Joined
·
1 Posts
Hi all,
First try on this forum, hoping to find a resolution to a small problem experienced at our Club. We are operating a medium size layout powered by a DCS100 and divided into 6 districts protected by electronic circuit breakers. We have our main terminal yard operating on a separate district powered by DB150 booster. The issue revolves around our LocoNet cable connection between the booster and the layout. We have a UP-5 that serves the booster and early this year the cable between booster and UP stopped working. We changed the cable after testing the old and the new and same problem, so we changed out the UP as well. Still no joy. One of the members discovered that if the cable is just barely inserted into the UP connector, the signal gets through and the booster works OK. If the cable is fully inserted into the UP and JUST BARELY inserted into the booster connector, again the thing works. The signal will not pass in any combination of connections if the cable is fully inserted in both end connectors. There are no issues with track phase at the junction between the yard and the rest of the layout and the booster is not conflicting with the command station, just not communicating. We contacted Digitrax but they have never heard of this kind of issue. They did advise us to return the booster for testing / repair, but it drives the start and end point of every train we run, so we will do that as a last possible resort. I built a cable with end RP jacks and open wires between so I could try reversing wires or eliminating connections but nothing works except just jiggling the cable jack in the connector. At this time the cable is held in place with 2 toothpicks and a hank of duct tape (is there ANYTHING that stuff doesn't fix ?) We can live with it as is, but I would like to find out what the issue is if nothing else, plus it is a pain if someone nudges the wire under the control panel that serves the yard. It usually ends up with 1/2 hour of wiggling and cursing before one can find the SWEET SPOT again.
Any thoughts, experience or ideas would be gratefully accepted. I got 0 results on the Digitrax users forum.
Cheers,
Iain
![]()
First try on this forum, hoping to find a resolution to a small problem experienced at our Club. We are operating a medium size layout powered by a DCS100 and divided into 6 districts protected by electronic circuit breakers. We have our main terminal yard operating on a separate district powered by DB150 booster. The issue revolves around our LocoNet cable connection between the booster and the layout. We have a UP-5 that serves the booster and early this year the cable between booster and UP stopped working. We changed the cable after testing the old and the new and same problem, so we changed out the UP as well. Still no joy. One of the members discovered that if the cable is just barely inserted into the UP connector, the signal gets through and the booster works OK. If the cable is fully inserted into the UP and JUST BARELY inserted into the booster connector, again the thing works. The signal will not pass in any combination of connections if the cable is fully inserted in both end connectors. There are no issues with track phase at the junction between the yard and the rest of the layout and the booster is not conflicting with the command station, just not communicating. We contacted Digitrax but they have never heard of this kind of issue. They did advise us to return the booster for testing / repair, but it drives the start and end point of every train we run, so we will do that as a last possible resort. I built a cable with end RP jacks and open wires between so I could try reversing wires or eliminating connections but nothing works except just jiggling the cable jack in the connector. At this time the cable is held in place with 2 toothpicks and a hank of duct tape (is there ANYTHING that stuff doesn't fix ?) We can live with it as is, but I would like to find out what the issue is if nothing else, plus it is a pain if someone nudges the wire under the control panel that serves the yard. It usually ends up with 1/2 hour of wiggling and cursing before one can find the SWEET SPOT again.
Any thoughts, experience or ideas would be gratefully accepted. I got 0 results on the Digitrax users forum.
Cheers,
Iain
