EX-DCCInspector - part 2

 

Following part 1, I brought my setup to the layout and tried it out:

This is the output I get:

19:50:11.330 -> Bit Count/4 sec=23723 (Zeros=9326, Ones=14397), Glitches=0 19:50:11.367 -> Valid Packets=394, NMRA out of spec=41, Checksum Errors=4, Lost pkts=0, Long pkts=3 19:50:11.367 -> 0 half-bit length (us): 123.2 (96-1200) delta < 1100 19:50:11.367 -> 1 half-bit length (us): 57.7 (36-68) delta < 12 19:50:11.367 -> -- 19:50:11.631 -> Loc 1087 F20-F13 0 11000100 00111111 11011110 00000000 19:50:11.631 -> Loc 7689 L F4-F1 0 11011110 00001001 10000000 19:50:11.631 -> Idle 11111111 00000000 19:50:11.631 -> Loc 7689 Fwd128 Stop 11011110 00001001 00111111 10000000 19:50:11.631 -> Loc 1087 L F4-F1 10000 11000100 00111111 10010000 19:50:11.631 -> Loc 1087 Fwd128 65 11000100 00111111 00111111 11000010 19:50:11.667 -> Loc 7689 F20-F13 0 11011110 00001001 11011110 00000000 19:50:11.667 -> Loc 1087 F28-F21 0 11000100 00111111 11011111 00000000 19:50:11.701 -> Loc 10000 Stop 11100111 00010000 01100000 19:50:11.741 -> Loc 1087 F36-F29 0 11000100 00111111 11011000 00000000 19:50:11.780 -> Loc 7689 F12-F9 0 11011110 00001001 10100000 19:50:12.041 -> Loc 1087 F8-F5 0 11000100 00111111 10110000 19:50:12.105 -> Loc 7689 F8-F5 0 11011110 00001001 10110000 19:50:12.139 -> Loc 1087 F12-F9 0 11000100 00111111 10100000 19:50:12.442 -> Loc 7689 F28-F21 1 11011110 00001001 11011111 00000001 19:50:15.651 -> -

So, we see a lot of things. It seems that there's a memory in what has been transmitted recently - typically everything related to the engine I ran right before - Loc 7689, but nothing about blocks or Railcom related information

 
More investigation required, but looking at DCC-EX Discord, it seems that EX-DCCInspector might not be supporting Railcom just yet.

Wiring - part 14

 

The two external tracks are finally fully functional; it includes:

• Block detection for both RC and non-RC sections
• Control of all switches

The tracks in the middle are temporary as I was expected sections C4 and C5 to be connected to ECoS_Detector_1 port 2 and 3, but the segment would not turn red when occupied. I added 16 sections in the middle as a way to debug the wiring. As it turns out, C4 and C5 were linked to port 10 and 11. I still need to find out what went wrong.

Section detection with RailCom

 

While I'm still wiring the outside two tracks, I wanted to run a quick test on the section detection with RailCom, since this is what requires additional wiring; so I might as well make sure it is working at this point.

The original post is here.

Spoiler alert; it's working as expected:

I should have taken a video of the layout at the same time ...

Train detection and identification

To ensure automation, train detection is required. I'm using ESU ECoS Detector: http://www.esu.eu/en/products/digital-control/ecosdetector/ecosdetector/

I wanted to run a quick prototype to make sure I understand how it works before going on the actual layout.

Train detection

The English manual is easily found on the Internet and the wiring is pretty straight forward: one of the tracks is isolated and gets its feed from the ECoSDetector instead of directly from the ECoS Command Station. The ECoSDetector gets a direct feed from the ECoS Command Station.

It is very important to follow 0 is black and is direct to the track, whereas B is read and goes through the ECoSDetector.

Now, it is easy to link the ECoSDetector to the track diagram on the ECoS Command Station by using the icon circled in red below:

When everything is wired up and correctly configured, here is what happens:

The track in red shows that this section is occupied!

Train identification

This is all great, but we actually don't know which engine is on that occupied section. Enters RailCom. Decoders equipped with the RailCom protocol can communicate back to the digital station.

I need to insert a RailCom box on the track diagram on the ECoS Command Station by using the icon circled in red below:

So, same as above, but now with RailCom:

We actually see the name of the engine on the track diagram. Unfortunately, ECoSDetector 50094 has only 4 RailCom inputs out of the 16 inputs. However, ESU offers the ECoSDetector RC 50098 that provides only RailCom inputs, but one module has only 4 inputs: http://www.esu.eu/en/products/digital-control/ecosdetector/ecosdetector-rc/