Q.- Why do engines repeat certain commands?
A.- The three things that can cause this are low DCS signal strength, multiple feeds to the same block or lack of acknowledgement by the engine. Low DCS signal strength and a lack of acknowledgment of commands can be caused by dirty track, wheels or pickup rollers.
I came across the above question and an alarm went off in my head about track blocks.
Lets hope I can describe my wiring properly:
I'm going to use 1 TUI channel as an example. For sake of description I have 3 TIU's and am using all 4 outputs in fixed mode. Each channel has a MTH Z1000 brick or a handle from a Z4000.
So, 1 TUI channel has a feeder (heavy gauge) wire running to a power block. That power block has feeders going to sections of track. All those sections are on the same Z1000 and make up the "block". I did not make blocks between each feeder. For example I could have 20 feet of track with 3 drops running to it all from the same power block and these are not isolated from each other. Is this a cause for low DCS signal or DCS "echo"?
I do have some issues with loco's not responding or being very slow to respond to commands. I've been attributing it to the fact I also have some Atlas engines on the rails that do not have a choke installed yet. I also, having pulled the Atlas loco's from the rails to do any DCS signal testing.
Should I considering cutting blocks between each feeder drop?
