Digitrax UP5


B

Bridgeliner

Member
When daisy chaining Universal Panels along your layout, do you need to use the digitrax phone cable or will regular phone cable that you can buy in a home improvement store work as well?

Thanks in advance.
 
A quick question, why do you want to daisy chain the UP5? Maybe I am overlooking something here but I don't see what advantages the would be. You would still only end up with the initial 2 ports that you started with, wouldn't you?

On the other hand, if there is an advantage to this, using telephone line would certainly be cheaper.

Cheers,
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have used regular 4 wire telephone line to connect them and it seems to work ok.
As far a daisy chaining them, if you don't have radio link or you don't want to have to run back to a single UP5 to acquire a loco, daisy chaining them is the preferred method.
 
Thanks D&J. I was hoping that would work since I have a bunch of unused phone cable. Wombat, to answer your question, I want to install connection panels in about 3 places around my layout so that you can "walk" with your train and connect the throttles in different locations. My layout is in a 10x12 room so it is not huge, but there is a center peninsula with a backdrop divider so if you are in one section, you cant really see the other section. I figure that normally it will just be me operating, but I could accommodate up to 3 operators and having these extra plug ins along with the main Digitrax Zephyer control, that would give us more flexability.
 
D&J RailRoad said:
I have used regular 4 wire telephone line to connect them and it seems to work ok...
Click to expand...

4 wire telephone cable will not provide power, so you will either have to use a battery in the throttle or provide separate power to the UP5. The UP5 does have provisions for separate power and it is actually a good idea, especially if you have more than a few throttle.

Something to be aware of is the fact that Loconet cables are actually different from phone cables. Phone cables are wired in a crossover arrangement while Loconet cables are wired straight through. It most cases it will not make a difference, in fact, the only places I know of off hand where it will is when wiring boosters and for Transponding detectors. It is something to be aware of however because if your DCC system grows to where you need either of these it can be confusing as to why some cables work correctly and some don't.
 
Our club fried a Digitrax booster once when some of the loconet cables were wired wrong. I only know enough to be dangerous so that is all I can offer. I just use the correct cables.
 
Hmmm, I thought Digitrax recommended six wire phone cables? I found six wire cables at Home Depot, this would be used for two line phones. I did cut them to length and add an end to them and daisy chained my UP5 panels. I do not use a battery in my DT100IR throttles.
 
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