I belong to a new modular group (LSVMR)and we successfully tried
a DCS track at our last setup. When I got home my engine would not get picked up by my DCS without a lot of trial, error, and frustration.

Is there a procedure to remove an engine from one DCS setup,
install it on another network, then get it back to it's original
layout with relative ease?

Jerry Tarnofsky

quote:

I belong to a new modular group (LSVMR)and we successfully tried
a DCS track at our last setup. When I got home my engine would not get picked up by my DCS without a lot of trial, error, and frustration.

Your group may want to come up with some type of game plan and assign engine IDs to each member,

If your home TIU is TIU 1 and the modular group's tiu is TIU 1 you shouldn't have to do anything and the engine should operate fine on each layout providing there are no other engines with the same ID number. Engines are associated with the TIU they've been added to in normal mode. engines are associated with all the tiu added to the remote in super mode.

If the club has more than 1 TIU "super mode" makes things much easier. You just add the clubs TIU to your remote and set all the tiu to super mode. When you're at home the read will still find your home tiu but not the other clubs tiu but who cares , your home tiu will run the trains just fine at home.

So add all the tiu involved to the remote, set'em all to super mode, and work out a engine ID system for each member.

PS.-- even if 2 engines have the same ID you can always remove one from the layout.

Hope this helps for starters.

Gregg,

quote:

You just add the clubs TIU to your remote and set all the tiu to super mode. When you're at home the read will still find your home tiu but not the other clubs tiu but who cares , your home tiu will run the trains just fine at home.

While you are correct that everything will work at home, the extra, nonexistent TIUs may cause some commands, such as READ and a few others, to take considerably longer to execute.

quote:

While you are correct that everything will work at home, the extra, nonexistent TIUs may cause some commands, such as READ and a few others, to take considerably longer to execute.


Barry

Ok don't use the read, but are the other tiu really nonexistent? Not when you're at the club. What other commands may take longer to execute and do you suggest adding & deleting tiu on each visit to the club?

There's still too much unknown info,. How many TIU, how many remotes? Does the club have it's own remotes TIU etc ?

Gregg,

I remember messing around with this a few months back.

As I recall, another one that took longer was "Add MTH Engine", since it looks at all TIUs and all possible candidate engines before adding an engine. It spends some time querying all TIUs that are in the remote and waiting for them to respond.

I don't recall which others may have had delays, as well. However, any command that queries a TIU and waits for a response is a good candidate.

We only had the DCS setup for an hour. One member brought his TIU and controller with him and I added my engine.

There were a number of engines already programed into the unit.

Will have to get more information the next time we set it up. For now I just
need to know if there is a need to remove the engine from the my home layout
before bringing it to the other setup?

Jerry

Jerry,

Until your club imposes a set of rules for adding engines to its DCS Remote, I suggest that you follow this procedure:
• Before going to the club, ensure that the engine's battery is fully charged.
• Note note the engine's address in your DCS Remote.
• When arriving at the club, if your engine is already in the club's remote, note it's DCS address. If it's the same as the address that it had in your remote, skip to the next step. If it's different or not in the remote at all, delete your engine and re-add it to the club's remote, noting the DCS ID# that the remote assigns.
• When you arrive home, note the engine's address in your DCS Remote. If the address is different from the one that was assigned by the club's remote, delete the engine and re-add it.

Thanks Barry, that is what I needed.
Would the RESTORE command help with moving engines between layouts?

BTW, your DCS manual has been a lifesaver with subway setup and
other stuff not clearly explained in the original manual.

Jerry

Jerry,

quote:

Would the RESTORE command help with moving engines between layouts?

If you mean the process that backs up and restores the contents of a DCS Remote, that would be inappropriate for this situation. It's not the remote that needs to be restored, rather, it's the DCS ID# in the engine.

quote:

your DCS manual has been a lifesaver with subway setup and other stuff not clearly explained in the original manual

I'm glad that you find the book helpful!

quote:

Will have to get more information the next time we set it up. For now I just
need to know if there is a need to remove the engine from the my home layout
before bringing it to the other setup?

Engine ID sticks with the engine unless edited to another ID , factory rest, or if the engine's id is taken with another engine when adding to the remote. Yep it's possible to have 2 engine with the same ID number, Not likely but possible.

Lets assume the home tiu & clubs tiu are tIU #1 and you're using your home remote at the club.

The engine is at ID number 4 in the home remote, place it on the track at the club and run it. However if someone else has an engine at ID 4 on the track you may take control of his engine or he may take control of your engine. The engine responds to the last command given irregardless of what what remote sent the command. That's why I suggested assigning engine ID numbers to each member of the club.

No you don't have to remove the engine from your remote unless there's an ID conflict with another members engine (same ID)

Barry, I was referring to the ENGINE SETUP screen.
The 4th command down is RECOVER ENGINE.
I tried this but alway get a NO ENGINE RECOVERED message,
but I never tried this when there was an engine problem.

My rev is 4.10

Jerry

Greg,

Thanks for the info.

Jerry

Jerry,

Please look at pages 37 and 153 in your copy of The DCS O Gauge Companion for an explanation of the Recover Engine function. It has nothing to do with your situation.