and they will not. and yes, you need a computer interface to loconet to use these tools.

Ted, U keep trashing Digitrax and I will be here to respond, always.  I think all the DCC systems have good and bad aspects. I will not trash NCE even though it has it's warts also. It's just not needed. 

Bruce

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> brfriedm Wrote:
> -
> > Manual reads fine to me.
>
>
> You have to be joking, those manuals have been
> chock full of spelling and grammatical errors, and
> they never bother to correct them going on for
> more than a decade. They are also missing key
> information such as using loco-exit to directly
> release addresses from the system. I remember
> visiting a rather well known layout with digitrax,
> and there was additional locomotives being used on
> the layout when the slot=max error came up. All
> the manual says is to "release addresses from the
> system" to avoid the error. It doesn't really tell
> you how to do that. There are many other similar
> issues with the manuals that I've come across.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/02/16 12:40 by brfriedm.

brfriedm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dear ?,
>
> Manual reads fine to me. U are welcome to come by
> with Art and I can read the manual to the both of
> you and answer any of your questions. You would
> have to bring some more beer also.  If I am not
> here, there's a kid down the street who is in the
> 4th grade and he can read the manual and answer
> your questions but you would have to bring apple
> juice instead. Let me know.  Thanks Bruce
>
>
The Digitrax users who were stymied by the system on the operating session night I mentioned were all college graduates, and one was a professional electrical engineer, AS WELL as all being experienced Digitrax users.  Hardly 4th graders.   Sorry I can't join in the beer, Bruse,  as I've been on the wagon, albeit reluctantly but necessairly, these last 12 years.  I do so miss violating Rule G during home ops sessions, however.

Art

In a thread following this concerning a Genesis SD70-2 with a Tsunami by eminence_grise we hear from Matt about his NCE layout.

"Just a suggestion, what I always do after resetting an engine to CV8 is just lifting one side of the engine off the rails to kill the power to it. For some reason if I turn the power off my NCE system and back on within a couple minutes all my trains will run full power backwards. That's how two of my engines ended up in the turn table pit. Good luck!
Matt"

So NCE may not be without it's faults either. Both are computer based control systems. Computers are your friends......

The release of locos is covered in the Digitrax manuals. For a Zephyr command station/throttle it is loco/exit. For a DT402 it is loco/disp though loco/exit may work there as well.

It is a matter of good housekeeping. When you are done on your own layout or test track or someone else's layout, break up all consists and disp/exit to release all locomotives. Operators are forced to acquire a locomotive and build a consist to start, it seems reasonable they need to back out of the consist and loco addresses when they are done.

Now I am hanging around with more Free-mo operators I am finding they start each set up by clearing the controllers to eliminate the capacity and consist issues. So far the only Dixitrax issues I have seen at setups involve shorts somewhere on a module.

Posted from iPhone