Digitrax DCS50 Issue

[Grampy]

I have a DCS50 and I have 4 locos assigned 1,2,3,and 4. I also did a jump
connection with an older smooth DC controller, and assigned loco 1 to it for my
grandson.

I was playing around with the trains today, and had engine# 4 going around the
track while running engine#3 in a small yard. After running engine#1 around for
a little bit with the jumper control, I brought the train to a stop, powered
down the tracks, powered them back on and ran engines 1,3,and 4 from the DCS50
main console. Then all of a sudden, engine# 3 would intermittently stop
completely, and engine #4 would start up without my even selecting it. I did the
"loco 3 loco" sequence and loco 3 started again.....but several times it stopped
on it's own. What can be causing this.....?

Thanks....

 

[Gardner]

If you think that strange, here's a better one. I have a brand new Zephyr Xtra -- I'm a newbie to DCC by the way -- and have been running some old, some updated Athearns, and two brand new locos.

The new ones are loco locos. First the MTH 70Aces ran but without sound, one time on another day it ran with sound in DCC. My new Intermountain has never run under DCC power, All of my Athearn plug and playsrun well in DCC.

Today I set up a 4-foot plain old DC test track to check the InterMountain before shipping it back and it ran perfactly! so did my MTH with bells and whistles and all that good junk. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Gardner

PS--BTW, will someone please explain how you get an "f" number on your DCC unit readout panel. I am assuming the "f" stands for function.

 

[CSX Robert]

I have a DCS50 and I have 4 locos assigned 1,2,3,and 4. I also did a jump
connection with an older smooth DC controller, and assigned loco 1 to it for my
grandson.

I was playing around with the trains today, and had engine# 4 going around the
track while running engine#3 in a small yard. After running engine#1 around for
a little bit with the jumper control, I brought the train to a stop, powered
down the tracks, powered them back on and ran engines 1,3,and 4 from the DCS50
main console. Then all of a sudden, engine# 3 would intermittently stop
completely, and engine #4 would start up without my even selecting it. I did the
"loco 3 loco" sequence and loco 3 started again.....but several times it stopped
on it's own. What can be causing this.....?

Thanks....

It sounds like when switching among control of the different engines, you ended up with an engine being selected on the Zephyr's main throttle and one of the jump throttles at the same time. Make sure you release an engine from one throttle before selecting it with another. For example, if you are running engine 3 on a jump throttle and want to control it from the main throttle, go to the jump throttle and either select another engine or press "LOCO" then "EXIT" to release engine 3 from that jump throttle before selecting it on the main throttle.

...
PS--BTW, will someone please explain how you get an "f" number on your DCC unit readout panel. I am assuming the "f" stands for function.

To control the functions with the Zephyr Xtra, just press 0-9 for functions 0-9, FUNC+10, then 0-9 for functions 10-19, or FUNC+20, then 0-8 for functions 20-28. There is no indication on the Zephyr Xtra's display for which functions are on.

 

[Grampy]

Thank you CSX Robert......that's exactly what happened. I did not release (I didn't know I had to....but I do now...!) engine 1 from the Jump Throttle before trying to run it again from the DCS console.

Yesterday I disconnected the Jump Throttle and ran all 4 trains from the DCS console for almost an hour and had no problems whatsoever. I'll re-attach the Jump Throttle and make sure I do the proper sequence of selecting another train to run, or exiting the Jump Throttle altogether.

Thanks again.....!