fcwilt

Hi, What is an ECoS? When you say "get the thing to do anything" what "thing" are you referring to? Thanks. Frederick

Additional wiring? It looks like the power supply is an optional device. That basic wiring diagram appears the same. Perhaps not. Frederick

I think the issue with the Z21 shutting of power to the layout may not be occurring on my layout as my Z21 is normally also connected via the LAN connection to TrainController software running on my computer. Frederick

Hi, I don't use the app but I do use the Wi-Fi multiMAUS. I have not noticed the timeout issue. How long are you talking about? Are you running the most recent firmware in the Z21? Frederick

Hi, What about the Digikeijs DR410? I would like to think the Digikeijs would make a device that worked with their own product - the DR5088RC. Frederick

What version of DR5000 firmware is needed for using the Z21? Thanks. Frederick

My bad for not reading from the beginning - sorry for that that. I too would conclude that it needs to be replaced - good luck. Frederick

And it is a DR4088LN and not one of the other DR4088 units? Has the device ever worked? Perhaps it is defective. Have you been able to use other LocoNet devices on the Z21? Frederick

Hi, So you have nothing at all connected to the connections 1 through 16 and the two C connections? What is the source of the LocoNet connection? Frederick

I have both the Z21 and the DR5000. The Z21 is somewhat simpler to understand. It can use both the "phone" app and a hardware handheld device like the multiMAUS (both wired and WiFi versions are available). I don't care for "phone" apps in general for controlling my trains. Most of us have to look at the phone to operate the app. The multiMAUS can be worked by "feel". The DR5000 is VERY versatile but the company does not (yet) provide a phone app or a hardware handheld device of their own. You can use other brands of throttles, for example, a Digitrax throttle connected via the LocoNet connection or a multiMAUS (wired) via the XN connection. They ARE working on firmware to emulate a WiFi connection to a Z21. I have not had a chance to test this myself but I have heard that it works. If the new firmware proves to be complete and reliable you would have, in one sense, the best of both. The versatility of the DR5000 with the throttle options of the Z21. I will be testing the new firmware in the next day or so. Frederick

Hi, The manual says this about the red LED: "A useful addition we have made is an LED that indicates when there is activity in a channel. The more channels that are active the brighter the LED lights up. This can be very useful when connecting and testing the module or during troubleshooting" The flashing rate of the green LED determines what state the unit is in and what setting (if any) you are going to change when you send a turnout command via your DCC command station. After applying power to the unit the flash rate is "slow". Pressing the button should change the rate to "faster than slow". At this point sending a turnout command to a given address, via the command station, will set the base address of the unit. The flash rate should change to "faster than before". So if you sent a turnout command to turnout #33 the base address of the unit will set to 33. At this point sending a turnout command to a given address, via the command station, will set the number of active inputs. That flash rate should change back to "slow". So if you sent a turnout command to address 16 all 16 inputs of the unit would be active. With these settings the unit will send status message for addresses 33 to 48 when inputs 1 through 16 sense current flow. If you had additional DR4088 units (NOT LN units) connected to the S88N IN port (on the DR4088LN unit) you would include these inputs when setting the number of active inputs. So if you had two DR4088 units connected and you were going to use all inputs on the DR4088LN unit and the two DR4088 units you would set the number of active inputs to 48 by sending a turnout command to address 48. I've done this many times during testing and have never had a problem. Frederick

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Have you updated to the latest firmware for the DR5000. The most recent addresses some issues with this stuff. I have no idea if it will help with your problem. Frederick

Hi Anthony, What COM ports are used can be effected by what COM ports are available. You can use Windows Device Manager (see Control Panel) to see what COM ports are assigned to what external devices. See the attached screen shot of Device Manager on one of my computers. You can see that COM3 is connected to an Arduino UNO 3. If I had TWO UNO 3 devices connected I would see both listed, each to a different COM port, and I would have to disconnect one of them to see which COM port went to which. Frederick

Since occupancy is being indicated by current flow, at what INSTANT the current is flowing is not really the issue. I use RR-CirKits WatchMan devices and they use a sensing coil that goes around one of the track feeder wires - no connection to the DCC track power at all. And it works just fine regardless of what feeder wire the coil is on or if the track is powered through an "auto-reverse" unit. That is how it should be. Frederick

The "polarity" of the J-K connections should not matter. I cannot understand why they do. Frederick

The Z21 doesn't have (as far as I know as of today) support for the RS bus. I only use my Z21 to run trains and program mobile decoders. All sensing and control issues are via a standalone LocoNet using a variety of RR-CirKits devices. All works well. I have a number of Digikeijs modules and they all work fine with the DR5000. I consider the RS bus support of the DR5000 a work in progress - so I am not upset that I am having problems - but I am only bench testing the DR5000 at this point. The LDT stuff is a little suspect in my mind - odd circuity - at least in the RS-8 units. Frederick

Hi John, Great work. At one point I was intending to design for a friend a "RS to some other protocol" device as the new command station he wanted to use did not support RS but he had numerous RS devices from the previous command station that he still wanted to use. Looks like you are well on the way to making such a device possible. Frederick

I wonder how the first module to respond knows not to respond on the next burst(s)? Do they "learn" what other modules are present and yield to one another in round-robin fashion? Curious. Frederick

Hi John, I may be not seeing things correctly but it looks like the response from the module is stomping on some of the pulse train from the command station. Is that correct? If so how do other modules with higher addresses get their chance? Frederick

Yes two new units, assembled by LDT, both used only with the DR5000, both exhibiting the exact same problem. Frederick

The LDT units were purchased for testing with the DR5000 and were never used with another system. The DR5000 now sees the units after I found that both of the INx connections need to be made for the RS-8 to work. The remaining problem is that the units appear to be defective - the first four sensors always how up in the DR5000 monitor screen as unoccupied and the last four always show up as occupied. I scoped the inputs to the processor chip in the RS-8 and they are getting the correct signals. Somewhere between that chip and the DR5000 the information is getting mangled. Thanks. Frederick

Hi Keith, Given that I have a computer (three actually) at my work bench I was thinking that a Pico as standard equipment on the bench might be nice. In the past I had a HP Logic Analyzer which was much used. So I was thinking about one of the MSO versions of the Pico. Still thinking. I was working today with the DR5000 along with a DR4018 and a DR4024 making sure that they worked as advertised. I noticed that the DR5000 doesn't display the track current very often. I've seen it come up a few times but then it goes back to zero. Any track current displayed on your unit? Thanks. Frederick

There are an amazing number of versions of the Pico brand products - ranging in price from $130 to nearly $30,000. I had no idea this type of device could be so pricey. Interesting. The need for a computer of some sort is not ideal for me but certainly perfectly fine for many, many applications. Frederick

Hi, Well I scoped the inputs of the processor and the correct signals (based on occupancy) are appearing at the inputs. So either something has gone wrong with the processor OR there is still something wrong with the DR5000 implementation of the RS bus. I went ahead and ordered an RS-8 and an RS-16 in kit form. Perhaps these will help find the solution to getting the DR5000 working with the RS bus. I used to have an small electronics R&D firm and we had many Tektronix products. When I closed the company I got rid of all of the gear to schools and such. Years later I wanted a scope again so I got the B model (now discontinued) of this unit: http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/tektronix/oscilloscope/tds2024c.htm Very happy - does a lot more then the old stuff I used to have. Frederick