I've got a Digitrax DCS 50 controller and it just started giving me problems runnning DC. It will run an engine for about five minutes and it starts to short circuit every few feet until it finally shorts. I've eliminated every other cause but the controller. I talks to George at Digitrax and he agrees something is failing and want me to send it back for him to test. It's long out of warranty so it's going to be at least $50 plus parts. It still runs fine in DCC but I'm concerned that this is the beginning of a general failure. Does it makes sense to have this one repaired or should I be looking for a new one?
DCS 50 Problem
- Thread starter UP2CSX
- Start date
Cjcrescent
Master Mechanic
Jim;
The question you need to ask yourself is, would I rather spend at least $50 now and get practically a new set, or $120-150 later when it does completely fail.
Larry Smith had to send a brand new one back, because the #9 key wouldn't work. They replaced the keyboard, and the main circuit board. But they never could really determine why the unit failed. Been running fine ever sense.
The question you need to ask yourself is, would I rather spend at least $50 now and get practically a new set, or $120-150 later when it does completely fail.
Larry Smith had to send a brand new one back, because the #9 key wouldn't work. They replaced the keyboard, and the main circuit board. But they never could really determine why the unit failed. Been running fine ever sense.
CJ, I found a brand new on on e-bay for $130 so I went ahead and ordered that. It will cost at least that much if they send me a refurb, not counting shipping it there and waiting for a couple weeks to get it back. Since it sems like the crowbar circuit has failed, I'm afraid this is the beginning of a cascade of failures. As long as it keeps working, I figure I can use it as a booster, if nothing else.
dpeterson3
Member
I had my first DCS50 fail on me when I put an experimental engine on the programing track (it had and accident, so I attempted to do some bypass wiring. Still don't know what shorted. Seems to work fine now with no more work/repair?), but it fried the programming circuit. I am going to take the old one and mount it under the layout as a booster as soon as I get a power supply. No point in wasting a working DCS50 even if it doesn't do everything anymore. Just a friendly suggestion.
LOL, Josh, maybe that's it. After a little more investigation, Digitrax uses a separate circuit board to deliver the "DC" voltage to an engine running on address 00. This circuit has a crowbar function to shut down the controller if the resistance gets too high. Apparently, this not an uncommon problem with the DCS 50 but seems to occur more frequently if you only run analog engines occasionally, which is my case. According to a couple of other guys who've had this problem, running an analog locomotive once a week for a few minutes seems to decrease the failure rate of the crowbar circuit. I have no idea if that's really true or some are just bad from the factory. At any rate, fixing it and the cost of shipping would run almost exactly the $130 that I paid for a new unit that will at least have a warranty. The failure of the DC circuit seems to have no effect on the DCC side, so using the older unit as a booser has worked well for the guys who have tried it.
