KSW

A correction to my post above: I have mocked up a double slip with two iP digital motors and have found that if the polarity of a frog has to be changed by swapping 'in' wires, this does NOT affect the binary 0/1 settings of the Cobalt. I would also add that you can easily choose which address is set to each of the double iP digital motors. The z21 mimic diagram sets two consecutive addresses. In the configuration table switch off all the binary options for one of the motors. Decide which motor you want to have the other address and set that Cobalt (or other decoder) switch to 'set' or 'learn'. You can change the address number to one of your choosing at the same time if required. Simply back out of 'Control Station' will give you a 'Save' option. Switch the Cobalt back to 'run'. Repeat the process for the other motor. Then set the binary options for each motor as described above, using the 'State' diagrams to check correct motion.

Hi all, Back after a holiday with a clearer head! My problem with setting Cobalt iP digital motors on three-way and single/double slips using the RoCo z21 system has been solved. There is no need for fudging or fooling the system by overlaying single points – the z21 can do exactly what it implies it can, it just took me bit of time to figure it out. Thanks to those who suggest the latest app, which is so much better for creating a reasonably professional looking diagram, albeit with some faffing about. Again, the suggestion of using a fine stylus pen was very helpful. I appreciate what follows may sound very complicated and be ‘old news’ to some modellers. Also, I joined this thread rather late so past contributors are probably all sorted. The whole process of picking up clues and having to really think it through to put in writing has certainly helped me enormously and will hopefully do likewise for anyone picking up on this in the future. If you or anyone who like me happen upon this thread or are still having difficulties, please read on… As we know, the z21 assigns two consecutive motor addresses when you add one of these points to the mimic diagram. The problem some of us have been grappling with was which motor was assigned to which address? My solution is to go to ‘Control Station’, highlight the point in question and click the ‘pen’ icon at top right of the screen to open the configuration table. Then de-select all the 0/1 binary options for one of the addresses. Tap any of the ‘State’ diagrams on the left and see which motor reacts; that motor belongs to that address. By elimination the other motor is linked to the other address. Next you have to work out the binary options for each motor to correctly select the three routes (four in the case of a double slip). This is where the all-important consideration of frog polarity comes into play. With three-way and slip points both frogs have to correct for all routes. An additional complication with digital motors such as Cobalt iP is that, depending on which way the motors face relative to the point, the ‘In’ supply wires may have to be swapped in order to get the correct frog polarity. This in turn will alter the 0/1 options, so there are no ‘standard’ settings! The Cobalt iP does provides another option; send address 197 (201 in the case of old motors) to reverse the motion of the motor, then re-address with the z21 assigned address. Having established the ‘throw’ direction of each motor for the 0 and 1 options it is essential therefore that frog polarity is correct. This is relatively straightforward for a three-way point. However, slips are slightly more tricky. For single slips the ‘diamond’ or ‘cross’ routes only require one set of blades to be set in the right direction to physically permit traversing the point on one of these routes. If we look at a single slip as two single points overlaid in opposite directions, it becomes clear that the blades not set for the selected cross route must be set to the slip route to provide correct frog polarity on the ‘open blade’ side of the route selected. IanLMS shows this in his diagrams posted 26th March. I have now set up a three-way point and two single slips on the layout and they all operate as per mimic diagram and with correct frog polarity throughout. 0/1 options were selected according to motor orientation, which varied due to space restraints under the baseboard. For double slips things are different. Both motors must operate in the same direction for either slip route and in opposite directions for either ‘diamond’ or ‘cross’ route. I haven’t installed one yet on my layout yet so initially I have carried out a small exercise to check the correct logic for setting frog polarity. The attached diagrams using a Peco D/S with coloured markers helped me with this (the use of blue and yellow represents the colour-coding I use for the main track circuit DCC bus). I have highlighted the four available routes with arrows but also note the position of the point blades. The white arrows indicate the ‘throw’ of each motor for each route and the blue double arrow shows the polarity output to the opposing frog. Obviously this is fixed for each motor regardless of the route (it is repeated on each diagram simply for clarity) so all have to be correct, which will be the case with the configurations shown. 0/1 setting options for the z21 can then be worked out afterwards. Hope this is helpful. KSW

Hi WIMorrison - thanks also for your response. I currently have 10 iP motors set up for single turnouts with addresses set according to the order they were automatically and sequentially numbered when added to the z21 mimic diagram and these all operate perfectly. I am aware of the '+4' issue and the only time I had to use it was to remove the automatic centring of two old Cobalt motors, when address 202 was used instead of 198. All but one of the current Cobalts in use are new and this 'fix' is no longer required after first use unless you specifically wish to re-centre in the future.

Many thanks IanLMS for your swift response. I have tried your codes on my currently-in-place single slips and similarly spent considerable time trying to get a three-way point to cooperate. I have a nasty suspicion that it is the addressing of the motors through z21 that is the problem. I have also posed this question to DCC Concepts and Roco and await their views.

Dear fellow z21 users, I have had a z21 for some time and have found it excellent for loco control via two android phones. I have followed your conversations earlier this year with great interest and have according updated the app on my iPad Pro to make use of the facility to create a decent mimic diagram. This is a great improvement on the old app in this respect. I agree completely with comments about the odd presentation of loco dashboard and have retained the old app on the phones. The mimic software took a bit of trial and error to master but it was quite quick to finalise my diagram(s) once I got the hang of it. I have finally commenced laying track and have no problem addressing and configuring single DCC Concepts iP digital stall motors but had found issues with programming double-motor points, i.e. three-way and single/double slips. No matter what I try with configuration they seem to act in unison. You seem to have this mastered so I am asking for a bit of advice on the procedure for setting two separate addresses (assuming that is what you should do) on one point. The combinations of configuration 1s and 0s is obviously more complex in these situations but I'm not particularly concerned with that. If anyone can give me a working procedure for setting up multiple motors I would be very grateful. In anticipation, KSW