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Strange behavior.... I just installed my first SE8C and during initial testing it would only respond to NT commands, not LT.? ?It has since resolved itself.? Wondering what would have caused this?

Summary of my of setup? (it's a frankenstein lol).??
NCE PowerPro command station
JMRI? 4.17.3
Stand-alone Loconet with Locobuffer USB rev N.
2? BDL168s for detection
C/MRI connection running an Arduino that runs a servo and signal lights at one turnout
Tam Valley? Octopus and Octocoder running 8 servos.

All this worked fine when I connected to SE8C to the loconet (and still does).? ?When I first connected the SE8C it appeared to be working, except that the Digitrax test signal light would not change aspect when the correct LT turnout addresses were sent from JMRI.? It just stayed Red over Red.? I know the SE8C was properly connected to the loconet because I was able to read and write OP-Switch settings.? The signal was setup in JMRI? as LT turnouts and those turnouts were used to create an SE8C signal head. When I could not get the signal to work, I decided to connect a tortoise (SW address 01) and try it. By accident, I found it would respond to to switch address NT01 but not LT01.?

This prompted me to send NT addresses to the signal heads and sure enough, they worked!? ?But the story doesn't end here.? ?I took the SE8C to my friends Digitrax layout to set the Board ID to 8.? Back at home, I reinstall it and the now signals and tortoise no longer respond to the NT addresses.? Instead, they correctly respond to LT addresses and not the NT.? ?

Yes, it works fine now.? But I'm the kind of guy who needs to understand why things happen to prevent future problems.? ?Do any of you guys have any idea what could have caused this??
Any help, explanation or theories would be greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,
Chris Heili

The SE8c can take inputs from the LocoNet cable _or_ from the track DCC signal. It could be that it decided to use the track signal with LT wasn’t working. But I’m not sure why it would do that.

Bob

On Dec 3, 2019, at 11:27 AM, heilichr via Groups.Io <heilichr@...> wrote:

Strange behavior.... I just installed my first SE8C and during initial testing it would only respond to NT commands, not LT. It has since resolved itself. Wondering what would have caused this?

Summary of my of setup (it's a frankenstein lol).
NCE PowerPro command station
JMRI 4.17.3
Stand-alone Loconet with Locobuffer USB rev N.
2 BDL168s for detection
C/MRI connection running an Arduino that runs a servo and signal lights at one turnout
Tam Valley Octopus and Octocoder running 8 servos.

All this worked fine when I connected to SE8C to the loconet (and still does). When I first connected the SE8C it appeared to be working, except that the Digitrax test signal light would not change aspect when the correct LT turnout addresses were sent from JMRI. It just stayed Red over Red. I know the SE8C was properly connected to the loconet because I was able to read and write OP-Switch settings. The signal was setup in JMRI as LT turnouts and those turnouts were used to create an SE8C signal head. When I could not get the signal to work, I decided to connect a tortoise (SW address 01) and try it. By accident, I found it would respond to to switch address NT01 but not LT01.

This prompted me to send NT addresses to the signal heads and sure enough, they worked! But the story doesn't end here. I took the SE8C to my friends Digitrax layout to set the Board ID to 8. Back at home, I reinstall it and the now signals and tortoise no longer respond to the NT addresses. Instead, they correctly respond to LT addresses and not the NT.

Yes, it works fine now. But I'm the kind of guy who needs to understand why things happen to prevent future problems. Do any of you guys have any idea what could have caused this?
Any help, explanation or theories would be greatly appreciated!

Best Regards,
Chris Heili

--
Bob Jacobsen
rgj1927@...

Bob,? that confirms one of my thoughts that it was likely picking up the NCE commands via the Rail Sync connection. But I don't know why it chose NT over LT and then changed it's mind.?
Thanks for the input.
Chris

Chris,

By default (according to the SE8C manual I have), the SE8C has its OpSw 14 set to "thrown". This means that the SE8C gets its control messages from the DCC track signal. And, if you have the NCE DCC track signal driving your Standalone LocoNet "RailSync" wires, this would explain why you saw the NTxx messages controlling the SE8C.

But if you have SE8C OpSw 14 set to its non-default value of "closed", the SE8C will pay attention to the LocoNet "Data" wires. Your Standalone LocoNet gets its signal on the LocoNet "Data" wires via the LocoBuffer-USB, and the SE8C would therefore be controlled via JMRI "LTxx" control messages.

I suspect you had OpSw at its "default" value when the JMRI NTxx turnouts controlled the SE8C signals, and had changed SE8C OpSw 14 to "Closed" before finding that the JMRI "LTxx" turnouts were controling the SE8C signals.

Regards,
Billybob

That makes good sense to me.? I will experiment and see if it proves out.
Thanks Billybob!

Chris

Chris,

Which way are you powering the Se8c? I think if it is using track for power,
it sees the turnout commands that way. Most people find it much more stable
using a wall wart for power.

-Ken Cameron, Member JMRI Dev Team
www.jmri.org
www.fingerlakeslivesteamers.org
www.cnymod.org
www.syracusemodelrr.org

Marc,

I believe you have interpreted the table in the SE8C manual incorrectly - something that I have done many times in the past; those tables make sense to the engineer at Digitrax, and perhaps a few others, but the average joe often finds them difficult to understand.

Doug Stuard tested the SE8C operation very carefully with respect to SE8C OpSw14 and documented his findings. My notes show that he provided his test results in post # 163882, but I cannot determine which list, and on which site, that post came from. Searches of the jmriusers groups.io list did not find that post.

Doug found that the default, SE8C OpSw14=Thrown, made the SE8C respond ONLY to the turnout control packets found on the DCC track signal on the "RailSync" wires. LocoNet "Data" wires were ignored (for signal control) when OpSw14=Thrown.

He found that when SE8C OpSw14=Closed, the SE8C responded ONLY to the turnout messages found on the LocoNet "Data" wires. The DCC track signal on the "RailSync" wires was ignored in this case.

Regards,
Billybob

Absolutely correct and the reason I deleted my " wrong interpretation " post. Just an average Joe, unfortunately.

Marc

Ken,? I'm powering from a wall wart that shares with one of my BDLs. ? No track power.? But it does get a rail sync connection to my NCE command station via 1 wire of the RJ12 connection. ?

Great info guys. Thanks for sharing. I'm now convinced that OpSw14 was the culprit.
And while I'm here,? special shout out to Ken for all his awesome contributions to JMRI!
Best Regards,
Chris

Billybob,

Hi. Believe I found Doug's message that you referred to below on the Digitrax group. #163566 on 04/08/2011 !!!

In addition to your comments, Doug noted that when in the default condition (OpSw14=Thrown) the SE8C only responds when track power is on.

Robin

Robin Becker
San Diego, CA