Coffee Shop XXXIX-9/21/2013
- Thread starter Bill Tidler Jr.
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Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired NS Signal Construction Gang Signalman
Good Morning! from Tipton IN.
It's MON 11/11/13
Temperature in TIPTON IN
Temperatures will range from 37 to 45 degrees with cloudy skies. Winds will range between 12 and 17 miles per hour from the west. Rain amounts of less than a tenth of an inch are expected.
[/QUOTE]
It's MON 11/11/13
Temperature in TIPTON IN
Temperatures will range from 37 to 45 degrees with cloudy skies. Winds will range between 12 and 17 miles per hour from the west. Rain amounts of less than a tenth of an inch are expected.
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
Terry
If it weren't for bad luck....
About the club DCC system, I hope to speak with Obi-Wan today. However, a thought occurred to me this morning in the shower. (I think well in the bathroom) Has anyone cleared the consists from the command station lately? Follow along if you will. With the larger Brand D systems, when you get done running a consist, you "dispatch off" your engines and the command station forgets all about them. Not so with NCE. You merely select another engine (if not in a consist) or consist and drive off. The consist stays active in the command station. On a home layout, where a lot of consists stay unchanged, this can be an advantage. On a club layout, a problem. If a club member is running a consist with any unit having the same address as yours, the is a conflict. If the same member removes his locos from the layout, but does not "kill" his consist, there is a conflict. Even if YOU run a consist of locos # 123,#456, #789, take them home and come back later with # 123, #741, #357 guess what? 123 is still held in another consist.
Of course, we've run into this issue before with our modular display layout, so much that is is S.O.P to clear the command station after every show. Seems no matter how much you scold, ridicule or pester some people, they just can't bring it on themselves to clean up their own messes. heck, were lucky if some throw the mainline switches back after entering or diverging from the main!
So thats my 2 cents,
Like I said, I'll talk to Obi-Wan to be sure.
Sorry to hear about your BLI giving you problems.
Boris
Beach Bum
Good Morning:
Today is Veterans Day; Also Remembrance Day and Armistice Day, depending upon where you reside.
This morning is sunny and cool with a temperature of 35°. Yesterday it rained leaves. Tonight, they are predicting rain which will mix with sleet or snow.
I realigned the sub road bed, which consists of Woodland Scenic risers and 1" pink foam, covered with plaster roll and hydrocal. The cork is pinned in place at this point. The sub still needs to be sanded and painted earth color, and superelevation added, before the cork is glued down and the track is restored.
The track to the right of the photo, leads to the terminal - industrial - staging extension. This track had some serious dips. I managed to bump it out from 26" radius to 30" radius, in the process. the curve to the center is next on the list of projects. The track farthest to the left, is complete except for scenery and ballast. it is my notorious reverse loop. (Obstructed by track tools). Since I hate working with scenery products, I have put this off for way too long.
This morning is leaf relocation day. After that, more work on the layout........
Have a great day.
Joe
Today is Veterans Day; Also Remembrance Day and Armistice Day, depending upon where you reside.
This morning is sunny and cool with a temperature of 35°. Yesterday it rained leaves. Tonight, they are predicting rain which will mix with sleet or snow.
I realigned the sub road bed, which consists of Woodland Scenic risers and 1" pink foam, covered with plaster roll and hydrocal. The cork is pinned in place at this point. The sub still needs to be sanded and painted earth color, and superelevation added, before the cork is glued down and the track is restored.
The track to the right of the photo, leads to the terminal - industrial - staging extension. This track had some serious dips. I managed to bump it out from 26" radius to 30" radius, in the process. the curve to the center is next on the list of projects. The track farthest to the left, is complete except for scenery and ballast. it is my notorious reverse loop. (Obstructed by track tools). Since I hate working with scenery products, I have put this off for way too long.
This morning is leaf relocation day. After that, more work on the layout........
Have a great day.
Joe
Terry
If it weren't for bad luck....
About the club DCC system, I hope to speak with Obi-Wan today. However, a thought occurred to me this morning in the shower. (I think well in the bathroom) Has anyone cleared the consists from the command station lately? Follow along if you will. With the larger Brand D systems, when you get done running a consist, you "dispatch off" your engines and the command station forgets all about them. Not so with NCE. You merely select another engine (if not in a consist) or consist and drive off. The consist stays active in the command station. On a home layout, where a lot of consists stay unchanged, this can be an advantage. On a club layout, a problem. If a club member is running a consist with any unit having the same address as yours, the is a conflict. If the same member removes his locos from the layout, but does not "kill" his consist, there is a conflict. Even if YOU run a consist of locos # 123,#456, #789, take them home and come back later with # 123, #741, #357 guess what? 123 is still held in another consist.
Of course, we've run into this issue before with our modular display layout, so much that is is S.O.P to clear the command station after every show. Seems no matter how much you scold, ridicule or pester some people, they just can't bring it on themselves to clean up their own messes. heck, were lucky if some throw the mainline switches back after entering or diverging from the main!
So thats my 2 cents,
Like I said, I'll talk to Obi-Wan to be sure. I
Sorry to hear about your BLI giving you problems.
Karl, I check and kill all consists when I arrive a the clubhouse, as some of our members don't clear them whe they are done.
The decoders I am having trouble with are all Digitrax decoders, and they work like they are supposed to. Until I put them in a consist, any consist, even a consist of one unit by itself.
As for the BLI issue, it is interesting the problem started on the same club layout I am having Digitrax trouble on. Coincidence?
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
By chance, are these Digitrax 120 series decoders??
They cant be advance consisted (NCE's preferred method) and must be "old style" or force consisted on NCE. http://www.ncedcc.com/pdf/PH5.PDF See page 45 for details.
Obi Wan is not in his cave, well try again later!
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
By chance, are these Digitrax 120 series decoders??
They cant be advance consisted (NCE's preferred method) and must be "old style" or force consisted on NCE. http://www.ncedcc.com/pdf/PH5.PDF See page 45 for details.
Obi Wan is not in his cave, well try again later!
Sounds similar to the problems I had with my locos on a friends layout. He has an NCE system. Most of my decoders are Digitrax DZ125's and thinking about it it was those decoders that gave us the most problems. Running the locos together in an advanced consist was a no-go but setting them all to the same address and killing BEMF on all but the lead unit worked better than anything. I still run them that way on my own layout. It has nothing to do with the brand of locos either. Many of mine are rebuilds and some are home builds of disparate pieces from here and there.
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
Jeffrey, as Obi would say, "the force is strong with this one".
I finally was able to reach the wise one, and the answer I got was of the failure of some of the Digitrax decoders being unable to handle advanced consisting. So we may be onto something. Numero Uno thing to look for.
Either that, or box em up Terry and send them here. Me & the master will make em run! I take it no one else at the club is having a consisting issue??As far as the BLI, We both agree that its a defective decoder. Smoke, & sound still work (when you manually spin the motor) then it must have blown the motor drivers. Why? That I don't know, but generally id a BLI engine lasts 15 minutes, its a keeper.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Good morning. It's 60° with 76% humidity. There will be some clouds.
No work on the //e this morning or early afternoon. I have an appointment with the cardiologist today. Hopefully they're going to see if they can find a blocked blood vessel. I may do some work on the game this evening.
I was doing maintenance on this computer yesterday. It's been slowing down significantly in the past few weeks so I checked it yesterday and found the hard drive was over 50% fragmented. Little wonder. So at 7:00 last night I started a defrag on it. Seven hours later (2:00am) it was still at it so I turned the monitor off but left the computer running. It finished sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 this morning. That's the first time I've seen a defrag take almost eleven hours. The computer is running faster though.
No work on the //e this morning or early afternoon. I have an appointment with the cardiologist today. Hopefully they're going to see if they can find a blocked blood vessel. I may do some work on the game this evening.
I was doing maintenance on this computer yesterday. It's been slowing down significantly in the past few weeks so I checked it yesterday and found the hard drive was over 50% fragmented. Little wonder. So at 7:00 last night I started a defrag on it. Seven hours later (2:00am) it was still at it so I turned the monitor off but left the computer running. It finished sometime between 5:30 and 6:00 this morning. That's the first time I've seen a defrag take almost eleven hours. The computer is running faster though.
Karl, the decoders are a variety of almost every model and type Digitrax has made over the last 15 years or so. Dh123, dn 143, 163, the Kato replacement boards, etc.
Some good news, sort of. BLI is sending me a replacement decoder for the T1, it should be here in plenty of time for our open house.
Athearn is sending me replacement handrails for the dd40, so I should hqve it fixed pretty soon as well. I did find out it will not run on part of the club layout, it gets fouled in some of the scenery (plaster mountains).
Some good news, sort of. BLI is sending me a replacement decoder for the T1, it should be here in plenty of time for our open house.
Athearn is sending me replacement handrails for the dd40, so I should hqve it fixed pretty soon as well. I did find out it will not run on part of the club layout, it gets fouled in some of the scenery (plaster mountains).
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
Terry
Can you write to CV 19, or just read it?? ,. if you can read CV19, but not write to it, then you cannot do advanced consisting
See if you can put a bogus number, like 2 then read it back after cycling power to the engine
I've had DH120s and DH121s do stupid stuff before, and Jeffrey has reported issues with 125s. make me suspect Digitrax decoders of that age.
FWIW, When you get them in a 4 pack D13SR's are pretty cheap. Or you can mail all of them off to NCE and for 10 bucks each plus 2 dollars shipping, they will replace them with comparable NCE units!
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I can read back cv19, but not on my home system. The DB150 does not read back. I can read back on decoder pro, the NCE system (on the main), and my QSI quantum programmer.Terry
Can you write to CV 19, or just read it?? ,. if you can read CV19, but not write to it, then you cannot do advanced consisting
See if you can put a bogus number, like 2 then read it back after cycling power to the engine
I've had DH120s and DH121s do stupid stuff before, and Jeffrey has reported issues with 125s. make me suspect Digitrax decoders of that age.
FWIW, When you get them in a 4 pack D13SR's are pretty cheap. Or you can mail all of them off to NCE and for 10 bucks each plus 2 dollars shipping, they will replace them with comparable NCE units!
And the DN143PS is $18.75, less my 10% discount.
The point has become moot on one of my engines, as a fellow club member gave me a Loksound Micro Select, which I installed in my C&O GP9.
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
The Digitrax Super Empire Builder doesn't support readback of cv's. I can read cv19, and of course the other cv's, on all the other systems. Even my QSI Quantum Programmer will read back.
jeffrey-wimberly
Dr Frankendiesel
Glad I have a Digitrax Zephyr. Reading CV's isn't a problem on the program track.
*
Didn't get a chance to do any programming on Oliver's train adventure today. Had an appointment with the cardiologist today. So did my step mother. We had worked it out so our appointments were withing twenty minutes of each other. Even so we didn't get out of there until about 4:30. My father met us there and since it was too late to go home and cook dinner we went to Fox's Pizza Den. Trouble about a place like that is I almost always have to be rolled out. On the cardiologist report, they found the blocked blood vessel. The doc says it's not big enough to worry about so it looks like I'm gonna have to learn to live with the whooshing racket in my ears.
Well that's all for today. See y'all tomorrow.
Bill Tidler Jr.
Retired NS Signal Construction Gang Signalman
Good Morning! from Tipton IN.
It's Tue 11/12/13
Temperature in TIPTON IN
Temperatures will range from 29 to 36 degrees with partly cloudy skies. Winds will range between 9 and 16 miles per hour from the northwest. No precipitation is expected.
It's Tue 11/12/13
Temperature in TIPTON IN
Temperatures will range from 29 to 36 degrees with partly cloudy skies. Winds will range between 9 and 16 miles per hour from the northwest. No precipitation is expected.
I had one of those originally, and foolishly upgraded to a Zephyr Xtra. That is something both I and Digitrax would like to forget. The replacement for the Zephyr is the Empire Builder. Its only real drawback is a lack of ability to read back cvs, and I do have a programmer for that anyway.
kbkchooch
"retired" conductor
Ugh!
According to the weather guesser, its supposed to be partly cloudy and 42 outside right now.
According to my window, its snowing outside
And I have to go to Bethesda this morning for an interview. Lovely, DC traffic in the snow.
Hopefully it will all be gone by 11:30, of course that means leaving here by 10:00 I can feel my blood pressure rising already!
Onto lighter thoughts! My train running up til now has been back and forth on 16 feet of modules. Sunday I started, and yesterday finished adding more module frames to the basement, now I have a huge oval of track to run on. 3 new naked corners and some straights were added to the freestanding corner and straight (Ken, ya following me?). Yes, its temporary until the drop ceiling and flooring get replaced, but that takes $$$$! I had the track, nails, module frames all here. Only had to buy 1 2'x2' square of plywood too! I put 12 volts to it last night, and ran an unconverted engine on it. Tonight, I'll extend the DCC to it.
Terry, your consisting issue is really starting to bug me. Going to an op session Friday with Obi-wan. Gonna pick his brain some more!
According to the weather guesser, its supposed to be partly cloudy and 42 outside right now.
According to my window, its snowing outside
And I have to go to Bethesda this morning for an interview. Lovely, DC traffic in the snow.
Hopefully it will all be gone by 11:30, of course that means leaving here by 10:00
I can feel my blood pressure rising already! Onto lighter thoughts! My train running up til now has been back and forth on 16 feet of modules. Sunday I started, and yesterday finished adding more module frames to the basement, now I have a huge oval of track to run on. 3 new naked corners and some straights were added to the freestanding corner and straight (Ken, ya following me?). Yes, its temporary until the drop ceiling and flooring get replaced, but that takes $$$$! I had the track, nails, module frames all here. Only had to buy 1 2'x2' square of plywood too! I put 12 volts to it last night, and ran an unconverted engine on it. Tonight, I'll extend the DCC to it.
Terry, your consisting issue is really starting to bug me. Going to an op session Friday with Obi-wan. Gonna pick his brain some more!
tompm
Active Member
Good morning folks
It was 35 F when I headed onto the dry roads this morning. As I traveled the temperature went down to 33 F and I was driving in and of snow squalls. Of course anytime I drove into a squall the other drivers freaked out. Nothing like drive at 60 MPH on the Interstate and suddenly have to drop down to 10 MPH because a bunch of panicked drivers slammed on their brakes due to the “snow”. Our high is supposed to be 41 F.
Volleyball club try-outs were frustrating. Neither club my daughter tried out for had enough girls show up for an 18U team. The one on Saturday which was for a high level competitive team only has two 18 year olds attend. On Sunday the club she played for last year also had issues. The 18 year old team she played on last year had two 17 year olds including my daughter, and the 17U team had 10 players. You would think that there would be at least 10 to 12 returning players. Over two days they only has 6 players show up. Also the level of talent at both try outs was below what she played with last year. She has try-outs with another Delaware club on Wednesday night and then several Pennsylvania based clubs on Sunday and Monday. Filling 18U teams is always tough but we (and the club directors we spoke with) did not expect it to be this challenging. In addition she had to ask her future college coach a question about a technique and style of playing that one club wants her to do. This technique and style of play would mean unlearning what she has been trained to do by several D1 and D2 coaches and is actually a step back. The coach responded that he wants her to keep doing what she has been doing. This may have now eliminated this club from try outs.
I did not get to the workbench. Between try outs, Boy Scouts, and some jobs around the house I just ran out of time. Tonight might be a good night since the only thing on the schedule is my son’s tennis lesson which is right after school.
I hope everybody has a good day.
It was 35 F when I headed onto the dry roads this morning. As I traveled the temperature went down to 33 F and I was driving in and of snow squalls. Of course anytime I drove into a squall the other drivers freaked out. Nothing like drive at 60 MPH on the Interstate and suddenly have to drop down to 10 MPH because a bunch of panicked drivers slammed on their brakes due to the “snow”. Our high is supposed to be 41 F.
Volleyball club try-outs were frustrating. Neither club my daughter tried out for had enough girls show up for an 18U team. The one on Saturday which was for a high level competitive team only has two 18 year olds attend. On Sunday the club she played for last year also had issues. The 18 year old team she played on last year had two 17 year olds including my daughter, and the 17U team had 10 players. You would think that there would be at least 10 to 12 returning players. Over two days they only has 6 players show up. Also the level of talent at both try outs was below what she played with last year. She has try-outs with another Delaware club on Wednesday night and then several Pennsylvania based clubs on Sunday and Monday. Filling 18U teams is always tough but we (and the club directors we spoke with) did not expect it to be this challenging. In addition she had to ask her future college coach a question about a technique and style of playing that one club wants her to do. This technique and style of play would mean unlearning what she has been trained to do by several D1 and D2 coaches and is actually a step back. The coach responded that he wants her to keep doing what she has been doing. This may have now eliminated this club from try outs.
I did not get to the workbench. Between try outs, Boy Scouts, and some jobs around the house I just ran out of time. Tonight might be a good night since the only thing on the schedule is my son’s tennis lesson which is right after school.
I hope everybody has a good day.
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