eveningstar1

Thanks Neil. I am grateful to you for putting the instructions on line as I have at last got round to trying the use the jig, but had lost the instructions, so thanks! Jonathan Dorey

*bit more hopeful

Thanks Paul/Andy, I am currently working hard at trying to understand how to get the schedules working, up to today, but am getting a bit tied up at the moment with other things, (grandson!) Lots to do, but looking a bit more helpful. Thanks to you both. Jonathan

Hi Guys, I am back in the railway room......and I think I have had some success! Last night when I couldnt sleep I was thinking through the options of going forward with getting Train Controller going for me. And the question came into my mind, am I sure that the BDL168 one is working properly in the hardware? I dont know why I didnt think of that before, I just assumed all would be well. So I have switched my attention to BDL168 No2. I put a loco on the other side of the layout , and low and behold the Train controller block went pink!!!😀 And also, for some reason the first BDL168.7 also went pink when I tested putting another loco on the block that I had been using to test. So todays jobs for me are to concentrate on the bdls and wiring, (as you recommended ), before I go anywhere near schedules etc. Look forward to the Pm when you are able to send it. I do hope that this missive will help other people who have the same problems, it cant just be me! Cheers everybody. Jonathan

Hi, Further to the above, I have now been able to see if I can get any further. Firstly I had to close down JMRI Loconet Monitor, but before I did this I checked if I could click the active and disable buttons on the Loconet monitor, and watched to see if there were any red flashes on the BDL168s. Yes, sure enough both 168s flashed red when I clicked the LS1 active and LS2 active on JMRI. So I assume that I have a signal going to the board. Now, having labelled the four groups of pins on the BDL168 LED ports(A<B<C<D, I checked with my wiring notes, and found that I think my wiring to the test section uses B3. (It is not easy to see this in the digitrax manual as the LED 8 pins are not labelled with numbers, but I have done this on trial and error). So using the method we discussed above, this should give me TC box 1=1, and TCBox 2( NOte I have changed the previous102 to no 2),= 7(ie B3). (ie (4A+3B=7). So this is my work for the afternoon today!. I did try a quick Tc test on one section that I had labelled 1.7. I dont know how to set up schedules yet, and tried a spontenous run, and nothing happened. So I fiddled and then suddenly the loco went off, but then on the other side slowed down and stopped!. Then I had a major problem.....I moved some wires, trying to get to the BDL168, and the whole layout stopped and the PM42 went mad!. So I am giving it a rest today, until I can work out what went wrong. I may have a problem as I have over 100 points and sections, but fingers crossed, with the notes that I made, I hope I will be able to sort it soon, and then come back to you about Train Controller. Thats enough for today. Thanks for your help again I will try again tomorrow if I can. Jonathan I

Good Morning, (in the UK) I am in the Railway Room, and am working on what you have said. I thought that the first thing that I should do was to reset the second BDL168 to factory settings, to start again. I found an older post of yours Andy, which said reset it using ops switch to 40, which I have done. I then ran JMRI/Panel Pro /Loco Monitor, and attach the reply as a screenshot. (Incidentally I am only using two of the three BDL168s that I have.) Does this give you any more information? I will attempt to answer the points/questions that you made in your emails, to give you an update. I will start with Paul's You’ve done board addressing, so that’s my first question answered.👍 If you can control trains from Traincontroller that implies the Loconet connection to the layout is working.👍 Comparing the BDL168 manual with your annotated picture of the BDL you have your LT5 outputs (to the monitor LEDs) ‘arranged’ differently, only your A is correct. 😐Noted and relettered on my boards That affects the input number used - what you are calling B1 (=5) is actually C1 (=9). Noted. Things you could try as fault finding are: When you occupy a detection section, do you get a Loconet packet flash (red option LED blinks) on one of the other BDL168s? (Shows the BDL under test is transmitting.) When I place a loco on the block section, I get a short red flash from both the BDL168s, and then it goes off. When I take the loco off, then the LED on the BDL168 takes about 4 seconds to go out. Personally, I do this with a test resistor so that I don’t get speed control packets at the same time to confuse matters. A coach with lighting would work, roll it on and off the relevant section. In Traincontroller you could set up 16 test indicators (not as part of block sections) and allocate one to each output on the BDL and use them to see if you get any output working when you occupy a section. Thanks for the suggestion. Finally, have you come across JMRI? Thanks for this. I knew of JMRI, but hadnt tried it, so have now done so, and will forward you both the screenshots. Even though I know what I’m doing (allegedly) I have sometimes been confused about whether loconet and Traincontroller are talking properly. The loconet monitor function means I can see exactly what packets are floating about on the system and thus whether to problem is at the layout end or within Traincontroller. (It’s also good for programming decoders and setting/checking addresses on boards.) Paul. Paul's No2. BDLs are talking to loconet. Good!👍 As Andymsa says, it looks like your problem is BDL board numbers. Noted Rather than worry about board numbers in TC, now that JMRI is giving you the LS number you can use that in TC.🤔 The “Digital System”🤔??drop down has another Loconet option (I think it is 1 up from the bottom, above offline and mentions Uhlenbrock - doing this from memory as I’m not near my PC!). If you select that it will change from “Board” + “Input” to a single box “Input” put the LS number in that box and and that input will operate that contact indicator in TC. (To see how it works, look at the line starting Sensor LS39: BDL16 (or 168) board 3 DS7 (= detection section 7 or B3). Note that (3-1) x 16 + 7 = 39. The rest of the line is just the equivalent for 8 bit boards DS64 etc board 5 I/p 7 so (5-1) x 8 + 7 = 39. I attach a screenshot below of what I have got on my screen🤔 I assume you only have a single pc/loconet interface, so like me it’s JMRI or TC but not both together. Yes....I have found that I cant have TC running from this computer and JMRI at the same time, so for the moment TC is not running. When we think that TC might work, I will stop JMRI and fire up TC. (I think?!) Best way to do it is to make a list of all your detection sections, open JMRI then occupy each in turn and note the relevant LS number (or BDL16/DS number), then close JMRI and open TC and input the numbers for each of your sections. Thanks. I actually have three BDL168s, but I have disconnected one, so we only have two active at the moment. I’m hopeful that it will work as you want it after that. 🙂 Paul Now Andy's Members 1.2k Posted yesterday at 09:23 Having read through your question several times and looking at your diagram that there are differences between them. You have rightly described the logic of the 4 zones A B C D but in your diagram you have put B 1-4 as 5-6. Which should be 5-8. But I would forget saying B1-4 as this confuses things. Noted so let’s go back to basics, board ID is 1 noted and each of the zones is A =1-4 B=5-8 C=9-12 D=13-16 yes, noted. My mistake in my original request above. Trying not to suck eggs here but I’m not assuming the board is wired correctly so will recap that also for zone A/B of the board. I think?? that it is wired correctly, but wouldn't suprise me if there is an issue with wiring, as I have hundreds of wires ! However seems so far so good. I am using an Acculites breakout board, so dont have the problem with the edge connnector. There is one power in for each A,B,C,D, which I assume is done like that so you can link to the 4xpower districts of a PM42, which I have. The other wired all the outputs to one side of the track, (all the same side), and all sections, whether block or otherwise are double insulated , (like we used to do to give us a switched section in DC.) I have done a screen shot of the Acculites board in case you dont have on so you know what I am talking about. Pin 1 is dcc track power input zone A...I assume that on the acculites board this is the Power A input. pins 2-5 are the track feeds I assume that these are the outputs from the BDL168 on the Acculites board A1-4, through to D1-4. pin 6 is dcc track power input zone B pins 7-10 are track feeds so going forward Zone A/pin 2 would be inputed in TC as box 1 = 1 box 2 =1 So this is where I need to concentrate! The crux of the matter is to get the DC168 to talk to the TC correctly. So Zone A/pin 2 would be TC Box 1= 1 because the BDL168 board has been assigned no 1 by the DT400, and pin 2 on the board , (or output A1 on the Acculites breakout board), which actually is used for TCs second box. so it would be TC box 1= 1, and TC box 2= 1. as you say. I cant try this yet as I cant get onto TC if I am using JMRI, (but will do so when I have sent you this note), but one of the confusing things for me, seems to have been the fact that TC relates to the second pin output on the BDL168 board as number 1, and it is actually pin 2 on the board. so going forward Zone B/pin 6 would be inputed in TC as box 1= 1 box 2= 5. Thanks ..thats helpful. Ie I tried to keep it simple as I can but it can get confusing as the actual pin outs of the bdl are not what you input in TC Much appreciated!! i will also add you have added the board common wire back to the command station as strange things can occur if not done. As far as I know it is all OK, but will bear this in mind. Andy Note 2 and comment to Paul paul i can see what your suggesting but feel it’s a bit overcomplicating for the poor chap.😉 Surely it just a simple matter of just changing the board address in TC to 102, but I’m a bit more interested why the OP didn’t realise it was 102 and thought it was 1. This would suggest that the programming of the bdl board was not done correctly and if this was the case it could occur again causing even bigger issues. I can guess why the address error occurred, also one thing that’s not been asked has the bdl option switches been looked at, especially if the bdl was brought second hand, no it was new, , but even new on occasion I have found the odd one slightly different. Glad to hear its not just me! The manual also has errors as to the default settings that can be set.🤪 As a side note personally I wouldn’t use 1 as a starting address, also it is good practice to keep written records of things ie a simple track plan showing what output section relates to each track section with the address of the board ect, this is especially important if you have a large amount of boards (54 In my case) Noted . Many thanks, and will do. So Thanks again guys. Very much appreciated. I will now , after coffee!, close down JMRI and try and see if I can put the correct numbers into TC. I will report back. Cheers Jonathan

Hi Guys, Thanks for taking more time to help me out. I appreciate all your comments. I hope to be able to read and inwardly digest what you are both recommending, today, and will report back to you. I will try and change the second board address to number 2, (which I should have done anyway!). I will give you a screen dump if I can for your further thoughts. All your comments are helpful. Will be back as soon as I can Cheers Jonathan

Hi, I have had time to try and sort out a bit more today. Thanks. I have downloaded jmri and have tried to get it going. Many thanks for the help on that. I have got the following response. (Photo attached). Does it mean anything to you?!!! I cant work our whether the BDL168s are healthy or not! Are the BDL168s talking to my Train controller computer ok? Jonathan 2076066142_TCtoBDL168 (2).pdf

Just to say very many thanks to Paul 5BarVT, and Andymsa for taking the trouble to reply. I will spend time on this in the next few days and report back. All replies and any further ones are very gratefully received. Cheers Jonathan Jonathan Dorey Poole UK dorset.surveyors@gmail.com home.jrtd@gmail.com

Hi I have been tearing my hair out trying to get Train controller to work with BDL168s in blocks. Now I realise that everyone else gets on fine with this, but I am thinking life is far too short to spend the rest of it trying to work out why Train Controller will not seem to work with blocks and my BDL168s . 1. The problem I have TC9, with Digitrax system, using DCS51 and three BDL168s. When I physically put a loco on the track designed and insulated as a block , the LED supplied with the BDL168 lights up on one of the leds. So I assume that the BDL168 can see the loco on my physical block. As you will know the BDL168s are arranged for 16 sections and arranged as 4 blocks of 4. They are called A,B,C,D for each block of 4. So my block with its loco on my light up say light B1, (or counting from A, it might be no 5, being the fifth pin from A1). Now my logic says that when we go to Train Controller it has two boxes in each block ttat need to be filled with numbers to identify the BDL contact for the block on the layout. So my block as B1, or 5th in should be in BOX 1....Number 1 as the first BD:168 in my layout, (which I have assigned to BDL1 through pressing one of the buttons on the BDL168 and using the DT400 and switch position to give the board a number 1. Then I go to Train Controller which has two empty boxes that need filling so I give the first the number 1 for the BDL168 board, and tthe second box say 5 for the fifth contact on my board which is tte block I am trying to define. 2. Having done this...I would expect the Train Controller block on the diagram to go pink and identify that there us a loco on the block. But this doesnt happen.....agggh! 3. I can get an engine assigned to an engine speedometer on TC and use the mouse to start the power on it, and the loco moves, anywhere on the layout, including the block I am working on, but the TC block does not go pink. Please can someone tell me how I should get TC to talk to the BDL168 so the block goes pink so I can use the automatic features etc. I have done a basic graphic in case it is helpful Many thanks Jonathan Jonathan Dorey home.jrtd@gmail.com TC to BDL 168.pdf