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.

 

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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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LokSound - Extracting a Single Horn From a Horn Package

Occasionally, after you find the correct LokSound sound file for a particular locomotive you will find that the horn package included with the file does not contain the correct horn (or the one you want it to have) for the engine and road name you are working with. This is usually due to pecularities of that road name and engine type and is discussed in this post.

How do we get around this and can you add the correct horn from another sound file to your current one? The answer is YES! 

RioGrandeFan has a tutorial on YouTube that demonstrates exactly how to accomplish this. He discusses work arounds that cover changes that have to be made to the file you are moving the horn into. In addition, he discusses the problems that can happen when doing this such as Not Enough Space. Other issues that can occur are also covered along with solutions.

If you ever find yourself in this situation take a look at the tutorial. It is suprisingly easier than you would think.

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Digitrax Track Power Shutting Off On Its Own

Digitrax systems have been kown to mysteriously shut off track power for no apparent reason. This is a known issue when utilizing a DT602 throttle. Sometimes you can recover from this by immediately turning track power back on with the throttle. However, there have been times when the throttle cannot turn the power back on. This can be an extremely frustrating and disrupting event even if you get the track power on immediately.

There are a couple of things you need to do to remedy this. First and foremost both the throttle and the command station need to have their latest respective firmware upgrades installed. However, even with the firmware upgrades in place there is another setting the author recommends you employ. This is mentioned in a Knowledge Base article from Digitrax (KB1063) which can be very easily missed. It is located at the very bottom of the Knowledge Base article in the section labeled TRACK POWER. Thanks to Mick Moignard of the groups.io Digitrax forum for shaking the author's tree concerning this.

This OpSw setting goes all the way back to the venerable DCS100!

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