Z21 and Itrain

[melmerby]

3 hours ago, ITG said:

if that block consists of several pieces of track, it’s good practice to have a dropper on each track piece, but then you’d connect them all together below board to form only a single wire back to the sensor unit.

That is good advice to ensure trouble free running in the future, relying on track joiners is not recommended, although there is at least one poster on RMWeb that insists it is not necessary.

Too many droppers doesn't cause problems but having to add a dropper later to overcome a poor connection is a pain in the *rse.

IMHO Better safe than sorry.

Edited November 21, 2023 by melmerby

[Stevio778]

Yeah I've soldered dropper wires on each piece of track. And I've connected the first pieces of track I've laid to the Bus but haven't connected them to the Bus on the last tracks I've laid and up to now everything is running OK

So are you saying it's best to also solder the yellow (in my case) feedback wires to each piece of track as well. That's the cut rail. So if it's made of 3 pieces of flexitrack then that will be 3 yellow wires?

 

Will it be OK to power the Yamorc YD6016LN-CS off the Bus or to power it separately

Edited November 21, 2023 by Stevio778

[ITG]

The dropper wires and the feedback wires are one and the same thing, where they are in a block. You don’t need a dropper wire in addition to the feedback wire, on any one piece of track. It’s the bus which feeds the detection device. If you have pieces of track (maybe turnouts) which do not have detection (sensors), they too are fed from the bus, but NOT through the sensor. In other words, if using a single sensor unit, the bus will split into (1j the power to the sensor and (2) power to the non-feedback track.

[melmerby]

On 21/11/2023 at 16:37, Stevio778 said:

Will it be OK to power the Yamorc YD6016LN-CS off the Bus or to power it separately

The YD6016 unit gets it's power from the Z21 via the Loconet cable. (It's quite low current)

 

You have to connect the bus wire that is to power the isolated lengths of track into the "C" terminal and out of one of the numbered terminals to each of the tracks you are sensing for occupancy.

Say you want three sections of track to be detected for occupancy, the first would be fed by terminal 1, the second by terminal 2 and so on.

(You dont need to put them in order, it could be 3 -1- 2 or 2-3-1 etc. or even use the outputs in any particular order.)

 

See page 7 of the 6016  info:

YD6016LN-CS.en(1).pdf

 

That's were the current measurement is done to provide the occupancy, the unit doesn't use track current it just senses it.

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by melmerby

[Stevio778]

Thanks for that Keith

So you have to run a Bus wire from one of the C terminals So if you are using terminals 1-8 it would be the C on that side and terminals 9-16 then on the left?

So that C bus wire would have to run around your layout Underneath your baseboard and you would have to run dropper wires form it to the isolated track?

[Stevio778]

I've connected the YD6016LN CS unit to my windows 10 laptop via USB the unit is flashing but no window pops up on my laptop. I was going to update the firmware.

[WIMorrison]

have you  followed the instructions on the link I provided earlier?

 

YaMoRC YD6016LN-CS Current Sensor

 

 

[Stevio778]

Yeah I've looked at the manual but it doesn't seem to say much about it and I've looked at one or two of James'd vids but He doesn't really go into much.

I expexted a wondow to pop up when I connected the unit to the laptop

Thanks

[WIMorrison]

what about downloading the software that is also in the links I posted?

[Stevio778]

Yeah I can do that. So clicking on the EXE would automatically updated it to the unit would it when it's connected to the laptop?

 

[WIMorrison]

No, he exe file is a program that you install onto your PC, open it once installed and use the program to configure (and update) the device.

[Stevio778]

OK but how do I get the YD6016 to display so I can configure the feedbacks?

[WIMorrison]

1) download software

2) install software

3) connect YD6016xx to PC

4) open software and confirm connection to YD6016

5) configure software using app

[Stevio778]

Thanks Iain that worked a treat! What a team 🙂

Edited November 22, 2023 by Stevio778

[ITG]

2 hours ago, Stevio778 said:

So that C bus wire would have to run around your layout Underneath your baseboard and you would have to run dropper wires form it to the isolated track?

Only the droppers which link to the non-detected track sections (eg turnouts) direct connect between bus and rails. The other droppers connect respectively to the numbered terminals on the side YD6016.

[Stevio778]

Thanks ITG.  I was told that the wire from the C terminal goes to the same rail as one of the wires from the numbered terminals 1-16 to the cut or isolated rail?

[WIMorrison]

May I strongly suggest that you look at the manual for the YD6016LN where it has some very clear images showing how to wire it up. The image remove any confusion caused by misinterpretation of words that are typed here.

[Stevio778]

Hi Iain I've had a look at it a few times and the diagram on pg7 shows the red wire coming from the C terminal to the track but the track is cut so the connection on the other sections wouldn't recieve anything from the red wire after that

[WIMorrison]

Please look at the diagram properly - it doesn't show what you suggest at all.

 

The RED wire goes from the command station to the C terminals of the YD6016LN and the monitored track is fed by the GREEN wires. The unmonitored track which is NOT being fed from the YD6016LN e.g. the turnouts are also fed by the RED wire, as well as the YD6016LN.

 

[melmerby]

For Clarity

Where the YD7100 is shown, substitute the Z21 using the same output connectors. (L Bus = Loconet, Main Track = Track Bus)

i.e. Loconet cable from Z21 to YD6016. Track output Red & Brown wires.

 

(N.B. a Loconet cable is 6 wires, an Ethernet cable mentioned earlier is 8 wires, they are not compatible with each other.)

[Stevio778]

Thanks Iain and Thanks for that Keith that's a good help I thought I needed to buy a command station then lol

So I have my track powered all the way around by the Bus wires coming from my Z21 so all I need to do now is connect just one wire to the cut/isolated feedback rail (which in my case is the Yellow wire) from the numbered terminals on the YD 6016. (Also like you said I could connect a yellow wire to all of the sections of track in that block and join them to just that one wire going to the numbered terminals.

[ITG]

18 minutes ago, Stevio778 said:

So I have my track powered all the way around by the Bus wires coming from my Z21

I don’t know whether something is being lost in descriptive terminology, but you certainly shouldn’t have your track powered all the way round  by wires directly from the Z21. Only the unmonitored sections should be connected that way. Every section (ie inside two rail breaks) where you want to detect trains should have a ‘yellow’ wire, each one being connected to a numbered terminal on the YD6016.

have you studied the diagram posted by @WIMorrison?

[Stevio778]

Hi ITG  I've been led to believe that every piece of track should be connected to the Bus wire so you are not relying on the fishplates/track joiners to pass the current along?

So if I've got 5 pieces of flexitrack then all 5 should be independantly powered from the bus?

[ITG]

23 minutes ago, Stevio778 said:

Hi ITG  I've been led to believe that every piece of track should be connected to the Bus wire so you are not relying on the fishplates/track joiners to pass the current along?

So if I've got 5 pieces of flexitrack then all 5 should be independantly powered from the bus?

Yes, but there is a difference between (1) track sections which are being monitored- these only connect to the bus by going through a numbered contact on the YD6016 and(2) unmonitored track which connects to the bus itself.

[Stevio778]

Right so are you saying you don't have a dropper wire going to the isolated track that is connected to the general bus wire it just goes to the continuous rail. But you have a Yellow wire instead going to the YD6016