PECO (ANE) decoder and Smartswitch not working

[whart57]

I have just bought a PLS-135 stationery decoder to drive a Smartswitch unit I already have and I can't get it to work.

 

I gather the Smartswitch units are badged ANE units, but that doesn't help me much. However it does appear that the unit I have doesn't quite match the picture in the Smartswitch manual.

 

I have four PECO servos attached to the control board. The programming board is attached and shows "-h" on the LED display. Two of the servos have toggle switches attached and they operate when the switches are thrown. One servo also has indicator LEDs fitted to the connectors on the control unit and the LEDs switch over as they should when the toggle switch is thrown.

 

I am fairly confident then that the servos and control board are working properly.

 

The PLS-135 (ANE AP004) decoder too appears to work as well. The green LED turns on when the track bus is connected, the LED flashes when the push button switch on the unit is pressed and stops flashing when I send an instruction from the DCC handset. My DCC set up is a Gaugemaster Prodigy Advance system.

 

I followed the instructions in the instruction manual to set the decoder address to 104 - i.e. addresses 101-104 for servos 1-4. However no servo operates in response to a DCC command. Nor do the LEDs attached to one output operate either.

 

However if I use a digital voltmeter to measure the voltage between common and DCC input - on either the control board or the decoder board - then the output does toggle between 5v and 0v in response to DCC commands.

 

Incidentally, it appears that the output connectors on the decoder board are the reverse from that shown in the manual, and there are no markings on the board. A final point, the ANE board is marked as being V3B. I don't know if that is significant.

 

Any ideas?

[Brian]

Just to be 100% clear ...

1) On the PA you select Accessory button then enter the required accessory number, say 104, then press the Enter key.  Then you select 1 or 2 depending on which way the servo is to move. Is that correct or do you do something else?   

 

 

[whart57]

That is indeed what I do, and it works with every other accessory decoder I have tried.

[JimFin]

Have a look at p15 and p13 of the manual, ( p15 says refer to p14 - but that is a typo, its p13 you need) I think you need to set them to toggle mode which is "h" not "-h"

[whart57]

"-h" is the display when you come out of programming and into what they call Default/Save mode, in other words normal operation. The alternative is "-n" which is push button operation.