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jpendle

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Everything posted by jpendle

  1. I’ve been biding my time on these, but this post got me looking online again. Rails seem to have sold out of the Northern ones and Kernow had fewer than 4 of each type in stock. So out came the credit card for a bit of panic buying and 2 sound fitted ones will be winging their way to Colorado very soon. Regards, John P
  2. What do you mean, I'd have thought that the headlights on an HST are either on or off, in what (other) way are the outputs not correct? Regards, John P
  3. I agree with Iain that looks fine to me and a better test would be with some locos running and providing a load for the Z21 to deal with. Regards, John P
  4. Ahh! In the electronics industry design engineers will have boards built to see if the 'corners' work, i.e fast memory/slow cpu, fast-fast, slow-slow etc. Hence my use of the term corner case. But we're talking about the same thing 😀 Regards, John P
  5. Hi, I have had similar issues with my Z21 and iPhone. It seems to happen most often if I have the Z21 and router switched on and then I walk out of range with my iPhone connected to the Z21, when I walk back in range the App on the iPhone won't connect to the Z21 and I get the 'network error'. If I cycle power on the router and the Z21 that sometimes fixes the issue. This happened quite often starting about 4 years ago, but happens far less frequently nowadays. What version of the App are you using and what version of Z21 firmware is loaded? Later versions may have attempted to fix this issue. Unfortunately it's what is know in the industry as a "corner case", the vast majority of uses will never see the issue but a few will, it also means that it's difficult to work out what the root cause may be. There's almost certainly nothing wrong with your settings. I wouldn't give up on the Z21 just yet. Regards, John P
  6. I know nothing about the insulfrog version but on the Electrofrog slips there are wires attached to the frogs ands the outer rails to allow you to power them up. Regards, John P
  7. The number of functions supported on an 8 pin sound decoder depends on the decoder. This one, for example, https://www.digitrains.co.uk/shop-by-brand/zimo/sound-decoders/8-pin/zimo-sound-decoder.html has 10 function outputs. Regards, John P
  8. There's definitely a balance to be struck. There's at least one layout that I'm familiar with that looks like a dogs dinner ........ ...... after the dog's thrown up! John P
  9. The polarity of the track in the reversing section has nothing to do with the position of the points at either end. The reversing section must be electrically isolated from the rest of the layout, its polarity is controlled by the frog juicers/reverse loop module and nothing else. The polarity of the reverse section will change when a loco either enters or leaves the reversing section. Regards, John P
  10. Perhaps a better term would be a reversing section. There's only one, but it can be used in either direction. Regards, John P
  11. They are effectively the same thing, 2 frog juicers = 1 reverse loop module. Both detect short circuits as the loco enters either the reverse lop or the frog and then switch the track polarity as needed. Because a reverse loop module changes the polarity on 2 tracks at a time you wouldn't want to use it as a frog juicer, but because frog juicers only deal with one track there's nothing stopping you using 2 of them for a reverse loop module. I used a Tam Valley 6 way Frog Juicer on my last layout to switch polarity on the 4 frogs of 2 crossovers, I used the last 2 outputs to deal with the reverse loop. Yes the first one with the point NOT in the reverse loop. Regards, John P
  12. The top diagram just has one reverse loop. If you remove the track crossing from bottom left tp top right you are left with a double track line running through two station areas, plus what looks like lower level storage sidings. Regards, John P
  13. Two frog juicers will work without issue for a reverse loop, that's what I did on my previous layout. I would recommend a solid state juicer, such as the one's from Tam Valley, rather than a relay based one, such as the Gaugemaster Autofrog. Solid state juicers are much faster. As regards the yard, it depends. Remember that the reverse section with the juicers has to be as long as your longest train, so that rolling stock with pickups don't cause problems. So IF your longest train will fit in either section from the point to the main layout then you just need one juicer in that section, if you trains won't fit then you'll need to have a re-think about how the yard is arranged. Regards, John P
  14. Which part of did you not understand? I couldn't care less whether people use Lais decoders or not, but why you insist on demanding evidence rather than taking forum members at their word is beyond me. Regards, John P
  15. You wouldn't in the UK. In the USA it's a different matter. ( I don't have any details so I'll not say more) Regards, John P
  16. Are you aware that the Multimaus handset can be used with the z21? Try connecting the Multimaus to the z21 and test the loco/decoder that way, that would eliminate the handset itself as being the issue and narrow things down to either the power brick or the amplifier. Regards, John P
  17. As I understand it, they are routed like that to avoid the steep gradient from Man Vic to Miles Platting. They use the direct route through Victoria and the Atherton lines with the empties. Regards, John P
  18. That's because the only other colour available back then was yellow. The Blue LED was demonstrated in 1972 but it wasn't until 1989 that a useful Blue LED was made. Regards, John P
  19. That's easy using the Z21 app on an Android or iPhone. But the lack of buttons would be an issue for the OP. John P
  20. The biggest and perhaps only complaint I have about the app is that it's meant to be intuitive and as a result there are no instructions. I just take photos of my locos when they arrive and I'm programming them for the first time, but it helps that the Z21 was the first system that I bought. And if you haven't already played around with the Normal/Differential steering control in the app settings you should. I always have mine set to differential so I don't need to look at my phone while driving to see what position the slider is in. Regards, John P
  21. No it couldn't. The Hornby switch is a Single Pole switch, the Tortoise needs a Double Pole switch (actually a Double Pole Double Throw Switch). Regards, John P
  22. The orange light means that you're not connected to the Internet. That's normal, you shouldn't be connected to the Internet. I've never adjusted the other 2. You would only need to alter the short circuit response time if your Z21 were tripping before a short circuit device attached to your bus tripped. The B Bus stuff is only relevant if you have a separate booster attached to the B-Bus. Regards, John P
  23. DCC Ready means that it's easy to fit a DCC decoder of your choice, it's then up to you to make it work. DCC Fitted would mean that there is a decoder fitted which operates all the functions as the manufacturer intended, but then you have to settle for the manufacturer's choice of decoder. By far the most plug and playable decoders are the 6 pin decoders that were commonly used in N Gauge models. Plug it in and the loco is ready to run with both head and tail lights controlled by F0. But that means you have locos running around hauling trains with their tail lights on, which is not prototypical. So N Gauge has moved to Next18 which allows independent control of the lights, but then Dapol and Farish decide to do things differently. Dapol wire the lights at the front of the loco to FO0 and the lights at the back to FO1&2, so using F0,F1,&F2 as user can control the lights straight out of the box, unless they are using a US designed DCC system which has no flexibility as to whether F2 is latching or not. So you get people complaining that the lights don't work when they press F0 and/or that F2 doesn't latch on their system. Farish wire the lights so that F0 turns on all the lights, just like on a 6 pin decoder, then they use a transistor as a switch so that when either Aux1 or Aux2 are ON it turns OFF the lights at one end or the other. I can fit any Next18 decoder I like to either of them but that same decoder will have to be set up differently depending on which manufacturer made that loco. The point is that you are viewing the DCC standard as if it had been written in the past 5 years, whereas it's a good 35 years old. As a result VERY FEW of the features that a modern DCC loco or decoder may support are actually detailed in the standards. The classic example is Railcom which is supported by virtually all European manufacturers, but has NOT been adopted by many of the US DCC system manufacturers. So, I'm afraid that you're looking for standards that don't exist, and as a result the freedom to put any decoder in any loco comes at the cost of having to do some CV programming IF you want to do more than just drive your locos backwards and forwards. Regards, John P
  24. Hi, You're multimeter reading is incorrect. Because of the nature of the DCC signal cheap multimeters can't measure the voltage accurately. From memory the Z21 track bus is set to 18V by default. As Iain says use the Z21 App on your phone to check the track voltage (Settings/ Z21 Settings). FWIW I just increased the track voltage on mine to 20V as some of my Zimo equipped locos weren't running fast enough (I'm running modern electrics and fast intermodals). Zimo decoders are rated to 36V MAX but obviously you wouldn't want your track voltage that high. Regards, John P
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