4.0 DT400 Series Throttle Control Panel
4.1 General Information
The DT400 and DT400R are full function hand held throttles that
include 2 independent throttles and a common keypad to control, up
to 13 functions (0-12), turnouts and programming. The DT400 does
not require a battery in normal walkaround operation. If you do not
install a battery, the throttle display will be off while you are
unplugged from the system. The DT400 requires a 9 volt battery for
infrared operation. The DT400R requires a 9 volt battery for radio
operation.
4.2 L (Left) & R (Right) Throttle Knobs
Throughout this manual we refer to the throttle knob on the left side as
the L Throttle and the throttle knob on the right side as the R
Throttle. This corresponds to the L & R that appears on the throttle.
The throttle knobs on the DT400 use “encoders.” They give very
smooth, fine speed control. In 128 speed step mode it takes four
complete rotations of the knob to go from stop to full speed. When
you select a locomotive that is already moving on either throttle
knob, that throttle will continue to run the locomotive at the same
speed and in the same direction in which it was traveling before
being selected to the throttle.
As you turn the DT400 throttle knobs you will feel a mechanical detent
(and hear a beep if your throttle is set up for beeps and clicks). Each
time you move the knob, the system processes information. In some
cases, the LCD display will not change each time you feel the
detent. In the case of increasing and decreasing loco speed, this is
because each detent does not equal an increase of 1% speed. If
your DT400 is set up for ballistic tracking, the speed with which you
move the encoder will affect how the display changes.
You can customize the tracking characteristics of these knobs for either
straight line (normal) tracking or ballistic tracking
. With straight
line tracking each movement of the knob causes a fixed rate of
change. With ballistic tracking, the faster you increase or decrease
the the throttle knob, the faster the data changes in the throttle. Your
DT400 was shipped with ballistic tracking as the factory default set-
ting. To change this setting see Section 23.1.1.
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