Hooking up programing track to Digitrax Zephyr

[OldEastRR]

Al, physical size is not relevant - its their resistance that is important.    Do you have any which are 1000 ohms or 1 k ohm?

Wow, I really DO have to put a troll face everytime I'm sarcastic, right?
Of my tons of resistors I have several 1K ohms. I'm going to try one now on the track. One K ohm color bands are Brown Black Red, right?
OK, still no reading -- but instead of "no current draw" the message is "no acknowledgement from the decoder".
Maybe the problem is I only have a couple of DT decoders. A lot of TCS, some Bachmann DCC locos, whatever the heck one is in BLI's first run of E7s (way WAY back when), the dead MRC, maybe 2 DTs.
Maybe another problem is everybody assumes of course I had a 1K resistor on my pgm track, and NOBODY uses PAGE programming mode anymore --- except I didn't know all that. When you guys say oh do this or do that or it should work I wonder how many of you are assuming I know every blinkin' thing that's current about DCC. Give me simple, basic info that involves everything about my equipment -- don't expect "everybody knows THAT."
But to end on a happy note (sort of) I finally got the RDC lights to function properly in the right directions -- by scavenging the boards from another RDC. In which I discovered KATO made two kinds of LED colors for these headlights -- one a weak yellow and the other a bright white. So I need to swap out the LEDs on the "broken" boards. More fun microsoldering .....

[Chris333]

Think I made the correct decision   

[peteski]

Think I made the correct decision   

No, I think you are reading an extremely bad example.    I don't have stats about the percentage of model railroaders using DCC vs. DC, but this type of problem is very rare (as you can see on the pages of this forum and other forums).  If DCC was such terrible monster, online forums would be full of  sad stories.  Manufacturers would shy away from including decoders in their offerings. But we both know this is not the case.

[OldEastRR]

Is the DCC track voltage supposed to be 22 v AC?

[mmyers]

No. Zephyr's track voltage should be about 13.8 volts. That's a regulated output so it should not exceed that. It can be less if the supply voltage is low. That would also not be good, btw.

[Burlington Bob]

Do you have access to the operator's manual?  If not go to Digitrax' website.  They have a wealth of information available there. 

I bought a Digitrax Zephyr Xtra a couple of years ago and after reading the manual and paying attention to what I'm doing, I've had no problems doing what I needed.  Maybe there are easier systems to use but I have no regrets and would buy it again. 

[robert3985]

Is the DCC track voltage supposed to be 22 v AC?

So, what the hell does this question mean? 

Are you asking it because you just want to know?
Are you asking it because you took a measurement and it read 22 V AC?
Are you asking it because you heard somewhere that's what the track voltage should be?

Making yourself more clear, and providing more information would go a LONG WAY towards generating valid answers for your DCC problems don'tcha think??

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Greg Elmassian]

This question is on multiple threads, perhaps the OP needs his own personal "catchall" thread. 

Any way, I'd bet my next paycheck that the "22v" is being measured incorrectly.

As I posted on the other thread, get a small full wave bridge, hook across the rails, measure DC on the output, probably add a small filter cap on the output to make up for some of the asymmetry and over/undershoot on the signal.

This will give you an accurate reading... trying to read modulate square wave AC won't work on anything but a true rms AC voltmeter, which are not cheap, a good HP or Fluke meter would do it.

Greg

[John]

This question is on multiple threads, perhaps the OP needs his own personal "catchall" thread. 


This will give you an accurate reading... trying to read modulate square wave AC won't work on anything but a true rms AC voltmeter, which are not cheap, a good HP or Fluke meter would do it.

Greg

True .. but when I measure my DCC track voltage using my cheapo LCD meter, I set it on 20VAC and get around 10-12v indicated with the N setting.. which is close enough .. 22VAC is probably too high for N

[OldEastRR]

No. Zephyr's track voltage should be about 13.8 volts. That's a regulated output so it should not exceed that. It can be less if the supply voltage is low. That would also not be good, btw.

Well, I measured with + lead on a rail and the - lead on the GROUND screw of the Zephyr and got 22 volts. What gives? The GROUND had no wires attached to it.

[OldEastRR]

As I posted on the other thread, get a small full wave bridge, hook across the rails, measure DC on the output, probably add a small filter cap on the output to make up for some of the asymmetry and over/undershoot on the signal.

THIS. Is why I say DCC ain't for nobody except the professional experts on the stuff. I assume those guys have every kind of electronic doodad testing analyzing equipment there is, plus lots of knowhow, so any DCC problem is a snap to solve. Me, I don't got no small full wave bridges, nor a $1000 multimeter, so I'm SOL.
The 22v is what I read on my not-$1000 multimeter. There is lots and lots to learn about DCC before one should even attempt to build a layout with it, it seems. That old pitch line "Just hook up two wires and you're good to go!" was way off base. The fact that it's 13v AC would be a nice universal fact to be out there, like a DC system is 12V. But it's not. The comparison of decoders to computers is pretty apt. They are both temperamental devices, prone to malfunctions, and tricky as a devil to program or diagnose. Maybe someday they'll have the equivalents of Explorer or apps that you download to the decoder. Maybe someday.

[peteski]

   You are trying your hardest to convince yourself and all the people trying to help you that you don't like or want DCC. You'll be happier with DC controlled trains.

[davefoxx]

That old pitch line "Just hook up two wires and you're good to go!" was way off base.

Yet this was exactly what I did on Saturday when I hooked up my new NCE DCC system for the first time.  I didn't even read into the manual deeper than the quick start section.  I had trains running in well under ten minutes.

You can also buy locomotives with decoders factory installed.  DCC is only as complicated as you make it.

DFF

[robert3985]

  You are trying your hardest to convince yourself and all the people trying to help you that you don't like or want DCC. You'll be happier with DC controlled trains.

What he said....

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Greg Elmassian]

Jeeze, 5 minutes with a soldering iron and 2 components to accurately measure track voltage is too much, and who stated the voltmeter costs $1,000?

Why is all of this such a problem? I think if this is really as upsetting as you write, you should indeed go to DC only.

You battle everyone that tries to help, exaggerate the issues, expound on the problems, but not only don't take advice but argue about it.

I don't get it... on the face of it, you are just torturing yourself.

Greg