Skip to content

Diagnostics D ACK Command

Jump to bottom
habazut edited this page Sep 27, 2020 · 4 revisions

When the ACK processing on the prog track does not work as expected, you may want to use the D ACK ON command in a serial command window. This is an example how to read CV8 with diagnostics on. You enter the first 2 lines. DCC-EX does not echo what you write, your serial command window may. With diag on you get the extra 11 lines of output. The last line is the answer, CV8=145:

<D ACK ON>
<R 8 1 1>
ACK-BASELINE 33/98mA
V0 cv=8 bit=7 ACK-FAIL after 143mS max=12/35mA pulse=0uS
V1 cv=8 bit=7 ACK-OK after 34mS max=646/1931mA pulse=6852uS
V0 cv=8 bit=6 ACK-OK after 34mS max=583/1743mA pulse=6844uS
V0 cv=8 bit=5 ACK-OK after 34mS max=646/1931mA pulse=6800uS
V0 cv=8 bit=4 ACK-FAIL after 144mS max=12/35mA pulse=0uS
V0 cv=8 bit=3 ACK-OK after 34mS max=563/1683mA pulse=6792uS
V0 cv=8 bit=2 ACK-OK after 34mS max=647/1934mA pulse=6800uS
V0 cv=8 bit=1 ACK-OK after 34mS max=573/1713mA pulse=6844uS
V0 cv=8 bit=0 ACK-FAIL after 145mS max=14/41mA pulse=0uS
VB cv=8 value=145 ACK-OK after 34mS max=639/1910mA pulse=6848uS
Callback(145)
<r1|1|8 145>

Your output may show different formatting with respect to linefeeds. Here the deocder reports that bits 7, 4 and 0 are not Zero. That gives the value of 10010001 = 145 which is the manufacturer ID for Zimo. That value is checked in the VB line. For a successful read, the result of the verify bit and verify byte commands have to match, otherwise the value can nor be read. If you have problems reading decoders, you can compare the received values with the expected values. The format is:

OPER cv=n bit=b ACK-FAIL/OK after WAITTIME mS max=INTERNALVAL / CURRENT mA pulse= PULSELENGTH uS

The CURRENT should be over 60mA for a successful ACK and the length should be 6000uS +-1000uS but because of Decoder variations from the standard DCC-EX has some extra pulse length margin.

If you encounter problems with ACKs from the Decoder and you want help, the DCC-EX support will probably ask you to provide this kind of diagnostics.

The two values of 1 after each other in the <R> command and in the <r> answer you can safely ignore.

Clone this wiki locally