Tam Valley and JMRI

[garethashenden]

I have some Tam Valley Micro Singlets installed running servo point motors. I recovered them from a previous layout and they work well with push button controls. One of the things I like the most about them is that they run off the DCC bus. Just wire them in like track droppers and everything is great.

The problem I’m encountering is that I think this setup interferes with JMRI. I got that set up recently, and I know the basics work because I can drive a locomotive with my phone. But if I try to do anything more complicated, including just read a decoder address, the servos chatter and I get an error.

I had a bit of a look around and I can’t find anyone else reporting this problem. I suspect this may be a self selecting problem; the people that use Micro Signlets don’t use JMRI and the people who use JMRI use a more whole-layout approach to turnout control. But before I rip them out I thought I’d see if anyone has encountered this yet.

[peteski]

The problem I’m encountering is that I think this setup interferes with JMRI. I got that set up recently, and I know the basics work because I can drive a locomotive with my phone. But if I try to do anything more complicated, including just read a decoder address, the servos chatter and I get an error.

I'm confused with that statement.  I assume the Micro Singlets (stationary) decoders are powered from the same DCC bus which powers the mobile decoders (locos).  How then would you read the Micro Singlets and get chatter?  You can't read CVs on the main line.  What error, and where? What command station are you using?  All that would helpful troubleshooting info.

[C855B]

Take JMRI out of the equation and try to control them through DCC commands from your throttle.

[John]

http://tamvalleydepot.com/images/Micro_Singlet_Manual_v1.pdf

[garethashenden]

I'm confused with that statement.  I assume the Micro Singlets (stationary) decoders are powered from the same DCC bus which powers the mobile decoders (locos).  How then would you read the Micro Singlets and get chatter?  You can't read CVs on the main line.  What error, and where? What command station are you using?  All that would helpful troubleshooting info.

What I was trying to do was to read a locomotive decoder that was on the mainline. If that's something I can't do, then I will have to set up a separate programming track, which I probably should have done anyway. The base system is an NCE PowerCab. It does seem obvious now that all those decoders would confuse things.

[peteski]

What I was trying to do was to read a locomotive decoder that was on the mainline. If that's something I can't do, then I will have to set up a separate programming track, which I probably should have done anyway. The base system is an NCE PowerCab. It does seem obvious now that all those decoders would confuse things.

You can't ready any CVs on the mainline with the NCE system (or any system or even a decoder which is not RailCom compatible).  So whatever you did obviously affected the operation.

But since NCE Power Cab uses the same track output for both operation and programming, I suspected your mainline track became programming track and having multiple decoders on programming track will cause problems because they will all reply to programming packets.