WIMorrison

@RFS I wasn’t focusing on anything, I am simply saying that the issue that you focus on and say is a problem, is not a problem that myself or the many others who do not go to the lengths you and Keith recommend causing any operational issues. I therefore concluded and stated that it is a theoretical issue and not a practical one.

I think that your observations are more related to the technology which you were using at the time rather than the technology which is use now. the YD6016 is sensitive to 1mA current draw and the voltage drop seen is not as suggest by the Litfinski document, hence it having no effect on performance- even with very slow trains. however if money, time and desire permits or demands there nothing wrong with putting feedbacks on turnouts.

Keith I hear what you say and I know the theory but the practice suggest that the theory has no appreciable difference to the performance when it is ignored. i have turnouts with and without feedback and there is zero difference in the loco performance. I would say that 90% of the layouts I help out do not have feedbacks on turnouts and they are fed directly from the DCC bus and not one operator sees any performance hit as a result of the voltage difference between the turnout feeds from the DCC bus and track feeds from the feedback units.

@BR Blue If you, or anyone else, is coming to Warley then we can have a chat at Stand E53 where I will have Kaninchenbau running as part of the 009 Society 50th Anniversary display of narrow gauge layouts - there will be some simply outstanding layouts on display, well worth leaving the standard gauge offerings to see what can be achieved with narrow gauge 😊

As long as the wire between the YD6016 is heavy enough. I recommend 16/02 wire for track connections

All droppers for the feedback side of the track MUST be fed via the YD6016. You cannot connect any of the feedback side of the track to the DCC bus - but you can connect the turnouts directly to the DCC bus as you as they will be isolated from the feedbacks. You cannot have any turnouts within the block feedbacks.

Excellent, that will all work. as has been said you feed the isolated side of the track from the YD6016 and the other side of the track is used as the return for all the feedbacks. You must be consistent and always have the feedback on the same side of the track, and isolate the turnouts in the same way. You can place a feedback on the turnouts, but it really isn’t required. You connect the digitrax to the iTrain computer using Loconet USB.

Question - what feedback detection modules are you planning to use that need the wire passed through them? Also which command station are you planning to use? just trying to confirm that what you are describing will work.

That swaps the direction of the blades, open will become closed and vice versa, unfortunately the incorrect polarity is tied to the physical position of the blades which you have just swapped ergo all you will do is cause the same short, but in the opposite direction 😄

The IP Digital has 2 switches built in, one of which internally switches the single frog output in conjunction with the change of the motor however this witch has a potentially serious drawback - it assumes that the motor has been installed in the same orientation as shown by DCC Concepts. If it has been installed 'out of phase' i.e turned through 180° then you will get a short. In this case you need to use the second switch and take droppers from the rails to the switch and use the common from this switch for the frog. This allows you to get the polarity of the frog correct.

Have you tried a ruler of vernier on the Bachmann unit? That would be a good start are will be able to get the barrel size 4, and 5mm are common - ideally a vernier should be used as you will be able to measure the pin and barrel diameter. You can get a vernier for £6 that will be accurate enough, if you don't already have one though most modellers will already have one

press the blue button on the front and hold it in for 10-15s. It will turn a flashing purple, then let it go an the Z21 will be reset to defaults

The 16v and 18v are the defaults from Roco - someone had been playing, thinking that this mythical 12v DC is what they want ... I suggest that a reset would be in order to ensure that other settings haven't been changed.

Have you looked at this from DCC Concepts? Double Slip Wiring

If you look on the unit it will tell you what voltage is required, whether it is DC or AV and it will tell also you where the positive is if it is DC. (centre of outside of barrel, some even tell you what size the barrel and pin are (unlikely on Bachmann unit though) Do not assume that it is a 12v input, I would expect it to be higher than 12v.

To echo what Keith says, and perhaps expand. You use iTrain to control all aspects of the layout, trains, turnouts and signals, and you don't need to define anything within the Z21 - all it is doing is providing the power to the layout and passing the instructions provided by iTrain to the layout. Because those instructions are the same as would be provided by the phone app, or a maus, you can also provide those same instructions manually to the layout - again all the Z21 does is pass those instructions over to the layout. If you have told a loco to go faster then the Z21 will take the incoming message, relay it onto the DCC track output and the instruction will be enacted by the loco decoder. The same would happen for a turnout moto, or a signal. The benefits of letting iTrain control the signalling is that all the signals will be set by the iTrain logic and will be accurate for what you are doing that that time. If the train is stopping it will be red, if the train is being allowed to start, or continue, it will be green and if a caution is being issued it will be yellow. iTrain will also change the turnouts correctly for the route the train is travelling on. Please don't fall into the trap that so many people do and think you have to control the signals or turnouts manually, you don't - iTrain will do a much better job that you can 😉

You talked about using one of the switches on the MP5 for the positional feedback of the turnout blades, to do that you need the YD6016LN-GND, for track occupation you need current sensing which is the YD6016LN-CS.

if you don't do positional feedback, then no, you don't need one

Personally I wouldn't bother with position feedback for the turnouts, it isn't really required and will just cause you additional complexities and confusion whilst building the layout. If you feel that you want to add it later then you can, however I suspect that you have realised by the time you want to install positional feedback that it isn't needed and you wont bother 😉

It would be extremely easy to get a layout builder to include the necessary isolation and feeds required to may the layout ready for automation when required - it will however need planning to ensure that all the feedbacks are in the correct places and the feeds are long enough to reach the feedback units. If you have a plan, email it across to me and I will provide you with some input on where I would place them all.

What value is in CV8, that will at least identify the maker which is always a good of place to start 😀

I'm glad that I was able to help you - I will be honest and say that I cant recall specifically what advice I offered, but if it has worked then that is what matters 😀

You are correct that changes are needed, however they are not onerous and many people have managed it successfully. all you need is some superglue, a dremel style device and a soldering iron ;)

You can use TrainController to do the automation- but is the very significant price differential to purchase it worth it? Plus, you would be dealing with Herr Freiwald 😞

The up-to-date method of tracking trains is by using current sensing which enables you to see where the train is all the time, not just when it passes over a sensor. Current sensing also reduces the number of feedbacks required. You divide the layout into section - called feedbacks- and each one is connected to the feedback current sensor which will then feedback to the computer through the command station to the computer providing the automation.