jpendle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I think these are both covered under the DCC ready heading. Firstly there's no way you'll get a manufacturer to limit the number of functions on a loco just to suit all DCC decoders, just look at Revolution ploughing ahead with the new ESU E24 standard decoders on their CL59 and CL66 locos. Secondly, users will nearly always want to map functions to suit themselves rather than go with what's plug and play. e.g Dapol N Gauge locos with Next18 sockets have the front lights connected to Function outputs 0 and the rear lights connected to Function outputs 1 & 2, some will want to map two Functions, one for front and one for rear lights, and some may want it to work like their 6 pin fitted models and map just one function to control all the lights, etc. And as an aside I've accidentally got some straight speed curves on some of my Zimo equipped locos which I know is what @melmerby is after. But that's for another topic. Regards, John P

That's because some of the Roco kit is a tad expensive and not necessarily the best. I've got a Z21 & Roco 10808 Railcom block detectors, but I opted for NCE Switch 8's as they were best suited for my Tortoise point motors, I've also gone for the Yamorc YD8116 switch controller for signals as it is more flexible than the Roco equivalent. Moving forward I plan on using MTB point motors with the YD8116. FWIW the NCE products don't work if a Railcom signal is on the bus so I ended up turning Railcom off on the booster for my accessory bus. And, for the OP, if block detection is being used then Railcom adds a lot of benefits and US designed kit tends not to support Railcom. Regards, John P

DCC Train Automation also sell DCC systems from Roco, the Z21 which I use, plus others. It would be best to tell them what you want to accomplish and let them guide you. Regards, John P

I use Klein tools wire strippers here in the US. They are more expensive than the Minotaur tools but they are designed for small gauge wire. I would classify the wire strippers that you can ge from Tool Station et al. as electrician's tools. For fine DCC wiring you need electronics technician's tools, available from places like Farnell & RS Components. Regards, John P

Please don't do that! Sell the UQ, and use that money plus the money you save on buying a transformer and get yourself a Gaugemaster Q instead. Regards, John P

Gaugemaster sell 2 suitable transformers. https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/gaugemaster-gmc-uq.html John P

@APOLLO Howfener here 😀 Everyone else, don’t ask. Pick up the old GC alignment north of Glazebrook Jc, get on the Whelley loop at Amberswood all the way to Standish Jc. Put the freight on that and the rest on the WCML through Wigan NW, or stick the HS2 traffic on it instead. Of course tunnelling is out of the question in that neck of the woods. John P

It should look like this Regards, John P

This is because the default use model is to use the supplied TP-Link router, rather than connect to your home network. The TP-Link router cannot act as a DHCP server so the Z21 needs a static ip address that is in the same subnet as the static ip address on the TP-Link router. Regards, John P

Hi, A final update. I spent an hour or so experimenting with CV's58,113,&10 on my Zimo equipped locos but could not find anything that worked the same as CV53 on the ESU decoders. As far as I can tell there are lots of ways to get a loco to run slower with Zimo, but none to get them to run faster. Oh well. John P

If you use Tortoise/NCE Switch 8, or MTB MP1/Yamorc YD8116 then it's 5 wires per point motor. But what you seem to be saying is that the 135 wires required is far too many for you to consider, is that right? You can eliminate the frog polarity wiring by keeping your point blades scrupulously clean, so now you would be down to 52 wires. Is that still too many? But don't forget that, if you are using DCC, then you'll probably have a couple of dozen wire pair droppers to connect to your track bus as well. Regards, John P

Hi, I don't think it is. Here's what ESU say 11.1.2.3. Reference Voltage In CV 53, you set the EMF reference voltage generated by the motor at maximum revs. This parameter may have to be adapted subject to the track voltage and the efficiency of the motor. And Zimo CV # 57 specifies the base voltage used for motor regulation. For example: if 14V is selected (CV value: 140) the decoder tries to send the exact fraction of this voltage, determined by the speed regulator position, to the motor, regardless of the voltage level at the track. As a result the speed remains constant even if the track voltage fluctuates, provided the track voltage (more precisely, the rectified and processed voltage inside the decoder, which is about 2V lower) doesn’t fall below the absolute reference voltage. So CV53 on an ESU decoder is setting a maximum BEMF voltage reference, CV57 on Zimo decoders is setting a fixed maximum voltage to be applied to the motor. And, empirically, increasing the value in CV53 on an ESU decoder which has been reset to factory defaults increases the speed of the loco. Changing CV57 on a Zimo decoder makes no difference to the loco speed, unless you set a very low value, such as 30, in which case the loco will run slower. All the Zimo equipped locos that I have profiled run just as fast even if CV57 is set to 90 rather than 140. There are lots of other CV's that mess with the BEMF settings on Zimo decoders, CV58 might be a good candidate, I've got plenty more locos to profile, so I have a play with that one next time. Regards, John P

Aaarrggghhhhh!!!!!!! Or lost in translation. My ESU equipped CL90 90047 was running at 75mph max. I tried the ESU autotune and then it wouldn't run faster than 50mph. Read the fine print "sometimes auto tune can make things worse". Reset to factory defaults and set the address and CV29 to use a 3 point speed curve. Running at 75mph again. But this got me reading about the various motor tuning CV's. Specifically CV53, where the CV table in the manual says that if the loco doesn't run fast enough DECREASE the value. Tried that, it goes slower! Tried INCREASING the value in CV53 and it goes faster. On reading the actual manual page for CV53 it says INCREASING the value for CV53 will make the loco go faster. So at least the ESU manual is correct 50% of the time 😁 Now it'd be nice to find out if there's an equivalent CV in Zimo decoders. Regards, John P