At first glance the sophistication of the DS54 may be a little intimidating. The DS54 is engineered to give you the basics of stationary decoder control as well as many advanced features that you might not have thought of yet. Never fear, you can use the DS54 as simply a turnout decoder. The factory programmed defaults make the DS54 usable "out of the box" in most systems without the need for any additional programming, configuration or wiring connections. You can use "just as much as you want" of the DS54's basic capabilities, & leave the more advanced features till you find that you need them for a specific task.

The DS54 is a sophisticated input & output device for Digitrax Digital Command Control systems. It can control up to 4 turnout motors (either solenoid or slow motion type) or a combination of other types of stationary lights & devices. It also has 8 inputs, paired in 4 groups, that can trigger "local" DS54 output tasks & also broadcast several types of sensor & status information onto LocoNet, for action by command stations like the DCS100, or a PC connected to LocoNet.

The DS54 has a powerful set of programmable actions that you can customize to generate local tasks without any intervention from Keypads/Throttles, Command Stations or attached computers. The ability of the DS54 to perform "autonomous" local tasks or "animation," gives the DS54 a greater synergy & capability than just a combination of a separate stationary decoder & sensor module. LocoNet gives you all this sophistication with less overall system complexity.

In a large walkaround layout, DS54 inputs are easily configured to allow you to operate local turnouts (and routes) with momentary push-button switches on a local control panel fascia while still allowing remote users & computers to control these same turnouts.

One really exciting example of the power of the DS54 is using just one of the DS54's four outputs you can set up a block occupancy detector with an associated flashing light output for a simple crossing gate detector & signals. In this case, the detection blocks are gapped to signal & "protect" several tracks at a grade crossing. Further, this "crossing gate" task running in 1/4th of the DS54, can also send block occupancy detector messages onto LocoNet for integrating into the Digitrax signaling control system. Since these sensor feedback messages are broadcast on the LocoNet network, they are also available for attached PC's showing CTC type displays.

• 4 Multi-purpose high-current output control pairs controllable by standard DCC accessory decoder signals & local control inputs. Outputs can control:
  
  
  1. Push-pull solenoid turnout motors e.g. PECO or Atlas "snap" switches
     
  2. Slow Motion DC Stall turnout motors e.g. Switch Master & Tortoise type products
     
  3. Incandescent & LED lights for signals & special effects
     
  4. Other attached devices such as sound modules & DC motors
     
• 8 Multi-purpose sensor inputs can be configured for:

1. Block occupancy detectors, using Digitrax BD1 detector modules

2. Local turnout control

3. Feedback of turnout position, including "out of position" during changes

4. General LocoNet system input sensors

5. Local route control

6. System Power On/Off & Run/Stop inputs

7. Cascaded route & turnout control

8. Signaling system control messages

9. Local animation control, such as automated Indexing Turntable

10. Multiple aspect control such as automatic Crossing Gate controller

11. General local control of attached motors, solenoids, lamps, etc.

    • Approximate Size 2.5" x 4" x .75"
    • Includes wires for connecting 4 turnouts.
    • Fully programmable & customizable configurations
    • Configurations are permanently stored in non-volatile memory
    • Supports up to 4,000 individual LocoNet sensors on the system
    • Supports up to 2,000 turnout addresses including turnout feedback