Model Railway Forum

Well, for what it is worth I have given up trying to install the Cobalt point motors I was talking about above. It is clear there is a problem with these motors and the Digitrax control system. DCC Concepts admitted as much when they advised me by e-mail that:-

"We have sometimes seen issues with addressing on the main system with Digitrax. This is because the Digitrax DCC waveform has a "rounded edge" to it and can sometimes be misinterpreted. This rounding of the signal is worse if there are many items connected to the DCC bus - accessories, locos etc. and can cause issues with Digital Ip point motors whilst trying to address them. One solution with Digitrax has been to just connect the DCC track output from the Digitrax to the motor to address it - with nothing else connected to the bus."

I did that and the motors worked fine on the bench, but as soon as I installed them back on the layout the problems started! I am posting this in the hope that other Digitrax users, who might be tempted to choose Cobalt motors, are aware of this issue.

Safe to say I have abandoned this method of point control and am reverting to the good old solenoid.

Tim Munslow wrote: ↑Wed Mar 31, 2021 7:57 pm Well, for what it is worth I have given up trying to install the Cobalt point motors I was talking about above.,.............

Safe to say I have abandoned this method of point control and am reverting to the good old solenoid.

Have you considered servo motors? The motors are cheap to buy and controllers available from Merg, Megapoints, ESU etc. You still get that slow action rather than the hard clunk you get with solenoids.

Sorry for the late reply am now concerned as I have bought Cobalt ip Digital motors and have a Digitrax system I have not fitted yet as waiting for Peco to produce some RH points I will contact DCC Concepts and ask the question. Do you know if there is a problem if using a switch to control motor and use frog switching through Colbalt IP

Gary

GaryH wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 3:07 pm Sorry for the late reply am now concerned as I have bought Cobalt ip Digital motors and have a Digitrax system I have not fitted yet as waiting for Peco to produce some RH points I will contact DCC Concepts and ask the question. Do you know if there is a problem if using a switch to control motor and use frog switching through Colbalt IP

Gary

There shouldn't be any issue AFAIK, as the DCC is only used to provide a path to the operation switch(es) and back all via some internal circuity in the Cobalt.

Thanks Brian

teedoubleudee wrote: ↑Tue Mar 23, 2021 1:59 pm Well I thought I had binned them but just had a look in my "To be checked/repaired" box and I stll have them, along with a Classic Omega one. So I'll test their promise and let you know.

A quick update on this. I sent the two faulty Cobalt ip motors back to DCC Concepts and two new ones arrived in today's post. Thanks for the info Brian (FB)