When I hook up my USB cable to my PC the DCS240’s blue USB led turns on, but Digitrax DigiIPL II, LocoMon and SoundLoader II utilities do nothing when opened. What is the problem?
The blue USB led lit on the DCS240 means that the complex USB Enumeration and startup sequence has successfully completed.
Be sure to select the correct COM port number that is now associated with this DCS240 in the software you are trying to use. You can see this COM number appear in the “Ports (COM & LPT)” entries of e.g. the Device Manager function of Windows, etc. The DCS240 USB drivers are 100% compatible with and identical to those of the PR3 on the Digitrax web site, and installation steps are outlined there for some different PC’s.
In operation the USB and LocoNet message traffic are mutually visible, and the blue USB led will wink when a USB message is received from the PC, and the red LOCONET led will wink with any LocoNet message traffic.
Also make sure you only have one Digitrax Utility open at a time. When SoundLoader II is active the program track is switched to sound programming only and is inaccessible to LocoNet, and no USB messages are exchanged with LocoNet. This means you will only be able to use the other Digitrax Utilities once you have exited SoundLoader II. Exiting from SoundLoader II will restore normal USB and Programming track access.
Make sure you have not disconnected and reconnected the USB connection. If you physically disconnect the USB cable to the DCS240, you will need to close any Digitrax Utilities you have and then reopen them after the DCS240 is reconnected.