I had a series of nasty shorts caused by a metal container train derailing multiple cars. Upon clearing the short the track status went green and launched all locos at speed in reverse. Track power turned off they did not seem to stop and I pulled the plug. Upon reinserting the power plug I had a short again. Checked all locos and cars and then proceeded to remove all wires from the zephyr xtra to the track. It still is showing the short code. A general reset of the unit as per the manual using one of the codes changed nothing. As it stands I am dead in the water. Anything I can try? This has been sent to digitrax tech support but I do not expect a reply until monday. This unit only has about 20 hrs of runtime on it but is out of warranty. Any buddy had this happen before? Digitrax shows a low repair cost of 25$ for the dcs51, shipping is going to cost more then the repair it seems. (If I have to send it in)
Leave it disconnected and unplugged for a couple of days and then try it again. If it still acts up, then probably you'll need to send it back. If your unit is out of warranty, it is probably old enough to be eligible recently developed upgrades, so now might be a good time to think about this. In either case, you might want to consider one of the PSX breakers from Tony's Trains as a hedge against further such occurrences. Bill in FtL
I fried a Zephyr a couple of years ago. I don't think it was too expensive to ship it in for repairs around $8 IIRC. The big pain is it took about 2 months to get it back. Of course the long span prompted me to buy a Super Chief and now I rarely use the Zephyr. Greg Amer The Industrial Lead gregamer.com
Well its in the mail to digitrax-we'll see if i go into withdrawl bad enough to buy another unit then sell this one when it returns (or keep a spare). I will be looking into an extra circuit breaker after this.
Rats. I am too late to the game. I was going to suggest that you disconnect it completely from the layout and then try hooking it up to ONLY an isolated section of track, possibly by using alligator clip jumpers. A reset will not clear short. If the unit is indicating a short there is something shorting the layout. I hope Digitrax gets you sorted out in short order. Welcome to TrainBoard, Glenn in Ontario!
I did flip the wires around and tried it hook to me 18" long programing track and again with an engine on there. Didn't work, thats when I pulled all wires from the unit and still had a short.
Okay, I see now. Digitrax service got two Dt300 throttles back to me in short order when I sent them in for service. I think on those it was a blown capacitor issue. I sent them via USPS priority box and they were back in my hand, repaired, about ten days after I sent them.
I had a fried Zephyr Xtra that I just received new two weeks ago. Sent it this week to Digitrax and got a note today to allow 30 business days (six weeks) for repair. Hope your 10 days is how it plays out. Not going to be happy if I am without a controller for six weeks on something that was new two weeks ago. It just smoked while it was sitting there with the throttle in the stop position. Only had two of my feeds connected to a 14 ga bus. Not sure what caused it, but I do understand how electronic equipment will generally go bad right off or last forever. Can't imagine how two track feeds could smoke the unit.
Man, you guys have got me nervous! After using and abusing my Zephyr for 8 years, I donated it to a modeler that had all of his stuff stolen and bought an Xtra. Now I'm thinking the Xtra may be a lightweight compared to the Zephyr. The Zephyr was just rock solid.
