Author Topic: BDL168 DOH  (Read 1107 times)

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John

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BDL168 DOH
« on: July 05, 2015, 01:50:21 PM »
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This weekend, I spent some time adding some block detectors to a section of the layout .. while doing this work, one of my BDL 168s went whacko and stopped detecting.. broke out the VOM, started checking everything .. checked for shorts, etc .. 12 hours of work, I stumbled across a loconet cable that I made which I forgot to "twist" so that blue wire was always to the right ..  as soon as I replaced that, everything worked fine .. odd .. its been in place for over a year .. never a problem ... oh well .. DCC = FM

seusscaboose

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Re: BDL168 DOH
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2015, 02:03:24 PM »
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More evidence that DCC gremlins DO exist :)
"I have a train full of basements"

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mmyers

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Re: BDL168 DOH
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2015, 04:10:44 PM »
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John,
 Is it possible that option switch #3 was closed? That one allows for a reversed loconet cable. Resetting it to thrown would cause trouble if a cable was reversed because the rail common and detection sections would be reversed to rail sync.

just a thought...

Martin

John

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Re: BDL168 DOH
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2015, 04:17:59 PM »
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John,
 Is it possible that option switch #3 was closed? That one allows for a reversed loconet cable. Resetting it to thrown would cause trouble if a cable was reversed because the rail common and detection sections would be reversed to rail sync.

just a thought...

Martin

Martin -- It's possible .. but I've had some other gremlins in that area of the layout that was dragging down the network ..  I have the BDL168, 2x SE8C, 2X DS64s, 2x UR90 and 1x UR91.   I might have to look into the 14V power .. I run a layout wide DC bus powered by a 2amp laptop power supply ..

sp org div

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Re: BDL168 DOH
« Reply #4 on: July 07, 2015, 02:26:03 AM »
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Martin is so humble... he knows this sh**.   :)
You are good with a common PS for the SE8 shared with the BDLs, and a separate PS for loconet devices like UP5, UR90 and 91, but not sure on those DS64's (as I dont use any)...
IIRC the 64s are known for dragging down the V off loconet so I think ok to pair with the 5 and 91....  ?
Somewhere I remember reading in the dgtrx manual(s) not to share outside the above parameters (see the SE8 manual?). 
The layout here shares one PS for all BDLs and SE8s, but most of the other network devices are fed from separate PSs...
She is stable.

Jeff
http://espeeoregondivision.blogspot.com/