.. where I am confused …for a while (short story)[ Jan 2018 ] My buddy Gary Wise came by earlier as his wife Linda was doing that ‘shopping thing’ and he needed a place to go, so we hung out a bit and discovered that there was a dead .. and I mean DEAD piece of track on my main. “HUH!” .. I said …. Now .. while I may sometimes call myself a Model Railroader .. I am really more of a Modeler. That helps explain why as I told Gary – “I haven’t run a train in six months ..”. This got me a stern look while I looked under the layout to try and see .. why .. that piece of track was so totally dead. I could see the feeder wire … which .. hung loose. Huh says .. I .. that may partially explain the dead track .. I suppose the rail joiner COULD be really corroded .. then .. wait .. another feeder wire hanging loose. Huh again. I swear .. sometimes the light over my head is a very dim one .. and it flickers a lot. I remembered that I had diagrammed the electrical on my layout so I rummaged around my hard drive and found it .. and … Oh … I had isolated two sections of track on either side of what will/would be the programming track. I did all the isolating, wiring and was waiting for the 4PDT switches to come .. and completely forgot about it. Yes .. poor little flickering light. Look .. I think it is dimming even more. |
*** ATTENTION ***For anyone that may land on this page .. I am working on it. If you see this notice then take what is below with a grain of salt (as they say) as it will be incorrect, incomplete or both. |
4PDT SwitchIn the following I will be referring to the 4PDT switches with the lug numbering as shown – looking from the lug side of the switch. Lugs are connected as follows: ![]()
A Note Regarding Switches Switches are available as “make before break” and “break before make”. For this application, a “break before make” is essential, and a center-off version is the easiest way to make sure the switch breaks before making a connection. This avoids the possibility of momentary connecting the booster output to the programming track output terminals. |
Programming TrackOn the www.dccwiki.com website the page Programming Track provided everything I needed to create one on my layout. I’m not going to go crazy on the details here as it is put very well in the link. I will though post the bit at the very start of the article: ![]() A programming track is used to program decoders. For mobile decoders, it’s easiest to have a portion of your layout track to double as a programming track. … For greater flexibility the track should be part of the layout trackage. The reason for this is to minimize handling of finely detailed locos on your layout and allows you to simply drive your loco to the programming section, and read/change values of the decoder. To prevent a locomotive from accidentally shorting the program track you need a section of track as shown below. The programming section needs to be at least 50% longer than your longest locomotive and the isolating section must be longer than your longest locomotive too. The longer the programming track is the more useful it will be. Finally .. to the wiring. A diagram is presented – Fig 1. I will start with this .. and “do my own thing”. |
MRC Prodigy Advance2![]() I was confused for a bit by “From Booster” and “From Command Station“. Hey .. sometimes I a slow like that. Looking closer at Fig 3 from the MRC Prodigy Advance2 User’s Manuel and Fig 2 I finally “got it“. “From Booster” means for my Prodigy Advance2 the “To Main Track” and “From Command Station” the “To Program Track“. *sigh* .. said I was slow. I will change the labeling to reflect “Main Track” and “Program Track” on my Prodigy Command Station (Base Unit) |
my Programming Track wiringThe wiring diagram is a … work in progress .. at best. It needs to be re-drawn and the LED circuit completely rethought .. need powering via the accessory side of the DC throttle box, switched via .. transistors I think. ![]() The position of SW1 will either feed DC or DCC. The idea being the ability to test both a DC and a DCC loco.
Depending on which way SW2 is thrown, either the Test Track and Isolation sections are DCC/DC powered or the Test Track is powered and the Isolation sections without any power.
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Test/Program track LEDDC or DCC power from SW1[8][11 feeds SW2[8][11] which feeds SW2[7][10] which powers the LED. The LED is optional and may or may not work depending on the DCC system used. Some DCC systems will shutdown the main line when programming is active leaving the LED unpowered. A little research shows me that a simple “Wall Wart” – power adapter putting out 12V at 3A would be the way to go. I simply need to use a PNP LED circuit. ![]() Notes: This is a LED driver circuit using a PNP transistor to control a LED. When power is removed from the transistor base the LED lights. In this case power to the Isolation track is removed. My calculatins:
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Wiring |
Exterior to the Project Box are ..
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Panel Test Build![]() Jumped to making the panel (control panel .. just a Mock Up (this was a while back). I picked up a small, cheap photo frame at Walmart, and 0.080″ Acrylic sheet at Lowes and a printed piece of cardstock .. all sandwiched together and a small box built around it. Here, I am test fitting it by loosely mounting. I need to mount the electrical panel underneath and then I can get a good measure of how long my cabling needs to be.
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Example
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mine dont i think been awhile since i used it will try to check when i can
Not THAT big a thing .. but if the main remains on it will power a LED showing the programming track is in operation. Now .. if I had some smarts might figure a way around that. The way it works is that if SW2 is thrown up then the Program Track lugs lugs on the Command Station connect to the Test Track (Program track) so you can .. well .. program the locos there. On the other set of poles on the switch, Main Track is connected to the center lugs .. to power the LED .. ** IF… Read more »
you can also find out from mrc or the group
but it is more fun with the pop up in the article!