Thanks for the kind words, Larry.
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Fixing an annoying circuit breaker problem.
I've been having a problem with the Digitrax DCS210 command station with 4 DB210 boosters and DCC specialties PSX-4 circuit breakers (CB's). I've got the layout broken into 10 districts (D1-D12, 2 CB's not being used). When running multiple trains and a short occurs in one district, resetting the problem CB causes all the CB's to blink on and off along with the boosters. Larry the tech guy at DCC specialties had me add a SPST push button toggle and this works for one train running. I've sent an email off to Larry but he must be busy. Initially, a consensus was the layout has a common rail (from old DC days) which the manual says is a 'no no' so I cut all the common rail for each of the 10 districts and ran all new 14 gauge wire to each district; lots of fun crawling under the layout when you're 74 but I got it done!
Well, the separate common rails didn't work. I started trying different scenarios and one was putting a SPST slide switch on the output side of each CB via the ground. Surprisingly this works but a 3 step process is needed.
1. When a short will occur in a district, the CB's center LED will come on and Digitrax doesn't try to reset it. The normal procedure was to reset it to see if it was just momentary. If the short wasn't momentary, Digitrax and the CB's would start blinking constantly. I tried changing a digitrax switch cv from 't' to 'c' to delay resetting by 0.5 seconds but that didn't work. I've looked at the PSX-4 manual and it has some CV's that can be modified but I was hoping Larry would guide me to which ones, if any, could be changed to remedy this problem.
NOTE: this seems to only happen on the boosters. The command station works 'as it should' when a quarter is placed on the tracks.
2. The new procedure is, after a short, to put the right slide switch to OFF and then reset the left push button and then go to step 3.
3. Push the right slide switch back to ON. If the short still exists, the PSX-4 will still indicate it (center LED) but Digitrax and the DB will not 'fight' each other. Not sure why but on the first short, no problems but, when resetting the CB, all 'h@ll' breaks loose!
All the CB's are above the old main control panel and, easily, visible when a short occurs.
Along with the reset button on the left of each CB is, now, an ON/OFF slide switch on the right side.
I'm not sure how many hours I spent running wire under the layout and installing all the new wire to the CB's, etc but my last district that needed updating took me about 3 hours to resolve. There were two ground wires connected to the common side of the 2 tracks leading to the interchange but I couldn't find the other 2 wires that were also connected to the common rails.....
Finally, I found them; they were a foot away, on the back side of the rails and I completely missed them. Who puts another set of ground wires only a foot away: I have no idea why I did that 40 years ago! I started at 7:30 this morning and just finished the remainder of this project at 6 PM. I kept talking to myself questioning the 'validity of my conception' but shear luck won out. Now I can get something to eat.
One last note: The layout occupies a 33'X47' basement so wire runs are pretty long. Most of my previous wiring, usually, had 2 ground wires (same with hot side), going to each block. I 'cheated' and didn't connect all ground wires coming down from the track. I've read where 'they' say you should have feeders for every section of track. When building the layout 40 years ago, I used all jumper wires between each 3' piece of rail (no rail joiners used). I testing one engine and all worked fine with sound, etc when testing over the entire mainline. Hopefully, there's no loss of signal when I run multiple trains. If so, more crawling around under the layout!
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later:
Thinking about it, when I was building the layout, I had the PFM sound system and lots of 'feeds' were needed or the chuff would be 'lost'. The extra feeds a foot apart, probably, resolved a 'chuff' problem. Even today, I feel the PFM sound system had an outstanding sound (the bell was hokey until System II came out with tapes). I still miss the 'hiss' for brake release coming down grade: not sure why the decoder people don't add that! It seems like 3 hours resolving the problem but was, probably, closer to 1 or 1.5 hrs (just seemed like it).