DCS 6.10 Upgrade - Learn from my mistakes and save yourself some time and aggravation

Thank you for this (OLD) post! Helped me get through an upgrade without resorting to cocaine. 

Ron, any man who can run Windows XP on a Mac deserves my respect.

I'm happy this old Post made a difference.

Have fun!!!

Ron

Just an FYI...

Everything you need to know to make updating DCS easy is discussed, in detail, in The DCS Companion 3rd Edition and also in The DCS WiFi Companion 3rd Edition.

I have 3 tiu's,3 remote handhelds, and 1 wifi unit I need upgraded to the latest versions. I have no idea how to do it and frankly don't want to know. I think this will be the last time I will need to upgrade. Do MTh dealers provide this service? Where would I turn to have these items upgraded? Thanks for any info

Barry Broskowitz posted:

Just an FYI...

Everything you need to know to make updating DCS easy is discussed, in detail, in The DCS Companion 3rd Edition and also in The DCS WiFi Companion 3rd Edition.

@Barry Broskowitz    Barry, you know me, we have talked by phone, and you know that I have all your books and that you have my undying respect. However, I gotta tell you ... I could NOT find reference in your book to the available drivers at MTH's website. I might have missed it. 

I just had to thank @Ron045 for the link. That did the trick for me and my Microsoft Surface Pro, running Windows 10 Pro, using a Sabrent USB-RS232 9-Pin connector. Even Sabrent's drivers did not work, but those at MTH's site DID work (and they are 3 years old). 

So now the TIU is updated to 6.1 as is the remote. The WIU is updated as well ... BUT ...

I am still l having problems.

DCS signal quality is a "1" all across the layout. With that, I re-strung my track power wires and re-connected all my lock-on units, and STILL the signal quality is a "1."

A multi-meter test shows solid 17-18v throughout. 

I gotta think it's the wire. 

-- Dr Joe 

Joe,

I could NOT find reference in your book to the available drivers at MTH's website. I might have missed it. 

While not referring to the MTH drivers specifically, page 192, paragraph 4 discusses installing available software drivers before using a serial to USB cable.

LARAMIEJOE, you may have a bad TIU channel. Have you tried a signal test with all your other TIU channels, to see what the results are? Also try testing with another engine to see if the results are the same.

Barry Broskowitz posted:

Joe,

I could NOT find reference in your book to the available drivers at MTH's website. I might have missed it. 

While not referring to the MTH drivers specifically, page 192, paragraph 4 discusses installing available software drivers before using a serial to USB cable.

Feel free to amend your book with my info Barry.  My residuals are cheap. 😉

Dave Zucal posted:

ROND45, you may have a bad TIU channel. Have you tried a signal test with all your other TIU channels, to see what the results are? Also try testing with another engine to see if the results are the same.

@Barry Broskowitz sent me some tips this morning, which I will get to. Your comment about a bad channel are intriguing. I did blow a fuse on fixed channel 1 and the out-posts were somewhat melted; so, I swapped in some posts from a variable channel that I never use. Bottom line - you could be right about the channel, the blown fuse notwithstanding, although power is coming out and going to the track. Perhaps the signal is not?

Many thanks. 

Thank you all for this thread!  I did my first upgrade to TIUs and remotes via USB to serial adapter and the upgrade itself went smoothly, up to a point. (I was at version 4.x previously).  These are an old TIUs (serial only).

Now, I have 2 tracks that aren't working (on 2 separate  output ports on 1 TIU).  I can't find/run engines on these two tracks.  When I use the engines to do Signal check I get 10s.  But when I try to get voltage it reports 0.0. Yet with multimeter I get 18 V.  Likewise, lighted cars sitting on the tracks are just fine.  One of the engines works fine on another track (just to rule out engine issues).

Did those two outputs somehow get fried during the upgrade? 

Any suggestions? What happens if I do a TIU reset?

Thanks, as always!

Brad

ounce  have done the software upgrade to 6.1 you need to reset both tiu n remote back to factory specs, then try to make them work again ok! also you should buy the DCS companion it's an excellent book for dcs problems written by Barry. you can download it to thumb drive or buy book if they sell it still since Barry has Passed! you might be able to buy on amazon!

The DCS Companion 3rd Edition: Broskowitz, Barry: 9781517374396: Amazon.com: Books

Alan

I don't believe you have to reset to factory defaults for the 6.1 upgrade, that's not part of my normal upgrade, and I've done 35-40 of them.  Many people don't have any backup of all the engines stored in their remote, and are loath to clear them all out and have to load them all again.

I will definitely be buying Barry's book!  I was on here quite a bit during the early 2000's and Barry was SO very helpful to me (and I know to many others).  Now that I have some time on my hands, I am back and was so sad to see of his passing.

Back to topic... I figured it out.  On a whim, I reversed the +/- on the back of the TIU on those 2 outputs and now all is well.  Apparently I need to color code them!

One last question now... the instructions say to remove TIU connections to tracks prior to upgrading.  I upgrade the TIUs in place, so is removing the track connections really necessary?

I strongly suggest you remove all other connections to the TIU.  I know from experience with dozens of them that works well, and I also inspect that leaving things connected to the TIU during the upgrade can't be a good thing.  It's pretty easy to simply pull the connecting plugs, why risk it?  I can't say it won't work as I've never tried to upgrade with a bunch of stuff connected to it.

I have done dozens of the upgrades with the 5 TIU's on our layout plus the dozen or so spares we keep, along with most of the 80 members personal TIU's over the last 4 years. I ALWAYS do it on the bench with nothing hooked up, even the 2 on my home layout. plus my 2 spares.

I've updated mine without pulling the track connections but I don't have a large layout.  If memory serves me Barry also used to update his with everything connected as his were buried under the layout.  He even commented on this in the DCS Companion 3rd Edition Page 140.

I did buy the book, and read it last night.  Barry did in fact say it's OK to keep the tracks connected... in fact he said it in two different places! 

@Brad Trout posted:

I did buy the book, and read it last night.  Barry did in fact say it's OK to keep the tracks connected... in fact he said it in two different places! 

I do this all the time, never had a problem. I don't see why the tracks would cause a problem.

That's fine, I always do them on the bench, since I'm usually updating someone else's TIU and remote.  If it works, then you can do it that way.

Resets haven't been needed when upgrading since back in the early years of this century.  BTW, it is always a good idea yto have all the data---locos, settings, etc---backed up to a computer and kept current.

@RJR posted:

Resets haven't been needed when upgrading since back in the early years of this century.  BTW, it is always a good idea yto have all the data---locos, settings, etc---backed up to a computer and kept current.

Yep, I believe it was going from 2.xx to later versions.  Of course, I may have the versions wrong, but it was a long time ago.  I upgraded a 3xx to 4xx and later 6.1, and never reset anything.