DCC & signaling?

[RexHea]

Give me a minute and I will check my setup. I remember that there was something screwy about which LT5 lights for which block.

 

[RexHea]

Ok, The LT5 is plugged into "A" pins, the ones nearest front right corner. The first output (2B) should light the LT5 LED nearest the back of BDL (plug-end) and count 1,2,3,4 towards front edge.
Yes, the LED location diagram in the instructions is back ass-wards (or they are showing it from the back side). I do assume you have the LT5 leds facing the board edge.....they did get that right, LOL

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Ok, The LT5 is plugged into "A" pins, the ones nearest front right corner. The first output (2B) should light the LT5 LED nearest the back of BDL (plug-end) and count 1,2,3,4 towards front edge.
Yes, the LED location diagram in the instructions is back ass-wards (or they are showing it from the back side). I do assume you have the LT5 leds facing the board edge.....they did get that right, LOL

Ok, I'm correct in the orientation of the LT5.
I tried plugging it into each of the 10 pin connectors with a loco on the isolated track but none of the LEDs light except for the power zone. I believe that is telling me that there is power to each zone and I suppose if I used a volt ohm meter I would see voltage at each of the detection output pins, i.e. 2B, 3C etc.

 

[RexHea]

Yes! Measure using AC, from 2B to the common wire out of the command station. Don't worry about value of voltage. If your meter does not measure RMS on AC and allow frequency above 15khz, it will be off in value. Just having the reading of 8-10 voltage is good'nuf indicator.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Ok, I found something. I had one lead from a different track that was powered connected to the isolated buss line. I clipped that wire and the detection section LED lit up.
Now, when I have the loconet plugged into the BDL168, the Net/IR light is lit on the UR92 and none of the throttles can run a train. I'm not to sure that it is the problem of the UR92 though. When I disconnect the UR92 completely I still can't run trains until I unplug the loconet from the BDL168.
Any idea why this might be happening?

 

[D&J RailRoad]

This is so darn frustrating. I don't know how to get the BDL168 working if everything freezes when I connect the loconet cable to it. When I tip the loco off the track, the detection LED goes off. When I set the loco back on the track, the detection LED comes on but once again, I can't do anything with the layout. Nothing responds while loconet is plugged into the BDL168. When I disconnect the loconet, the detection light stays on regardless if the loco is there or not.
I'm starting to think maybe this board is defective, which is typical for how I have to learn stuff.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

This is so darn frustrating. I don't know how to get the BDL168 working if everything freezes when I connect the loconet cable to it. When I tip the loco off the track, the detection LED goes off. When I set the loco back on the track, the detection LED comes on but once again, I can't do anything with the layout. Nothing responds while loconet is plugged into the BDL168. When I disconnect the loconet, the detection light stays on regardless if the loco is there or not.
I'm starting to think maybe this board is defective, which is typical for how I have to learn stuff.
I have another BDL168 I can swap into place tomorrow to see if it acts the same.

 

[fcwilt]

Did you make you own LocoNet cables? If so double check the orientation of the plugs.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Did you make you own LocoNet cables? If so double check the orientation of the plugs.

No, the cables were bought already assembled. I considered that in the troubleshooting mode and swapped it out for a few others but no change.

 

[fcwilt]

Did you verify each BDL setting to see if all is correct?

 

[RexHea]

At least the BDL is now detecting correctly...one down and now for the loconet problem. Let me part some mental cobwebs and finger this out. The only time I had a similar problem was after a lightning strike zapped all my electronics. I remember you saying something about setting the address: I wonder if something else with the Opsw settings may have gone nuts. I don't have my manual handy, but see if there is a reset to default procedure.
One note: with the loconet plugged in, the BDL red led will flash with each entry from a throttle indicating traffic on the loconet. Does yours do this? Also, do you have a loconet cable in and another out (series)?

 

[D&J RailRoad]

At least the BDL is now detecting correctly...one down and now for the loconet problem. Let me part some mental cobwebs and finger this out. The only time I had a similar problem was after a lightning strike zapped all my electronics. I remember you saying something about setting the address: I wonder if something else with the Opsw settings may have gone nuts. I don't have my manual handy, but see if there is a reset to default procedure.
One note: with the loconet plugged in, the BDL red led will flash with each entry from a throttle indicating traffic on the loconet. Does yours do this? Also, do you have a loconet cable in and another out (series)?

I just got back home from seeing the grand kids. I'll check for the reset function. In the mean time, I get no flashing of the red LED when trying to perform functions with the throttle with the loconet plugged into the BDL168. The BDL168 is on the end of the loconet. I have tried it plugged directly to the DB150 and then with it downline from a UR92. Same results.
I'll get back with the reset info in a little bit.

Ok, I went through and set all the switches of the BDL168 to default, one at a time.
That didn't change anything.
I swapped out the BDL168 with another one and it acted the same. When I plug in the loco net, none of the throttles can operate anything on the layout and the Net/IR light comes on on the UR92.
Another thing that isn't mentioned in the BDL168 manual is what does the green LED flashing about three or four times a second mean. When I take it out of address program mode, it will either go back to the one flash every two seconds or the four time a second.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

I am using 2 on my layout. When my track power is off, all LT5 leds are lit. When the track is on the leds light on the respective blocks as a load is in that block. The green led blinks at a steady slow rate. The red led next to it blinks randomly and rapidly with loconet traffic. If you have a PR-3 and JMRI/PC connected up you can easily see if you have a loconet issue or a wiring problem on the BDL. It can be quite easy to get an AB rail connection crossed. Refer to see how I did the wiring. Post 35
http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=14852&page=4

When you use the JMRI to trouble shoot, do you just run your laptop through the PR-3 and to the BDL168 and disconnect all other loconet connections?

 

[RexHea]

Ken, as Jerry said the green light is blinking normal.. Don't worry about when you remove track power if all the LED's go out or on. This is an Opsw function.

Good call Jerry! I forgot about sync and it is easy to mismatch A/B rails.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Start with just the command station PR3 and PC. If that is ok, add one piece at a time and disconnect it from the 44 socket. Unpowered BDL, you are checking the integrity of the loconet first. If ok, add power only to BDL. If ok, then likely your have an AB rail mismatch. The loconet has AB sync signals on it.

OK, I got it. Will give that a shot tonight.
I'm not clear on the rail sync and how I would recognize it or correct it.

 

[RexHea]

I believe he is saying to double check that the common wire of the command station is connected to the common rail only and the BDL to the detection rails only, i.e. you don't have one section reversed. I have to admit I did this is on a couple and got some very strange symptoms.
BTW: you may want to call Digitrax tech and explain to him what you have. He should be able to immediately steer you in the right area of troubleshooting. If you bought the boards from Tony's, you could call and talk to "Norm" who is an expert and retired from Digitrax.

 

[D&J RailRoad]

Ok, I checked the wiring again and the ground wire to the DB150 was loose. I retightened it with the slave loop wire jumper that is supposed to be in there too.
The detection section LED came on but I still couldn't run a loco unless I disconnected the BDL168 from the loco net.
I removed the 44 pin connector and plugged the loco net into the BDL168 and I could run a train. When I put the 44 pin connector back onto the BDL168, the zone and section LED would not light again.
I getting close to trashing this and looking at some other system.

 

[fcwilt]

One of the nice things about the RR-CirKits approach to detection is that you have individual coils that you place on one of the existing feeders to each section of track for which you desire occupancy detection.

Then you have two wires (23/24 gauge is fine) that run from the coil back to the detector board (the board supports 8 coils).

The detector board connects to one of the ports on the TC-64, which in turn is connected to your LocoNet.

It's a lot simpler to wire then the BDL approach, IMO.

 

[RexHea]

Ken, if you have physically checked out your wiring connections (both common and detection) and found nothing, I would make the call to Digitrax support. You will find them helpful and willing to work with you. The reason I say physically (tracing wires) is that there are some common points in the wiring that a meter may give you misleading values. Contrary to some opinions, you already have the best equipment for the job and Digitrax has been the leader for long time.
BTW:
1. do you only have one detection section wired or are there more? You could always try a different BDL group or just a different BDL detection section:2,3,4.

2. I'm not sure how you wired things, but I ran my rail detection wires to a terminal strip and then hardwired a jumper to the 44 pin board socket. Makes installation and swapping/troubleshooting easy.

3. "A" command station rail to common rail. "B" command station rail to power each group of four detection sections. Detection rail wire to 2,3,4,5, of each group. It doesn't matter if A or B is reversed at the command station, but all common rails must use the same and all detection groups use the other (power and detection).

 

[D&J RailRoad]

One other thought to try. Swap the AB rail wires at the command station connector. Easy experiment.

I can't swap the track feeds because there are two other CSs on the layout. If I did that, the locos would cause a short at the transition from one section to the next.