Prodigy Cobalt setup

[Brian]

The mostly used one is the PSX-1. Example... https://www.dccsupplies.com/item-p-1011 ... 1-power-di

[Nokonium]

Tried a few things and learnt a few things unfortunately didn't get anywhere.

What have I learnt?

The Cobalt Alpha system will allocate an address to a point motor if connected. To allocate an address to an individual point motor connect the Alpha output directly to the motor and press the Alpha switches that you want to work with it. Fine so far, however I could not find a way to change direction or enable/disable centring.

To get my DCC control system (Prodigy Advance 2) to make a motor respond in any way it had to be connected directly to the Prodigy Track output only. That ultimately will not be a problem as we will use the handsets to control the loco's and the control panel to set points.

I have found sets of instructions with codes to change direction and enable/disable centring but until I have tried them and found that they work I will not post them.

[Ron S]

The second bus for accessories - called LCC under NMRA terminology https://www.nmra.org/search/node/lcc

[JohnGillott]

Nikondium you have my sympathy, I too constructed a control board using DCC Concepts alpha D and have had exactly the same problems as you.
At Brians suggestion I have kept in touch with the manufacturers and they are always very helpful but to date nothing has worked out.
I have decided to abandon the Alpha D System and just go with On-Off- On switches I have tried them and the work perfectly, I will return to the Alpha D system when time allows. I just want to play trains at the moment.
Just have one question for the experts, do I still need to use a “Sniffer” to power the BUS or can I use Aa power supply wired through a circuit breaker (PS1)

[Nokonium]

I feel that I am getting somewhere at last. One motor was in a very awkward place and I couldn’t get it to work so I removed it and checked it out on the bench then put it back in. All three points, a crossover and a single point work as they should do.

This is my second control panel, half way through making the first one I realised that I had to have two switches for each point and three for a crossover. It took a while for me to understand how to connect the switches for the crossovers. I have twenty sets of points and for this I have four Alpha D Switch boards and two Alpha Encoder boards. I don’t have a sniffer, I have an Alpha Box and an Alpha Power. I had intended to have a completely separate accessory bus but that has now been changed to an an accessory sub district on a single power bus. The Prodigy and the Apha stuff are connected as per DCC Concepts diagrams. The Alpha Box deals happily with short circuits caused by cats with wet feet walking on the track.

I planned my Alpha D Switch layout to group areas of points, unfortunately Alpha logic and Nokonium logic don’t appear to be the same. So I have now made notes on all the addresses allocated by Alpha. As you press each Switch the allocated address flashes up on the decoder display, if motors are connected they will be given an address. I have made myself a programming wire to connect directly to the Prodigy track outlet which I will use to program all the as yet uninstalled motors before I install them. All the reprogramming addresses worked, I will post a list of these later from my desktop along with an extra tip that helps when you install the motor on the layout.

[Nokonium]

As promised, these are the programming notes that put together when programming to record what worked:

I have found that to program/reprogram the point motors themselves they have to be individually connected to the Prodigy track output and not to the whole layout.

To program cobalt digital ip address

Connect dcc input
Put switch to SET
SELECT ACCY - ADDRESS NO. - ENTER - 1
SELECT ACCY - ADDRESS NO. - ENTER - 1
Put switch to NORMAL
Disconnect dcc input
Connect dcc input

To change direction using 197:

Connect dcc input
Put switch to SET
SELECT ACCY - 197 - ENTER - 1
SELECT ACCY - 197 - ENTER - 1
Put switch to NORMAL
Disconnect dcc input
Connect dcc input

To deactivate auto centre using 198:
Connect dcc input
Put switch to SET
SELECT ACCY - 198 - ENTER - 1
SELECT ACCY - 198 - ENTER - 1
Put switch to NORMAL
Disconnect dcc input
Connect dcc input

To activate auto centre using 199:
Connect dcc input
Put switch to SET
SELECT ACCY - 199 - ENTER - 1
SELECT ACCY - 199 - ENTER - 1
Put switch to NORMAL
Disconnect dcc input
Connect dcc input

installing a Cobalt Digital IP point motor is much easier if the point and the motor are centred. To leave the motor in the centred position but otherwise ready to work, run the 199 address procedure to centre the motor, followed by most of the 198 procedure, end with disconnecting DCC and don't reconnect. That way the motor is centred for fitting but as soon as you turn the power back on it will complete the deactivation.

I also found this diagram very helpful for checking that rail and frog polarity were correct:

PointVoltageCheck.jpg

Unfortunately I've forgotten where I found it but thanks to them anyway.

[Nokonium]

The second bus for accessories - called LCC under NMRA terminology https://www.nmra.org/search/node/lcc

Ron

I found that stuff very interesting, it is about an accessory control system that does for accessories what DCC did for trains. Hardware shown allows the use of standard Cat5 data cables to connect modules and there is an intention for future development to include trains as well.

[RogerB]

The LCC system make interesting reading, but I thought it amusing that one of the first things the presentation said was (and I paraphrase) "some might think of this as a solution looking for a problem". It does seem very complex, does anyone know what came of it? R-

[Ron S]

Regarding LCC, there is a lot still going on - this is just one site with 7 pages discussing it
https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/27236

I googled nmra lcc forum

and DCCconcepts have now added more PDf's into their site
https://www.dccconceptsforum.com/post/d ... 1306057929