Digitrax's Holiday Closure Times For 2023

Digitrax will be closed 12/22/2023@5pm CST

Will re-open 1/2/2024@ 8am CST

For Christmas and News Years Holidays

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Atlas Acquires Custom Signals

For Immediate Release

December 21, 2023

Hillside, NJ- 

Atlas Model Railroad Co Inc, Hillside, NJ announced today the acquisition of Custom Signals of Poughkeepsie, NY. Custom Signals specialized in O scale signal products and building signal systems for layouts.

The asset purchase agreement, finalized on Friday, December 15th, includes in part, the balance of inventory, the Track/Signal Configuration Library, and all Custom Signals tools, comprising molds, dies, designs, plans, and diagrams for all current and proposed products.

Paul Graf, Atlas CEO said, “This purchase will allow the expansion of our signal line from a basic Automatic Block Signaling system (ABS) to a full Absolute Permissive Block Signaling system (APB).  It will grow our N and HO signal products, and offer all customers valuable assistance in building track layouts using the Atlas All Scales Signal System.”

Atlas currently offers an extensive line of products in the Atlas All Scales Signal System. The line was first introduced in the early 2000s while working with Terry Christopher from Custom Signals.  It was revamped in 2019 with an additional line of products for use in N, HO & O scales.  With this purchase we now have a full line of products for use in N, HO and O scales.
These easy-to-install signals and signal system now make it possible to incorporate the reality of the prototype into your scale modeling experience. 

To remain updated on all Atlas products and special announcements, sign up for the Atlas Insider Email here.

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Random Dropping of Consists With DT602D Throttles Updated - 2023-12-17

The author belongs to The Hostlers Model Railroad Club of Ogden, Utah whose modular layout is currently set up at a local mall for the month of December. We have a minimum of 9 members running trains on it, 3 at a time, for about 8 hours a day 7 days a week until New Years Eve. Running started the day after Thanksgiving.

Members have complained that they are randomly losing consists in the middle of running causing runaway locomotives. The author has also experienced this and it is happening relatively often.

The only common factor to the problem is that it only happens to users with DT602D throttles. The 400 and 500 series throttles work flawlessly.

There is also a museum layout where this has happened (to the author at least). There's a lot fewer members running trains there and the author hasn’t had the opportunity to talk to many of them.

Frank Fezzie of the groups.io Digitrax forum brought up the following point:

One difference between the DT602D and the DT402D/DT500D is that the DT602D goes all the way to Power Off as it goes through the stages of saving battery power.  When it has powered off the DT602D can no longer send the "ping" message to the command station every 50 seconds or so which tells the command station that the throttle is still out there controlling its assigned engines.  This can result in the command station purging the slots from active status for that throttle.  When the DT602D is started back up it will attempt to reacquire the engine that it was running but the consist may be damaged by the purge process.  The result is that some of the engines that were in the consist are now not in the consist and are running but not controlled by any throttle.  The DT402D and DT500D also can go into power save mode but they do stay powered on and continue to send the "ping" signal so the command station does not purge their slots.

How to prevent this?…disable address purging in the command station.

<Author’s note>
Disable purging of addresses by setting the Command Station’s OpSw14 to “C”losed.

This change was made to the command station and the author will report back with an update of the results after more run time testing.

<Update 2023-12-17>
After a week of testing by several users running multiple consists it appears that preventing address purging at the command station has corrected the consist dropping problems we were experiencing. The tests included manually dropping and re-consisting the same engines in different orders. 
The mention of "stealing" addresses being a possible cause of the problems will be taken care of by holding a mini-clinic on this at our next club meeting.

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ESU's Statement on Unusual Amounts of Decoder Failures

From ESU

"We found that some LokSound 5 decoders we produced at the beginning of 2023 have been used a power supply IC that was not up to our standards, either a fake or "B grade" component. If the component fails, the MCU will not be powered, thus the decoder fails. While extensive testing was done in our lab, we were not able to make the decoders fail. Unfortunately a small portion of these decoders have failed in the field. The failure has nothing to do with the locomotive, the programming process, nor the decoder firmware used. The component may never even fail which we have found is the vast majority. 

"ESU continues to stand behind its products and our industry leading 2-year ‘no questions’ asked warranty applies of course. Every customer can send decoders to our ESU LLC office for replacement directly. Please note that OEM decoders must be exchanged under the warranty of the OEM manufacturer. 

"The chip crisis has been hard on the industry as a whole but is recovering. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this issue and want to thank you for your strong support."

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Ihr ESU Support Team

Thanks to Henry Sherwood for pointing this out and as Alan Pearce of the LoksoundUsers groups.io forum said, "That is good to see, and that they have identified a specific failure problem. It would be more concerning if they had a variety of components failing, then one can't be sure if the real problem has been found."

The author completely agrees with Alan.

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LokProgrammer Software 5.2.5 published-Tone Control for LokSound 5

The new LokProgrammer software 5.2.5 is now available for download here. This includes firmware 5.9.159 for all LokSound 5 decoders. For the first time, it is now possible to adjust the desired acoustics to the speaker installed there using bass and treble control. Similar to what you are used to with a stereo system, the sound can be easily adjusted using just two controls (CV 196 for bass, CV 197 for treble shown in figure 1 in the Driver's Cab pane).

Fig 1 new Bass/Treble controls with Master Volume

Changes you make on this pane are not saved to the locomotive configuration. They are simply test values to get the sound the way you want it. You will have to enter the values you decide to keep in the Manual CV Input sheet of the decoder pane for your sound file. Also, if your engine's sound file has been updated, there will be a Tone Control section in the Sound Settings sheet.

<Author's Note> This may be the first attempt for a future graphic equalizer similar to Soundtraxx. Also, you may have to manually download and install the new version for now. It doesn't seem to automatically recognize the update.

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A v5 ESU Decoder into a Bowser NYSW ALCO C636 (ex-Cartier)?!?!

To all the model railroaders that purchased a Bowser ALCO C636, this is for you.

This was expected to be a relatively simple changeover but it didn't take long to realize, what a can of worms!! This locomotive originally came with a v4 Select decoder and wanting to put a v5 decoder into it the fun began.

There are several different sound files for the ALCO 636 engine downloadable from the ESU website. Everyone of them has different physical AUX mappings to the various lights that come with the respective locomotives. It was the ditch lights that would turn out to be the hair puller. The author contacted Bowser and through the very helpful Lee English he was told the correct sound file was 94469 but he was not entirely sure of the correct AUX mappings. He supplied the author with the electrical diagram of the engine shown in figure 1.

                                                    Fig.1 Bowser C626 Electrical Diagram

Along with this was the motherboard plug layout diagram shown in figure 2 which would prove to be a great aid in figuring out all of this.

 

Fig. 2 Motherboard plug diagram

Before changing the decoder, testing showed that everything worked as advertised. The ditch lights worked as did everything else. Of course, as soon as the decoder was changed to a v5 the ditch lights refused to function.

The author and Mark Granville of the groups.io LokSound forum poured over these diagrams and after the author did some wire tracing inside the shell both decided to try AUX 5 and 6 as a best guess, no joy. Looking at this diagram the author noticed that AUX2 is only shown as an input to the 21 pin plug and it is no where else. So, he (why  not?) mapped AUX2 to the front ditch light. VOILA!! it worked.

Now for the rear ditch light. Taking a look at the wiring coming from the rear LED board one of the wires went all the way to the X1 plug which, in the diagram, points to AUX4. The author took a look at the back of the locomotive and printed on the rear LED board was "AUX4". Hmmm... 'nuff said. AUX 4 worked. Problem solved.

Lessons Learned

First, even though you may have the diagrams of an entity you are trying to decipher, last minute changes, and not necessarily last minute ones, do not always make it to the diagrams that are released. That is what the author and Mark believe happened here. Keeping documentation in sync with changes is at best a difficult task and often not done.

Second, visually inspect whatever it is you are working on (and don't just give it a once over). It may save you time and frustration (AUX4 anyone?).

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Atlas Track Planning Software - Version 1.9.4 Released

The Atlas Track Planning Software has been Updated to Version 1.9.4.

Create magnificent layouts in HO, N & O scales using Atlas track with the Atlas Track Planning Software! This software allows you to create and customize your very own layout, view it as a 3D model and then generate a shopping list to make your dream layout a reality.

New features and fixes have been listed below.

New track libraries:
- Atlas N TrueTrack (C65) – Gray roadbed – all new tracks

Updated track libraries:
- Atlas N TrueTrack (C65) – Tan roadbed – new #5 turnouts and corresponding pieces

Bugfixes:
- Fixed bug which previously enabled simultaneous performing of [Key] and [Alt+Key] functions for a same key combination – the bug may appear only if non-English language is selected in the user interface.

In addition, for those who might be looking for a place to start in the creation of their layout, we have also made select layout files available for purchase. Once downloaded, simply open up ATPS and load the file and start creating!

Atlas Track Planning Software Demo

Purchase the Software License

Purchase Layout Files

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ESU - Preventing Startup Sequence After Momentary Interruption

Whether caused by dirty track, a bad frog, whatever, one of the most irritating things to hear is your thundering locomotive suddenly go through its engine startup sequence while continuing to roll down the track. Or even worse come to a screeching stop, go through the sequence and then continue on. 

ESU LokSound decoders have settings that can prevent this annoying behavior and you don't have to purchase a keep-alive either. Going all the way back to v3.5 decoders (that's as far as the author went) there is a sheet in the sound files called Special Options, see Fig 1.

Figure 1 - Special Options Sheet

Although the options available on this sheet differ according to version (see fig 2 and 3), selecting them will prevent the decoder from entering the startup sequence and/or causing the locomotive from coming to a complete stop. In other words, the locomotive will contiue on it's way with the sound where it was and the loco's speed  resuming where it left off. 

Figure 2 - v3.5 Special Options

Figure 3 - v4 and 5 Special Options

Figure 3 also shows that it is a DCC decoder with only the DCC protocol selectable by default.

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ESU LokSound DCC v5 Decoder/Packaging Mix-up

Recently, ESU LokSound has mis-programmed/mis-packaged some LS v5 21 pin decoders. This has resulted in non-DCC decoders being put into packages and sold as DCC decoders. If you receive any of these (the author just did) they need to be returned to ESU and will be swapped for proper DCC decoders. They have acknowledged this problem. Just include your purchase receipt for warranty purposes along with an explanation of why it is being returned.

How do you tell?
If you download a v5 file and after modifying it you try to burn it to the decoder, you will get a message about "converting the project to a v5 file". This doesn't make sense since you were already modifying what you thought was a v5 file. In actuality it is just converting it to a non-DCC file. Look at the Motor Settings sheet and you'll see the selection at the top of the sheet that allows you to choose between a 3-point speed curve and the speed table has disappeared. Non-DCC decoders don't support the 3-point curve. All you have now is the speed table.

As far as the author knows this only applies to v5 21 pin decoders.

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Atlas and MTH Electric Trains Announce Shared Asset Deal

Hillside, NJ-- Atlas Model Railroad Company, Inc. and MTH Electric Trains today announced a shared asset deal that will allow each company to use select models from the other company’s O scale tools and mold to complement products being produced by each company.

The first of these shared assets will be passenger car tooling that can complement locomotives being produced by the other company. The program expands upon the sale of select MTH O scale tooling and molds in 2021 to Atlas and the incorporation of MTH’s onboard locomotive Proto-Sound 3 sound system into select Atlas O scale locomotive releases that began in 2022.

Atlas’ first product announcement utilizing the shared asset program will be unveiled in the October 2023 York Catalog later this month.

Products produced from the shared assets will be branded in the company packaging of whichever company is using the tooling and molds to complement that company’s products.  As an example, the production of streamlined passenger cars using the Atlas tooling to complement an MTH steam or diesel locomotive by MTH will be marketed, warrantied, and sold by MTH and packaged in MTH Premier Line boxes.  The production of MTH passenger cars using tooling still owned by MTH to complement Atlas locomotives will be marketed, warrantied, and sold by Atlas and packaged in Atlas O Premier boxes.

“This is a great opportunity for both MTH and Atlas to offer our customers even more variety and choice,” said Rich Foster, vice-president of sales for MTH Electric Trains. “We’re excited to see what we can create together.”

“This partnership is a win-win for both companies,” said Jarrett Haedrich, COO of Atlas Model Railroad Company. “It allows us to offer our customers more of the O scale products they love, while also providing both firms better economies of scale throughout our production processes.”

Founded in 1924 as Atlas Tool Company, Atlas Model Railroad Co., Inc. was incorporated in 1949 and produces locomotives, rolling stock, track, and accessories in N, HO, Z and O scales for its Atlas Master, Atlas Classic, Trainman, and Atlas O and Atlas O Premier lines.

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Train Control Systems Announces New Keep Alives

TCS has announced three new Keep Alive products for HO scale models. First is the KA5 shown in figure 1.

Fig. 1 The KA5 Keep Alive

This has the addition of one more super-capacitor for added electrical capacity. It is in a linear configuration and those of you who may have used the KA3 in the past will immediately realize this takes room to install. Their MSRP for this Keep Alive is $31.95.

Second, the KA5-P has an attached polarized plug which can be plugged into TCS and Soundtraxx decoders with the corresponding socket shown in figure 2.

Fig 2 The plug-in version of the KA5

As you can see the image shows a KA4. Their website has an image of the KA5-P. MSRP for this Keep-Alive is also $31.95. Notice this was designed to also plug into the Soundtraxx decoders that have a Keep-Alive plug.

Lastly, there is the WAUX-KA5 shown in figure 3. This is for the 9-pin connector designed for the WOW101 decoder.

Fig 3 The WAUX-KA5

MSRP for the WAUX-KA5 is $37.95.

The author wishes to emphasize, as was said above, these will take room to install. To quote TCS on these

“The KA5 is the perfect match for heavier locomotives, such as brass engines, or locomotives with many lighting outputs, such as modern diesel.”

Author’s Afterthought

The KA-3 (4 capacitors linear configuration) was difficult enough to fit into HO engines. The KA-4 (4 capacitors square configuration) made it a little easier. Soundtraxx’s Current-Keeper II has 5 capacitors but arranged as close as possible to a square design (see this post)

The author believes TCS may have slipped a little in this design (linear vs. square) but it all depends on what you are trying to fit it into.

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ESU - Prevent Engine Movement Before Sound On-Revised 2023-10-16

Some LokSound equipped locomotives will allow movement without the engine sound being on. There's nothing more unrealistic than that! If you want to prevent this "feature" it can be easily accomplished on Full Throttle equipped locomotives.

Here's how. Load the appropriate sound file into the LokProgrammer and go to the Function Mapping sheet. In one of the blank lines add the functionality shown in figure 1.

Fig. 1

The functionality here is that when the locomotive is stopped and there is no engine sound (not F8), Drive Hold is automatically engaged and the locomotive cannot move. In order to remove the Drive Hold, F8 has to be pressed which will start the prime mover.

Remember that if you have your prime mover mapped to a different function than F8 then the Condition shown in figure 1 will also have to be changed.

Another Method (Revised 2023-10-16)

An additional way to accomplish the same thing, and possibly better with v5 decoders, is to set CV124 bit 2 (bit value 4). This takes effect only if speed is zero and prime mover is off. It's a startup delay that prevents the user from activating prime mover sound and then moving off while the prime mover is still cranking over. Where it is not possible to do that with the first method. It’s not a fixed time value but depends on how long the start-up sequence takes (much more realistic).

Now those operations buddies you have over every now and then can't move their engines without the sound on (as they sometimes do)!

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TCS Offering UWT-100 Thumbwheel Encoder Upgrade

Train Control Systems is offering an upgrade to the UWT-100 thumbwheel encoder that extends its useable life. They are moving from a mechanical encoder to a magnetic encoder.

The conditions of the promotional upgrade price leave a little to be desired though. Your call.

Check out the details here.

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Set Up Modules Faster with New Walthers Expandable Track

Module owners rejoice, this is ingenious and very long overdue!! 

There is a bit of wait time for these to come to market but having worked with the Hostlers Model Railroad Club's (Ogden, Utah) modular layout for many years the wait will be worth it!!

The new WalthersTrack Expandable Tracks will make setting-up your HO portable layouts, seasonal displays and modules fast and easy! Just announced, they'll be available for both Code 83 (#948-83091) and Code 100 (#948-10091), perfect for connecting two modules or filling in track gaps, with no need for cutting or trimming! See figure 1. Fully assembled with all the features and details found on all WalthersTrack products, the unique center section expands the overall length from 8-7/8 to 9-3/8" (22.5 to 23.8cm) and can be used in place of any standard 9" (22.8cm) straight track section. Built tough for repeated adjustments, each features special tight-fitting joiners in the center for positive electrical contact and cutouts at both ends that clear standard rail joiners. Preorder yours now for the Winter 2024 delivery!

Figure 1 Expandable track

No more carrying a bag of track pieces around that eventually have to be trimmed anyway to fit between modules.

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Good News From ESU LokSound

Received by a LokSound dealer and installer:

Dear ESU Customer, 

This is Manny, the new manager of ESU LLC. I´d like to take the opportunity and introduce myself, as well as inform you about new developments at ESU. After the management change in May we immediately set out to increase our team. It is a pleasure to announce our latest addition, Lee Ryan, formerly from Intermountain Railway Co. Lee will be working on supporting you, our valued customer, with educational content and tech support.

 

Summer Break:

ESU, LLC will be on summer break from July 24^th through August 4th. This time will be used to restructure and restock.

After the break many of our formerly hard to get items will be back in stock. Including, but not limited to:

 

58429 (Loksound 5 21 MTC)

58420 (Loksound 5 8-pin)

58741 (Loksound 5 micro Direct Kato USA)

58751 (Loksound 5 micro Direct Atlas Legacy)

58721 (Loksound 5 micro Direct)

58921 (Loksound 5 Direct integrated PowerPack)

58941 (Loksound 5 micro Kato Widebody)

 

and most of our product line. 

• 53452 (LokProgrammer) will become available again in mid August
• We are working on the following Loksound 5 micro decoders: 
• 58820 (Loksound 5 micro 8-pin)
• 58823 (Loksound 5 micro single wires), 58828 (Loksound 5 micro Next18) and 58821 (Loksound 5 DCC Direct)
• Availability to be expected within the next 2 months.

Shows:

We would be pleased to meet you in person at one of the following shows:

 

St. Louis RPM, July 28. and 29.

https://www.stlrpm.com/

 

NMRA 2023 Texas Express National Convention, August 25. to August 27.

https://2023texasexpress.com

 

National Narrow Gauge Convention 2023, August 31. To September 2.

https://www.43nngcdenver.com

 

The ESU Team would like to thank you for your business and is looking forward to serving you in the future.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------

ESU LLC        

Manuel Hommel

1304 Jordan Ave

Montoursville  PA   17754

Thanks to Talmadge C. 'TC' Carr from the LokSound groups.io forum for this news.

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Cleaning Track & Wheels Scientifically

That black gunk from nowhere that plagues model railroaders has finally been figured out. It is caused by micro-arching between the wheels of powered locomotives and the track on the inside of the track where the flange meets it. This is shown in fig. 1. 

Figure 1

Over time the gunk builds up on the wheels to the point that the locomotives run intermittently or just plain badly (or not at all). Then you have to clean the track and/or wheels and it seems as if we are always cleaning something.

The author’s background is in Chemistry and he understands that in order to prevent the gunk in the first place you have to prevent the micro-arching. The only way to do this is to clean the track and wheels with a liquid that has a low dielectric constant meaning it is a non-polar solvent. You don’t really need to understand what that is. All you really need to know is that lower dielectric constants prevent arching and which solvents have a low dielectric constant.

The table on the left (thanks to Model Railroad Hobbyist Magazine) is a list of many solvents that most readers should be familiar with. The key to this table is that the solvents are listed from the lowest dielectric constant to the highest.

So what solvent is the most commonly used by model railroaders that have never heard of dielectric constants? Would you believe Isopropyl alcohol? Look at table 1 and find Isopropyl alcohol (commonly known as IPA). What is its constant? How good do you really think it is at keeping track clean? Are you still cleaning a lot?

There are some solvents to definitely not use (common sense) Kerosene, Gasoline (explosive), Carbon Tetrachloride (carcinogenic) are just some of them. Mineral Spirits is a good choice because of both its low dielectric constant and its cost. It also comes in an odorless form.

The author has tested several of the low constant solvents on his home layout with these results.

WD-40 contact cleaner - inexpensive but dries much too quickly making it difficult to clean engine wheels. Also recommends good ventilation (toxic).

CRC contact cleaner - Plastic safe but expensive and has multiple warnings of highly flammable spray.Also dries too quickly.

Gasoline, Kerosene & Diesel - forget it (you figure it out)!

Mineral Spirits (odorless) - inexpensive and readily available. The author is currently testing this on his home layout.

By the way, he has also gotten rid of his IPA except when laying ballast.

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LokProgrammer Software 5.2.4 released

There are some nice new features in the latest release of LokProgrammer software. 

From the website:

From now, the new LokProgrammer Software 5.2.4. is available for download.

The new LokProgrammer Software 5.2.4. contains firmware 5.8.156 for all LokSound 5 decoders. This firmware defines a new "Class Light Logic" function, which allows you to cycle through 2 or 3 lights one after the other using the same function key. CV199=1 or 2 defines the number of lights (2 or 3). Each class light color is assigned an AUX output and the "sequence position" to which each color appears can be set with CV32=0 and then adjusting CV258 to values of 64, 128, or 192 accordingly. Of course this is easiest set by using the LokProgrammer software in the function outputs window.  Furthermore, the "alternative phase" for flashing effects has been replaced by the "phase shift" so that the starting point of the output can be freely shifted, no longer do alternating lights need to be in exact opposite phase with each other. Sensors 1 and 2 can now alternatively be defined as analog inputs (provided the locomotive's motherboard supports this). In addition, Dynamic Sound Control has been released for the first time, which enables a load-dependent sound using our Primary Load and Optional Load functionality. This feature is currently intended for LokSound users who are keen to experiment. We will provide further information very soon in the ESU forum.

As of 2023-7-22 the LokProgrammer does not automatically upgrade to the new version when started. However, downloading the software from ESU's website and installing it will ask if you wish to upgrade the version already present on your computer.

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DT402D Remains in Idle After Changing Duplex Group Channel

The title of this post is a problem reported from a Digitrax user on the groups.io forum, the response from Frank Fezzie makes up the the rest. There is a lot of good information here.

A duplex equipped DT402 will respond with "Dt402D21" on screen when first started up.  The "Dt402" is the throttle type.  The second "D" indicates the presence of an RF24 duplex radio in the throttle.  The "21" indicates the version of the software installed.

A simplex equipped DT402 will respond with "Dt402R21" on screen when first started up.  The "Dt402" is the throttle type.  The "R" indicates the presence of a simplex radio in the throttle.  The "21" indicates the version of the software installed.

A non-radio equipped DT402 will respond with "Dt402 21" on screen when first started up.  The "Dt402" is the throttle type.  The " "  (space) indicates that no radio is present in the throttle.  The "21" indicates the version of the software installed.

There were two versions of the rev 21 file released.  The first was dated 5-Aug-2016  and the second and final version is dated 10-Oct-2016.  I don't remember the details now but I seem to recall there was a problem that showed up after the 5-Aug-2016 file was released.  Digitrax corrected the problem with the 10-Oct-2016 release but did not change the version number, which remained 21.  The 10-Oct-2016 version was the last one to be released.  I don't recall that there is an easy way to tell which rev 21 file is installed in a throttle.  If in doubt just reinstall the 10-Oct-2016 version which is the current file available on the web site.

Digitrax version numbers can be confusing.  They use both decimal (base 10) numbers and octal (base 8) numbers.  They sometimes mix them up.  In the rev 21 software, the 21 is an octal (base 8) number.  The octal 21 is the same as decimal 17.   In the RF24 software, the 1.1 is an octal number equal to 0.9 in decimal. DigiIPL usually shows the octal version number of software.  Digitrax would sometimes use the octal number in the file name and sometimes the would convert it to decimal (base 10) and use that in the file name.  So DigiIPL shows 1.1 for the RF24 and the file name shows r9.  While 21 appears in both DigiIPL and the file name for the version of the throttle software.  And finally they got into the bad habit of sometimes changing the software without changing the version number, which confuses everybody.

I routinely note that sometimes a DT402D throttle will not properly download the duplex name and channel info when it is plugged into the Loconet.  Give it a few seconds.  If it still hasn't got it then unplug, wait about 5 seconds, and plug in again.  I rarely see one fail to download the info on two attempts in a row.  If it does keep failing to get the info, then remove the battery to reset the throttle, put the battery back in and then plug in.  In my experience it is very, very rare to have one fail to download the duplex info after this reset. 

My theory for this is that I have noted that the throttle starts the duplex query process on the Loconet immediately when the plug starts to make contact with the wires in the jack, even while the plug is still in the process of being inserted.  And since the plug is not firmly seated yet there is the possibility of intermittent contact between the plug and jack causing Loconet messages to be scrambled.  And I think this is what causes the DT402 to fail to get the duplex information on occasion.  There is no detection and retry process for scrambled messages on the Loconet.

If you have more than one UR duplex radio on the Loconet, any combination of UR92's and UR93's or any combination of UR92's, UR93's, and LNWI's, it is critical that all devices be set to the same duplex name and channel.  JMRI's duplex tool is excellent to use for this as it checks and warns you if there are different settings on the devices on your Loconet.  <Author's Note: There are caveats with the duplex tool. See this post>The problem that gets created is that the duplex throttle receives conflicting information about duplex channel name and number which can then cause the throttle to fail to connect to the duplex radio.  This happens because all UR92's, UR93's and LNWIs on the Loconet respond to the throttle's query for duplex information.  That is why it is important that they all reply with the same info.  There is no way of knowing which response the throttle will use <Author's Note: research done by the author has shown that if a LNWI is present on the loconet and it's network name does not match the other devices, that is the name that will be reported to the throttle (apparently a timing matter). See this post, especially the 'conclusion' section.>.

In a properly working Loconet, and the key words are "properly working",  it does not matter which jack the throttle is plugged into, be it a UP5 or UP7, an LNRP, or directly into a UR92 or UR93.  The throttle will get the same duplex information from any Loconet jack in the system. In the old days when we were struggling with duplex problems it was thought that plugging directly into the UR92 made a difference.  This was wrong.  It turned out that it was software issues in the throttles and UR92, not which jack you plugged into.

Hope this helps clarify things a bit.

Frank Fezzie

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