Despatcher

Thanks. I like your logical approach. I am off to try this now (both boosters and Z21 as command). Watch this space. I have pinged an email to Roco and I am waiting a reply.

Thanks. I value that and I will try Roco. Z21s are so new that shared information based on usage and reality is hard to come by. I have tried using spare track as suggested. I connected two pieces of flexi track with insulated rail joiners. Connected one end to the Booster and the other to the Z21. In each half the loco would travel forwards or backwards as directed by the Z21 but it would not cross the gap without a short resulting. I have followed the wiring on pp 46 and 47 of the manual. I have the boosters and transformers recommended. If I connect both ends to the Z21 then locos will cross the gap without a problem. I have reversed the wiring in each half and that does not solve the problem. All I have done is replicate and mirror the problem on my layout but in a very simple situation. But at least I now know I can rule the Frogjuicers and my Switch8s out of the problem. I suspect the layout will function without the Boosters but I would like to solve the problem and indeed use them. I suspect recouping anything near the £180 for each of them (I have 2 but I am only using 1) on eBay might be wishful thinking.

Thanks for those suggestions. Most helpful I will try both this morning. Not sure if there is a factory reset on either the Z21 or the booster. The Z21 is controlled and accessed through a downloadable "app" on my iPad, it has very few buttons to press, in fact, just one. By itself it is fairly inert apart from on and off. The Booster has fewer buttons and is not accessible/controllable. I will investigate the "app". I have two Boosters as I was going to have three power districts but decided that was overkill for such a small layout. They are both brand new and I have tried swapping those with no difference. I have asked the supplier, Gaugemaster, about the problem and I am waiting for their reply but I only e-mailed yesterday when I posted this. I am off to reverse wires but I will also try the spare track first, thanks for that, sometimes the simple test gets overlooked in the complexity of it all. As a separate thought, I am wondering also if the Hex Frogjuicers might be playing a part. They are powered from the two separate bus feeds. Perhaps they are causing the polarity difference, which we are all assuming is the problem, when the booster is used. Although my bus feed wires are red and black as are the droppers from the track. I have checked that all "North" feeds are black connected to black and similarly "South" feeds are red to red. The power feeds to the Frogjuicers are all matched similarly, so they should not be a problem? Need to get cracking if I want to see the first ball bowled in the Ashes live. MANY THANKS.

Not a silly thought at all. I'm glad to receive any guidance. Many thanks indeed for replying. But, how would I correct this or investigate? Beginning to wish I had bought a simpler/more mainstream controller to replace my Dynamis. I am beginning to feel an eBay moment coming on!

Many thanks for trying to help. Your time and help are much appreciated. It is a puzzle. As far as I can see, I have followed the instructions in the Z21 manual for boosters. If it did not work when both bus loops are connected to the Z21 I would start looking for crossed dropper wire feeds etc. As it is, I don't know where to start looking. Hopefully someone will have a thought.

As far as I can see/understand there is not an output side but I am probably not understanding, sorry. The booster is attached to the track via the track out feed. The booster is then connected to the Z21 through what in essence resembles an Ethernet cable. It plugs into the Z21 via a socket labelled B-Bus, the booster then has two sockets, booster in and booster out. I am using booster in as I am assuming I want the signal from the Z21 to go in to the booster. The only other connection on the booster in the mains transformer. The Z21 only has track out feeds. Am I totally missing what you are suggesting? This is a totally new area to me and I am willing to learn. Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for that. I thought I'd done that by reversing the track in plug on the booster. It has a two pin pug with track negative/track positive attached to each pin. Or is that not what you meant?

I have just finished building a new layout. I have a new Z21. I decided to split the layout which is end to end onto two separate power districts. Each power district is half the layout and each half contains 7 points (controlled with tortoise point motors) and around the same amount of track. I thought that I would split the layout because I want to use the power bus to control/power the Frog Juicers, Point Motors that I have and any additional accessories in the future as well as cope with around 20 sound decoder locos sitting on the layout with sound on all from one controller. Which is what I believe DCC should be. I also have feeds via dropper wires to every separate piece of track from the track bus. To split the layout I have a Roco 10765 and a Roco 10851 transformer. There are two separate power bus feeds, one for each half. Insulated rail joiners separate the connecting single track line between each half. If I connect the Z21 and the Booster to the layout both halves work fine. Locos run in each half independently without a problem. However as locos cross the gap there is a short circuit as soon as loco pickups are either side of the insulated gap. If I connect both power bus feeds to the Z21 the whole layout works fine and locos a will cross the insulated gap without a problem. I have tried reversing the track feed to the booster. Any suggestions welcomed. Thanks.