20 DCC block detection | Digikeijs DR4088-LN | Loconet feedback to Train Controller software 

Thanks for the encouragement - just what I need to motivate me to document my progress. It is good to know when a video has been genuinely informative, as I try to make the videos that I wish someone else had already made to tell me what I need to know...

Glad you enjoyed it!

That makes sense. Thanks.

Thanks John. I am not fully sold of TC yet, and it is not cheap. I want to try iTrain first as well, and also JMRI before I spend the big bucks. Lots of layout to build in the meantime.

@@naivegauge I decided on tc after watching videos made by a Dutch gentleman as I believe, his name is Ruud his RU-vid channel is Ruudsmodelrailway his tutorials I think are amazing each is very well presented.

@@naivegauge can I correct myself the channel is rudysmodelrailway

Thanks John. I seem to spend all my time figuring out how everything works. I am so impatient to start laying lots of track and getting lots of trains running!

Brian, It seems to me that for S11 you can use a standard ethernet cable (4 pairs, 8 connectors on an RJ45 plug). It seems much more convenient as they are the same ones used for computer networking so they are really easy to come by. So I us a loconet cable to connect a DR4088-LN to my loconet bus, but having attached one of those to the system, I can add more DR4088 devices to the original DR4088-LN using the S11 connections. The point here is that a DR4088 is cheaper that a DR4088-LN as it does not have the associated loconet hardware.

@@naivegauge Thanks for your clarification. 👍

The electrical connection blocks are very neat and tidy - much better than solder tag strips! Charlie Bishop (Chadwick Model Railway channel) put me on to them. You can find them on Amazon. It is worth getting a crimping tools and some fork connectors as well to perfect the job. Google for "Qishare screw barrier terminal"

No it does not act as a booster - it only does block detection.

I am just getting started with using them. If they work the way I assume they do, then they will be very useful, and a lot cheaper than the Digitrax equivalent

If multiple pieces of track are in the same block they should electrically be connected together through both rails. So the rail joiners should provide an electrical connection, but I am adding dropper wires to each piece of track so I am not relying on the rail joiners, and then connecting all the droppers for that block a a couple of DCC bus wires for the block. Those bus wires then connect to the DR4088 (red) and black terminal block (black).

@@naivegauge OK that's great,, very much in line with my thoughts but wasn't sure, so thanks for the clarity

I am sure you are right. I also use S88N which can use off the shelf ethernet cables - much better idea.

Yes, that is correct.

It has not been a problem for me. I have a short dropper for each rail on every section of track, and then they are all connected into a pair of bus wires of each block.

Hey John. I do not know about the BDL168 (I deliberately avoided using it, because it seemed over engineered to me and more expensive). However I thing the principle is the same - you just wire up your non-block track direct from the A and B terminals on the controller / booster. This might get a bit more complicated if you use a power manager such as a PM42 which just works like to consumer unit under in the cupboard under your stairs to trip out a part ("power district") of your layout and not the whole thing. Obviously your blocks will be separate from you non-block track sections in the same way that your blocks are separate from each other. It might well be that you are worried about the your black rail from one block being joined to the black rail from a non-block section. I think as long as they both come from the same power district it does not matter (I am no expert). I suggest you read the docs on pm42, bdl168 and also relevant sections of the manual that came with you digitrax system. Digitrax manuals are hard to understand but their online support is good. Another good source is Charlie Bishop (Chadwick Model Railway channel) who has made some good videos on block detection using DBL168 and power districts using PM42.

@@naivegauge many thanks for the information.

Without talking about Power Districts or a PM42 for now. If you want to power tracks between your detected sections or your point motors, these would come direct from the Command Stations Rail A / B Terminals. For sections that are to be block detected as can be seen in the video, Rail B Connections/Droppers are connected directly to the Command Stations Rail B Terminal. Rail A Connections/Droppers for detected sections go to the BDL168 (or equivalent) which in turn has a Rail A supply connection back to the Command Stations Rail A Terminal. In your case the BDL168 is a bit more complicated as it has 4 Rail A supply connections, one for each of the 4 detection Zones (A / B / C / D) and each of these zones has 4 sensors (Zone A Sensors 1-4 / Zone B Sensors 5 - 8 / Zone C Sensors 9 - 12 / Zone D Sensors 13 - 16). Also the connections have to be soldered, but to save a lot of hassle, a company called Accu-Lites produces interface modules that have screw terminals. Now if you consider Power Districts, the Command Stations Rail A / B Terminals supply the PM42 (or similar) then you connect your track or block detectors to the Power District Rail A / B feeds exactly as above. Where you would supply from the Command Station, you supply from the Power District feeds and where you would wire Rail B back to the Command Station you would wire back to the Power District Rail B feed. You must make sure though that you do not cross connect power districts.

@@Vonzack many thanks for that information and explaining it so clearly. I'm still in the process of planning and wiring up the blocks whilst trying to do it in a logical manner so traincontroller knows where the locos are etc in order to control the layout, I'm going to do two sets of track first including points with detection blocks either side of undetected track to prove hopefully everything is okay without shorts, once I've proved it's okay I'll add further lengths of track until the layout forms a complete loop testing as I progress. I've already soldered the connection's to the BDL168 but when I need more detection I will buy the Accu-Lites breakout board. Many thanks once again. Best regards John

I do not use JMRI, but it should work with JMRI, yes. As for the thing about the total length of the train, it is common practice to put a resistor across pickups in the brake van of a train for the reason you mention. Chadwick Charlie (Chadwick Model Railway channel) has done a view on how to add a resistor to a wheel set to achieve this. He also did a good view on how to add lights to a brake van which will have the same effect as will lighting inside coaches.

cool. your system sounds really awesome.

From amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B076BJ88BP

To be honest I am currently mulling the iTrain / traincontroller question at the moment. I have a trail of train controller installed, but has not yet started looking at iTrain as I understand I only get a month or so to trail it. I will give it a got when I have laid more track etc. I understand that it is not necessary to use railcom (or transponding in the Digitrax world), as the software can work out which train has just moved from one block to another and long as it knows how to points are set and the location and direction of all the trains to start with. It did occur to me that I could install a small number of blocks that can ID the locos on them on high traffic route (station throat etc) so that the system would be able to keep track of things overtime.

@@naivegauge Hi, In the end I used the two month trial of iTrain and went with that, mainly because of the history of the chap that makes Train controller seems to be a bit ropey. I think you get two months on iTrain as a trial. I have swapped my DR4088’s for DR5088RC’s.. (I’m terrible at tracking trains).. Digikeijs own website has them with about £30.00 off the price which seems to make it competitive.. Have you addressed your loop yet?, LS 5410 seems to work well with both the above. Great videos I watch with interest! Keep up the good work.

Sounds like you are making far more progress that I am! I have heard about the reputation of the traincontroller developer - not encouraging. It is a lot of money, I need to know that it will be supported and I will not get forced into unrequested upgrades etc. I am currently playing around with Infrared detectors and finding ways of embedding them in the track which is difficult in n-gauge. I have order some 3mm IR LEDs and IR photodiodes to modify the detectors as they should fit snuggly between the sleepers. Lots of fun!

@@naivegauge only because I don't sleep till midnight lol and because of the likes of the videos from yourself, rule 1 and chadwick!!

So you press whatever buttons on your system send a command to operate an accessory (i.e. a point motor) with the address number that you want to send to the DR4088. For example, if I wanted to set the DR4088 to report on blocks 50 to 65, then I would use my throttle to first change point number 50 (because 50 is the address of the first block for the dr4088), and then I would use the throttle to change point 16 (because this DR4088 is controlling 16 blocks). It does not matter whether or not you have got a point 50 or a point 16 on your layout - you are just sending those commands onto the loconet so the dr4088 will pick them up for programming. I am using a digitrax system, but your system might be different. On my system I am using a DT500 throttle. So the buttons I press are: "SWCH" (to put it into accessory / switch mode (Americans call points "switches") "5" "0" (to specify accessory 50) "c" or "t" to send the command to set the "switch" / point / accessory to "continue" or "throw" It does not matter which you choose, it is the address that the DR4088 is interested in. I am still learning how to use my digitrax system. The manual is not great. Feel free to ask more questions, but I am not an expert.

@@naivegauge thanks sorry for slow response. I have now got it working. I have the same set up as you but couldn’t see the keys being pressed on the handset.. I couldn’t get it to work then I found some issues. Was setting the computer i/f to 56k baud rate. My test set up used a hornby power track and it would detect current. When I removed this is started detecting. Tried a second power track same issue. There must be an inductance or capacitance issue in the power track. Also when setting the second switch it’s the number of ports in the devise not the upper address. One strange thing I have is the red led flashes with no SS8 cable. Does you set up do the same?

Auto correct:- it wouldn’t detect current when using the power track.