Just Killed My Digitrax System

[D&J RailRoad]

I have one DCS100 and two DB150s on my layout. The two DB150s are operating as boosters but not in reverse loops. Things have been operating just fine for the past month.
I am building my layout and was doing some soldering on track leads. The power was shut off to the entire layout as I have in the past. The soldering iron suddenly arced to the wire I was soldering and then I heard a pop noise from one of the DB150s then all the command stations beeped a few times then went silent. The system was still powered off. I checked the power switch and turned the layout on. I don't recall the beep number, but the track status will not come on with any of them. There is power to the front plug of each command station but the track status won't come on. When I attempt to turn on the track power using the DT100 I get 4 beeps from the command station. I have cleared all memory with OPSW#39 but the track status does not change. I have tried all this with the loconet disconnected from the DCS100. The Power on light of one of the DB150s flashes three times every second or so and the other has no lights at all.
Did I just kill my entire Digitrax system?

[Rico]

I'm not sure but I think turning the switch off simply kills power to the system, but doesn't isolate the system from the layout.
I usually disconnect the boosters manually before doing any electrical work.
I hope that the beeping means something still works, I'm sure someone here will know.
Good luck!

[kjd]

The soldering iron arced to the wire? I'm not sure what you mean, did you zap the track with 110? Do they work with the track disconnected? Did you solder in a short?

[D&J RailRoad]

I had been doing some simple soldering of feeder wires to the track from a buss line I have running below the benchwork. I had done a couple hundred of these solder connections so far with no problem. As I was starting to solder a connection, there was an electrical arc from the tip of the soldering iron to the track wire. The soldering iron is just a simple iron that is plugged in and takes a few minutes to get up to temperature to work with.

[DianneB]

That sounds scary! It almost sounds like there is a short in your soldering iron that is taking one side of the 110V to the tip (which should NEVER happen!)

Use an Ohmmeter and check both sides of the power plug for resistance to the tip of the iron - it should be infinity - if not throw that iron away!!! If your iron has a 3-pronged plug, check for continuity between the ground pin and the tip. If the ground pin is connected to the tip, check the outlet that the iron was plugged in to. It is possible that the ground on the receptacle is not properly wired.

[I have been in the electronics field 40 years and never seen that happen but it is possible and if the iron has a short, that iron will destroy anything it touches that isn't electrically isolated.]

[railfan]

Maybe you tried this already.....but you might try completely disconnecting every possible source of AC power...not just flipping switches off but actually unplugging every power cord. Then plug it back in after a minute or two. It may have popped an internal circuit breaker too. I agree that soldering iron might need to be replaced. Hope the DCC comes back on for you.


Mike

[D&J RailRoad]

Was able to do some more investigating this morning.
One DB150 is fully operational and is now set up as the only command station on the layout. I had to put jumpers on the district breaks to get the whole layout under its power.
One DB150 is completely dead. No response to anything. No lights, no clicks, no beeps and it smells burnt inside.
The DCS100 has all lights on the front but no track power. The track power light barely blinks every second or so and is in sequence with the off line LED that is lit all the time despite me trying to toggle the track power on with the DT100. The DT100 can select a locomotive but the loco wont respond due to the track power not being activated. When I switch the DCS100 track power on (or attempt to) the CS beeps 4 times. This indicates an over stacking of the route commands (turn out controls) . I tried dumping the routes with OPSW#37 but that didn't have any effect.
I will go back and check the loconet system to be sure that its ok. I think it is as I was working the DB150 through it after doing a OPSW#39 reset on it. I tried reset on all the CSs as part of the trouble shooting steps.
This is a little relief that I can still run the layout with one CS, but still, loosing two CSs will cost a bit to repair.

[wright2626]

go back and double check your track leads, make sure that you did not somehow cross the wires and accidentally created a short. also make sure that you didnt leave a piece of metal across the track, like some solder.

[TrinityJayOne]

I think DianneB is on the money here as there's no way this should happen in normal use. A simple short on the tracks wouldn't cause an arc like that.

Depending on exactly what's busted in the 2nd DB150 is it possible you could salvage it? There's a chance that the surge popped the first component in the circuit and then went no further, perhaps something relatively easy to replace like a capacitor or resistor. Obviously you'd use a different soldering iron.

[wright2626]

may not have caused it to fry, but it could cause the system to not work properly now. never hurts to go back and double, triple check the basics.