Turnouts and signals

Turnouts are the accessory the automation operates by itself – and that makes them the most important one. Signals show the matching aspect and switch the real signal decoder, but they don't stop any train. On this page you connect both and set how they behave during operation.

Setting up a turnout

In edit mode, click the turnout. The inspector shows the “Name” and the sections “Switching”, “Occupancy sensor (feedback module)”, “Length (cm)” and “Speed (km/h)”. “Switching” is open; the other sections are collapsed at first.

The “Switching” section

Further sections

Turnout on the Shift-Commander

If a turnout is connected to a LoDi-Shift-Commander, the Commander manages the outputs itself. Instead of “Address” there are two ways:

• Draw an operator cable: a “Turnout cable (drive)” from the operator's output to the turnout. The inspector then shows the operator, output, command and address – automatically. Removing the cable means: address gone, turnout back to DCC.
• Without a cable: at the top, choose the Shift-Commander as the “Switching command station”, then pick the entry from its command list under “Command (item)”. If the list hasn't been read, “Reload” fetches it.

If there is no command on the terminal yet, the inspector offers “Create turnout in the Shift-Commander”. In the track plan, the operator modules show the bus and slot, their name from the device and, on each terminal, the command assigned to it. Every Shift-Commander board type appears as a tile, including the 32-SD-FL50 and 4-WD-ACP; servo, light and stepper motor boards appear as tiles without terminals.

How to set up operators and commands on the Shift-Commander is described under Setting up the LoDi-Shift-Commander and Setting up the LoDi operators.

Double slips, single slips and three-way turnouts

More than two positions usually need two point motors. The inspector then shows two addresses and a table below them: for each position, a small picture of the open routes, and for each address a colour button, green or red. For double and single slips it is pre-filled according to the point motors – address 1 switches the A–B end, address 2 the C–D end.

A double slip comes in two versions. Under “Point motors”, choose “Two — each route on its own (4 positions)” or “One — both straights / both curves (2 positions)”; with one point motor, one address is enough. On the Shift-Commander there is no table, only the type.

Turnout without an address

A turnout without an address doesn't block anything. It is only set in the plan, and the automation drives over it normally. This is intentional: a missing address must never stop trains from running. So you can draw a complete layout and wire up the turnouts later.

• Exception, two point motors: if a double slip, single slip or three-way turnout is missing one of its two addresses, it isn't switched and no route is planned over it.
• Exception, exact simulation: there, a turnout without an address is unknown and can be passed in any position. The simplified simulation lends it an address, see Trying it without a layout.
• “🔎 Check track plan” reports a turnout without an address that is neither a manual nor a trailable turnout as an error.

Turnout numbering on the LoDi-Rektor

On the LoDi-Rektor, the “DCC turnout offset” tick box decides – on the device page in the “Rektor protocols” card, effective after “Write to Rektor”. When ticked, the Rektor counts turnouts according to RCN-213, i.e. four addresses further on – like the “RCN-213” option on the LoDi-Con. When unticked, it counts like a Z21 with factory settings. Signals with the extended command always count according to RCN-213.

Special cases

Setting turnouts during operation

In operation, clicking a turnout switches it over. For a double slip, three-way turnout or single slip with more than two positions, the click opens a small selection box with all positions. LoDi-Aura decides whether it is switched:

• The answer is no for a fixed turnout and for a turnout over which a route is currently booked. Both are intentional: nobody may pull the turnout out from under the automation's train.
• When the layout is switched off, LoDi-Aura refuses to set the turnout (“… Hardware is offline …”) – it never switches only in the picture. A manual turnout or spring switch is still accepted as a report.
• No automation throws a turnout that reports occupied, lies under a train or is booked for another train. The log then says something like “Turnout W15 occupied — not switched”.

Whether the turnout position appears as a blade in the track plan is switched under “▤ Layers ▾” › “Tracks” › “Show turnout position”.

If someone switches a turnout from outside – on the LoDi-Con, on the LoDi-Shift-Commander's web interface, with a second program on the LoDi-Rektor or on the Z21 – the track plan shows the new position. If a booked turnout ahead of a train is suddenly set wrong, the train stops in front of it and waits until you set it back. If it is switched under a moving train, the train stops immediately. Lenz, ECoS and CS3 don't report such changes.

The Accessories window

“Accessories ⧉” on the right of the tab bar opens a window with all turnouts, signals and lights of the track plan – as a “List”, as a “Control board” and as an address panel (“Addresses”). Switching there works just like clicking in the track plan; a fixed turnout refuses here too.

Like the other monitors, the window can be docked to an edge of the window.

Home position and connecting

1. Choose the toolIn operation, choose “Track plan” › “🧰 Tools ▾” › “↺ Turnouts to home position”.
2. ConfirmConfirm the question “Set all turnouts to their home position?”.
3. Read the resultLoDi-Aura reports how many turnouts are being set. The result is then in the log – expand it there to see which turnouts were left alone and why, see Log and diagnostics.

The rule is: if in doubt, don't set it. These are left as they are:

• turnouts in a booked route – the route sets its turnouts itself,
• turnouts whose sensor reports occupied or hasn't reported anything yet,
• turnouts under a train that LoDi-Aura knows about, and turnouts next to a train without a calibrated direction or without an entered length,
• fixed turnouts,
• in each case also when it affects a turnout that moves along with it (a crossover at an exit, a second address of the same double slip).

Only a turnout that doesn't lie between two blocks is set without this check; the log notes it as set without an occupancy check. During operation, LoDi-Aura briefly holds each turnout while it is being set; a train that wants to book over it right then waits that long, and its route may turn out shorter as a result. If a command station's track power is off (LoDi-Rektor, Z21, Lenz, ECoS, CS3 – not the Shift-Commander, which powers its turnouts itself), its turnouts are left as they are. LoDi-Aura sets the turnouts one after the other: on the Shift-Commander as many at once as it has slots, on a command station the next one only when the previous one has finished moving.

When a command station goes online

When a command station goes online – when you switch on the layout, connect a single device or reconnect after a failure – LoDi-Aura sets its turnouts as configured under “System” › “Track plan” › “Turnouts when the command station connects”, with the same exceptions as above. Its signals then show what the track plan shows.

If track power is off at that point, LoDi-Aura waits up to three minutes for it to be switched on and then sets the turnouts. If it stays off, the log says “not set — track power stayed off”. Otherwise, too, there is a line about it in the log, under the device.

Deleting a turnout

Signals

You take a signal from the palette (“Signals”) and drag it to a block track: when close enough, it docks to the nearest track that belongs to a block – never to a turnout. Freshly placed from the palette, it still stands free. Docking is crucial: LoDi-Aura only knows about a docked signal at all; a free-standing one is just decoration.

Placing a signal – step by step

1. Open the paletteSwitch the track plan to edit mode with “✎ Edit” and, on the left, expand “Signals” and your signal system within it, e.g. “H/V (DB)”.
2. Drag it to the blockDrag the signal to the track of the block at whose end it should stand. When close enough, it docks. The inspector then shows “Docked · Block … controls it (route → Clear/Stop)”.
3. Check kind and typeIn the inspector, choose the “Kind” (main signal, distant signal, combined signal, shunting signal) and the “Type”. Below that you see the aspects the signal can show.
4. ConnectUnder “Switching”, choose the “Command station” the signal decoder is connected to and assign a command to each aspect – see below.
5. TestUnder “Set by hand”, click each position in turn and check that the real signal shows the same aspect. Then click “Back to automation”.

Part of the “Signals” palette

The inspector tells you whether the signal is docked: “Docked · Block … controls it (route → Clear/Stop)” with the side, or “Free — drag next to a track to dock”.

In edit mode, double-clicking the signal steps to the next aspect.

Command type

Example on the Shift-Commander: As the “Command station”, choose the LoDi-Shift-Commander and, under “Command (item)”, the signal command, here “Einfahrsignal B · Adr 5 · 3 Aspekte” (entry signal B). LoDi-Aura pre-fills the mapping from the device's aspect names: Stop → aspect 0, Clear → aspect 1, Slow speed → aspect 2.

If the real signal can't show a position – here the shunting move (Sh 1) – it says “— signal cannot do this —” and the inspector warns you. If this position occurs, LoDi-Aura sends nothing, and the signal keeps its last aspect.

“Reload signals from device” reads in commands you have only just set up on the device. “Reset aspects” restores the pre-filled mapping.

Mapping signal aspect → device aspect on the Shift-Commander

Combined signals and separate decoders

For a combined signal, each row of the switching table is a pair such as “Clear + Expect stop”, just as a decoder for the whole mast expects it. If the main and distant signals are connected to two decoders, tick “Distant signal on its own address”: then each gets its own command station, address and table – and the distant signal also gets a “dark” row, because it goes out while the main signal shows Stop or Shunting move.

On the Shift-Commander, the item list then offers only main signals without a distant signal for the main signal, and only distant signals for the distant signal. If the matching signal kind (such as “DB BS”) is missing, the inspector names it. The “Open Shift-Commander ↗” button takes you to the device card, where you drag the signal onto a free output of a module.

Signals in operation

Signals really switch: LoDi-Aura derives the aspect from the route, turnout positions and occupancy and sends it to the real signal decoder.

To set a signal by hand during operation, click it: a box shows all positions as pictures, with the current one highlighted. “⟲ Automatic” hands the signal back to the route; in the inspector this is called “Back to automation”. The manual setting is saved in the layout, even across a restart.

The current signal aspect also appears in the throttle – handy if you drive by signal aspect and can't see the signal.

You don't set the slow speed for Hp2 on the signal, but once for the whole layout under “System” › “Track plan” › “Hp2 · slow speed (km/h)”, see Settings.

Problems?