TIU inconsistently recognizing AIUs

I'm guessing you only have 1 TIU?  With 5 aius you must have quite a bit of stuff installed in the remote. I don't know what you can do without losing all  the stuff entered in the remote, I don't know if a tiu reset would help, I wouldn't reset the tiu until someone know for sure whether a reset is a good idea or not. Maybe just power down the tiu and start adding aiu one at a time.

Joe,

I'm assuming that you made the new cables because you needed the extra length. If so, can you physically move the AIUs back to where they were originally, and replace the original cables, in their original order?

The problem is either that the new cables are not working or you upset something when you moved the AIUs. Realistically, there really aren't any other possibilities.

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Joe,

You can safely reset the TIU. All you'll lose are Record/Playback sessions and Custom Sounds. You won't lose any AIU stuff.

I wnt out and purchased some pre-made 25ft 6-conductor wires to connect my AIU3 to AIU4 and AIU4 to AIU5. Now all predefined switches are working.

I can add switches to AIU1,3 & 3. I cannot scroll to AIU4 or 5 when trying to add a switch, however the previously defined switches on AIU4 and AIU5 all work.

Not sure why this is, as when I had things running before, I could (and did) add switches to AIU4 & 5. For now, I don't need to add any more switches to AIU4 & 5, as all the switches connected to these AIUs were previously defined in the AIU.

Just curious about why my TIU can't see these two AIUs, yet I can activate the switches by pressing the MTH handheld "SW" button.

Still confused, but somewhat thankful: Joe K

I have one bad connection on the wire between AIU2 and AIU3, which has been identified by using a purchased wire. I have replaced the connectors on the bad wire a few times, with no change. Good thing I don't do this for a living.

For some reason, my bad wire between AIU3 & AIU4 is now working again, as it did yesterday.

Also, my TIU can now see all 5 AIUs, don't know why it could not for a while, nor why it returned. Just happy to be playing trains again.

Going for dinner, drinks are in order.

Don't really understand why I was having so much problems with wires that I did not change out.

Better to be lucky than smart.

Thanks for your help and Ideas: Joe K

Joe,

With 5 AIU cables, two of which are 25' long, you may be right on the edge of losing communication with the last 1 or 2 AIUs.

My AIU cabble lengths are as follows:

TIU to AIU1 = 12ft

AIU1 to AIU2 = 12ft

AIU2 to AIU3 = 15ft

AIU3 to AIU4 = 20ft

AIU4 to AIU5 = 25ft

Do you see any problems with this? I could relocate AIU1 to be closer to the TIU and reduce the distance between TIU and AIU1=5ft, and AIU1 to AIU2 = 6ft

Thanks: Joe K

Joe,

Do you see any problems with this?

Yes, I do. You have almost 90' of cabling between the TIU and AIU #5, with 45' between AIUs 3 and 5. That's way more than I would expect the very low voltage signals on the chain can handle.

MTH "specs" would be 15' for the chain of 5 AIUs.

Marty Fitzhenry has a method to augment the voltage by providing back feeding a voltage connection to AIU #5. That might help. Unfortunately, I don't haver the details handy.

I will check into Marty's aux power connection recommendation for my AIUs that are far from my TIU, Which on my layout is AIU4 & AIU5.

I now have 4 AIU's (2-5) connected to track detection and running on the Hikel system. I am able to control all the switches and uncouplers using my Ipad as a local control pannel. There is a bit of a delay on the activation of the switches, some of the time. Not sure if this is network signal strength or the AIU being so far from the TIU.

However, everything works fine. It turned out that I had a bad wire between AIU2 & AIU3, and was using the other part of the same original 25ft wire to test. I have changed the connectors many times, with no improvement, so I removed the wire and placed both pieces in garbage so I don't accidently use it later. Temporary replacement wire is 25ft, soon to be replaced with 12ft wire.

I cannot shorten the length of my AIU linking cables, as the wire goes from the AIU near floor level, to under table, along back of table, then down and under the carpet. I also have a 4ft tether at each AIU so I can remove the AIU from under the train table and work with it sitting on my lap while seated beside the layout. This makes working with teh AIU and all the connecting wires at the terminal block  reasonably comfortable. Each AIU is mounted on a 11"x18" board, with terminal blocks for all the inputs mounted to the top and one side of the board.

Thanks for your help, and I will report on any impovements I can make to my Ipad wireless switch reaction time, assuming I can make improvements.

Barry, have you tried to control your switches using the Ipad as a control pannel using the Hikel system? If so, do you ever see a delay in touching the Ipad screen, and the switch activation? On my layout, I get a pretty good real time response at the switch most of the time, although sometimes it takes a few seconds (3 - 5 - 8 seconds) for the switch to throw. The longer response means I press the button twice, so the switch ends up throwing, then going back to what it was before, since I pushed the Ipad button twice.

My network hub is in the train room, so signal strength should not be a problem. I will end up upgrading my wireless network when something beter comes on the market.

Starting to make some progress and should have the last AIU hooked up and running by end of January. Then things should start to get interesting.

Thanks: Joe K

Joe,

Barry, have you tried to control your switches using the Ipad as a control pannel using the Hikel system? If so, do you ever see a delay in touching the Ipad screen, and the switch activation? On my layout, I get a pretty good real time response at the switch most of the time, although sometimes it takes a few seconds (3 - 5 - 8 seconds) for the switch to throw

I don't have any issues such as what you describe. Switches throw nearly as fast as they do with the DCS Remote.