DS64 & DAC20 ROUTE SELECTION ADVICE/HELP

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Firstly, let me say that I know VERY little about DCC or electronics in general.

 

I have just built a DCC powered (DIGITRAX) 26ft x 10ft exhibition layout with an 18 road fiddle yard and four tracks leading out of the fiddle yard. 

 

Some of the points are controlled by DS64's and some by CML DAC20's.

 

I have gone DCC and Digitrax on the advice of a long term friend who favours DIGITRAX - so far so good.

 

However, the plan is/was to use route selection rather than individual point control - and herein lies the problem.

 

I have put all my eggs in one basket - only my friend knows anything about the route selection process. I know it's not MERG based.

 

Now due to unforeseen circumstances my friend may not be in a position to write/programme the route selection and we have an exhibition looming.

 

I no less than nothing about the subject and yet I want a PLAN B, a fall-back plan .

 

Could anyone offer advice/help - maybe a PM would be better than a discussion within this thread. This is a very delicate matter as on the one hand my operating team are demanding I get the route selection in place before our first exhibition and on the other hand I have no wish to annoy/alienate my friend.

 

Thank you for reading this

 

 

 

 

[Nigelcliffe]

Route selection depends on the Digitrax system you own.   If its a chief system there is some.   If its a Zephyr or Empire then its not present within the command station.   

Alternatively, the layout decoders have the ability to do routes if programmed to do it.  But that programming is a fair bit of work, needs a computer and computer interface. 

 

If its a Chief system, then the Chief manual should help you - it doesn't look too difficult to setup within the system.  

 

 

Fall back - depending on the time available, I'd be looking for a solution which doesn't involve operators punching stuff into handsets.  So I'd look at a CML DTM30 input device and a physical control panel (with push buttons labelled for each "route"), or computer/tablet screens with the track diagram and routes on it.

[Vonzack]

One of the easiest ways I've found to run our Exhibition Layout is to use a laptop and the free JMRI Software to talk to our Digitrax Command Station.

 

Setting routes on JMRI is very simple and you can then either action them from the defined list, or create a Panel with appropriate buttons.

 

The main benefit of us using JMRI though, is that we can pre-allocate throttles for all of the loco's in the Fiddle Yard at the start of the day, so there's no Acquiring and Despatching of loco addresses to be done for your operators. They just run through the list of loco's until they find the one they are wanting to run and open the throttle, it may take a few attempts to get used to the JMRI Throttle, but it really is quite handy for shows where you need to keep things moving.

 

Any shunting at the front is then done on a Digitrax hand throttle.

 

Cheers, Mark.