DT402D, DT500D and UT4D Not Working Properly With The UR93

Frank Fezzie gathered a lot of information from users on the Digitrax groups.io forum that were having communication problems with the UR93 and older Digitrax throttles (DT402D, DT500D and the UT4D). Frank has been a major player in solving some pretty tough problems with Digitrax issues in the past.

Here is his final report on the resolution of this problem.
---
Digitrax appears to have had a small batch of recent RF28 modules that had slightly fast timing causing them to fail to work properly with older throttles such as the UT4D, DT402D, and DT500D.  Digitrax has to deal with these on a case by case basis.  The affected units may have to go back to Digitrax for adjustment.  It is important to note that not all UR93's have this issue.

The latest UR93 IPL, 30Aug21, does modify a number of units into a timing range closer to legacy Duplex units, allowing those UR93’s to work well with the older throttles.

Most customers will not have an issue, particularly on older UR93's and if they are running an "all-modern" duplex setup.  The DT602D and UT6D's throttles work well with all UR93’s and UR92’s.

If you have trouble with older throttles such as the UT4D, DT402D, and DT500D failing to work wirelessly with your UR93 then do the following.

1. If possible test your older throttle with a UR92 to confirm that the throttle works properly in wireless mode. 
2. Install the 30Aug21 IPL update into your UR93. 
3. If you still have problems contact the Digitrax Help desk for further assistance. Your UR93 may have to go back to Digtrax for adjustment.

After our two UR93's were adjusted by Digitrax my testing of the units went very well.  I have seen no need to close option switches 11 and 12 (or was it 12 and 13) to prevent the UR93 from changing channels.  When changing duplex group information on the UR93’s remember to use a Digitrax throttle.  JMRI appears to not always set the information in the UR93 correctly.  I suspect DigiGroupSetup would also work but I did not test it.

I saw significant improvement in range of the UR93.  On our museum layout we use one UR92 to cover layout in a big room.  Coverage was marginal at the corners of the room or if I used my body to shield the DT402D throttle.  After replacing the UR92 with the UR93 I found that coverage was solid all throughout the room and I could not trigger the flashing white light on the throttle even when shielding it with my body while in the far corners of the room.

I tested with a UR93 and a UR92 on the same loconet separated by about 50 feet.  All throttles worked well with both radios and switched between the units properly.  They did favor the UR93 due to its greater signal strength and I had to get within 10 feet of the UR92 before they would switch to it.  I would expect that large "basement empire" layouts may find that a single UR93 will cover the bulk of the room and one or more UR92's could fill in where there is a dead spot, in a separate room for example.  My general advice would be to start by locating one or more UR93's to provide good overall coverage and then use UR92's if desired to fill in the areas with weak signal.  Use as few UR devices as possible to minimize the amount of switching between radios that a throttle has to do.

One problem that still exists is that the throttles will sometimes miss a message coming from the system to the throttle.  There is no error checking or missed message checking for signals from the UR93 or UR92 to the throttle.  This is part of the design of Digitrax Duplex.  This error is most commonly seen when doing one of the following;

1. Acquiring an engine, a digit entered will not show up, or hitting ENTER to acquire appears to fail leaving the engine # flashing.
2. Entering a turnout number in switch mode, a digit is entered and fails to show on the screen.
3. Changing direction or turning a function on or off.  Pressing the button fails to activate the change or the change does not show on the screen.

I saw less of these problems with the UR93 but I still saw some.

My final conclusion is that the UR93 works well with all duplex throttles and works well with UR92's.  If you have problems, make sure that all devices have the latest IPL software installed.  If you still have problems then contact Digitrax for assistance.  You may have units with RF28 radio modules that are out of tolerance.

Frank Fezzie

<Addendum>

There have been a few reports about UT6D and DT602D throttles, with the RF28 module, failing to work with UR92’s.  This may be a similar problem where in this case the RF28 module in the throttle fails to talk to the RF24  module in the UR92.  I gave Digitrax Engineering a heads up message about it but I have not heard anything back.  As with the UR93 problem, I suspect that they have to handle these on a case by case basis with the defective equipment going back to Digitrax for adjustment.
 
Relatively few people have complained about having either issue so I also suspect that Digitrax is correct when they say that most equipment will not have these problems.
---

Thanks Frank, this will help out a lot of people and will probably get things back on track with Digitrax.

---

If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.

JMRI Developers Recommend To Not Install Java 8 update 311

There are reported issues involving at least throttle functions with this Java update.

Reverting to update 301 or upgrading to Java 11 corrects the issues.

JMRI Developers recommend Java 11 if your computer can run it.
https://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/setup/index.shtml

There is a java uninstall tool located here.

---

If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.

Preventing Users Changing Decoder Settings via TCS Audio Assist

The by-definition "disabling" of Audio Assist is not possible in Version 4 and older WOWSound decoders; however, there are workarounds...

The Mute function is tied together with Audio Assist on Button 8. If you use CV programming to map the mute "sound" to any other button other than button 8, you will now have a mute function independent of Audio Assist. At this point, you can go in and remove the sound function of button 8, meaning it will no longer mute the decoder. This workaround should prevent users from accidentally entering the program while attempting to simply mute the decoder, which is likely the first reason why there might be configuration options changing.

It is not actually possible (as far as I know) to prevent Button 8 from accessing Audio Assist. It doesn't matter what sound is mapped there, Audio Assist will continue to function.

As an alternative, or in addition to the steps above, you can ensure that your "desired" configurations are always saved to some (or many) User Presets. Using the user presets feature allows you to, at any time, restore the configurations of the locomotive to some known state. This is always recommended as the last step in your installation process, to serve as a safety, and eliminate the need/hassle of performing a factory reset (and doing everything from scratch).

CV15/16 "Decoder Lock" will not prevent the Audio Assist program from changing CV and sound configurations. This is an oversight which we are planning to address in the future.

--

Dan

Engineering and Product Development

Train Control Systems

---

If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.

TCS Update On UWT-50 Throttle Production

From TCS 13 OCT 2021:

We are still working through some necessary fixes on the final plastics before we can begin production and begin shipping the UWT-50. We do not have an official timeline as of yet, as we have not received an ETA on production-run case plastics from our supplier (following the fixes). We will be posting an official update once we have a official ship date.

Your patience is appreciated, and we do sincerely apologize for the delay. Rest assured that this product is still well underway, with several unexpected factors outside of our direct control impacting our deadlines. Our entire development team has been working hard to bring this product. These setbacks in some areas have allowed us time to make improvements in others. Silver linings!

We look forward to delivering these products soon. We think it will be worth the wait!
--
Dan

Engineering and Product Development
Train Control Systems

---

If you have an idea for a blog post here, let me know. If I can comment on it, I will or I'll see if someone else can and post it.