Troubleshooting General; Nothing Is Responding; No Power Or Intermittent Operation; The Quarter Trick - Digitrax Zephyr xtra Manual

27.0 Troubleshooting General

27.1 nothing is responding

Is track power turned on? If the TRACK STATUS Light is not lit, press the
pOWer Key to turn on track power.

27.2 no power or intermittent Operation

The majority of intermittent operation problems can be traced to bad connec-
tions and poor or noisy wheel pickups on locomotives. The DCC digital packet
communication strategy performs exceptionally well in a less than perfect envi-
ronment, and will often mask bad connections until they are really impossible
to work with! Clean the track and wheel pickups of your locomotives.

27.2.1 the Quarter trick

If your track does not have adequate power supply to the locomotives, then the
DCC signal won't get through either. Take a quarter or screwdriver blade and
go around your layout creating electrical shorts by laying the quarter/screw-
driver blade across both rails every 10 feet. Your DCS51 should shutdown
when the short is present. You will see walking on your display to indicate a
"o"
short circuit shutdown. When the short is removed, the booster should return to
normal operation. If the unit does not see a short or it does not return to normal
operation after the short is removed, then you need to add more feeders.

27.2.2 the lt1 tester

Check your LocoNet cables with the LT1 tester to be sure you don't have any
cables that were made incorrectly. See Section 25.3.3.

27.3 emergency Stop

If the layout starts to "get away" on you, press the pOWer Key to stop every-
thing on the layout.

27.4 Mechanical Drive train problems

Pay attention to the mechanical drive train and free movement of the locomo-
tive wheel sets. This is especially important with inexpensive locomotives.
Using Digitrax decoders with appropriate programming settings, you can
achieve surprisingly good quality operation, if you carefully adjust the mecha-
nisms for smooth running. See manufacturers instructions.

27.5 "Strange" locomotive lights

If you can't control the operation of the lights in your locomotive with the
DCS51, be sure that the decoder is programmed to match the speed setting
commands of your DCS51 command station. The factory setting for the DCS51
is advanced 28/128 speed step mode.
Your Digitrax decoder was shipped programmed to 28/128 speed step mode.
You may have changed your decoder's programming when performing the
decoder test procedure. In any case, if you are not able to turn the locomotives
lights on and off, you will need to change CV 29 to a value of "06" to have
proper light operation when using the DCS51 in its optimum 28/128 speed step
©2012 Digitrax, Inc. www.digitrax.com 52