jpendle

Hi, I have around 80 Peco N Gauge Electrofrog turnouts on my layout and the only change that I have made electrically is to solder a dropper wire onto the frog, or an adjacent piece of track, so that I am not relying on blade contact to switch polarity. There's absolutely no need to make the changes recommended for OO points because the flangeways on N Gauge points are proportionately much wider than those on OO Gauge points so there is no real risk of wheels causing shorts when running through points. Regards, John P

Possibly because they spent most of their time off the mainlines where track speeds are lower. Regards, John P

Hi, The CAN Bus cable is just a Cat5E or Cat6E network cable. If you have one of those lying around, give it a try. Regards, John P

Bear in mind that most sound projects have very high values for CV3 and CV4, i.e acceleration and deceleration. This means that locos take a long time to get up to speed and just as long to slow down again, while this may be prototypically accurate, a loco hauling a heavy train may well take minutes to get up to line speed, it can cause problems on a model railway as we typically don't have long enough layouts. It also makes stopping a train accurately very difficult, unless the sound project designer has incorporated an active brake function. Every time you do a factory reset then the sound project will set the values for CV's 3&4 so you'll need to change back to what you prefer. Regards, John P

I think that's an oxymoron 🤔 Surely you do want bells and whistles on your sound equipped loco's? 🙂 But seriously, sound equipped loco's from Bachmann, Dapol, Accurascale, et al, frequently use function keys up to F28, so a simpler 'cheap' controller might not support that. As @Steven B said, it's a very good idea to visit a specialist DCC retailer and try out different systems, they can also advise on which systems would meet your needs. Regards, John P

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

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

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

Or even a Reiver or two, perhaps. But back to pubs, the Strawberry Duck is (in)famously best accessed from Entwhistle station on the Bolton Blackburn line. John P

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

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

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

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

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

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

Perhaps a better term would be a reversing section. There's only one, but it can be used in either direction. Regards, John P

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

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

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

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

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

Ditto

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

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

It's all part of the drive towards 2 factor or Multi-Factor authentication. It's happening everywhere in an effort to stop malicious actors hacking into people's online accounts. My company has had us enter a code received by text for at least 5 years, BUT now even that isn't secure enough, they now insist on a phone call or an Authenticator app on our mobile phones. If EMIS were doing it properly then there should be an alternative to SMS. Regards, John P