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UP5/
D-UP5

Obviously when track power is on, the LED is on, and when track power is off, the LED will be off.

When the LED is on, with no analog loco being operated, the LED should be orange - some call it yellow. If running an analog loco at full throttle forward, the LED will be either green or red. When running it backward, it will be whichever color it isn't when running forward. The reason it can't be specified which color it will be when running forward and backward is because the polarity on the track dictates the direction of the loco in relation to the layout, not in relation to the loco. When the polarity is one way, the loco will go in that direction regardless of which direction the loco is facing. For example, if the polarity is such that the loco will go West, it will go West regardless of whether the loco is facing East or West. So, if the two screw terminals are connected to the track power so that the LED will be green when the polarity is set for west, it will be red when the polarity is reversed (to reverse the direction of the analog loco).

The LED does not switch instantly from orange to green or red. When the analog loco's speed is set for zero ("00"), the LED will be orange. As it is given throttle, the LED will gradually change from orange to red (or green) until it is at full throttle where the LED will be solid red (or green). Also, since this is a bi-color LED, with the color dictated by the polarity given to it, the color is only accurate when looking directly into it. If looking at it at an angle, it could look a little red or green when it's actually full orange.

When the two screws are connected to track power, it provides a second source of power for the two front jacks - to power throttles that are plugged into it. The first source of power is the LocoNet itself. It, however, has a limited amount of amperage. If there are more devices plugged into the LocoNet than the LocoNet has power for, voltage will drop and the devices will be starved. But, with these screws connected, if LocoNet voltage drops below track voltage, the front jacks will be powered from track power instead. And since track power is usually higher than LocoNet voltage to start with, it's more likely track power will be used most of the time. But if there is a short circuit on the track, causing track power to be turned off, LocoNet power takes over.

Another UP5 feature is "throttle keep-alive". On the side of the UP5's PC board, there is a 2mm jack for plugging in a wall plug power supply. This power supply can be anything from 12VDC to 18VDC, such as Digitrax's PS12 or our UPT. There are two purposes for this power supply: to provide power to the front jacks for throttle power, and keep-alive when the system is turned off.

The front jacks get power from whichever one of the three power sources has the highest voltage: LocoNet, track power, or the wall plug transformer. The only power that goes through the LocoNet is that which is provided by the command station/booster. Neither track power nor wall plug transformer power is transferred to LocoNet - only to the front jacks on this throttle panel. There is, however, a way to transfer power from this UP5 to others without having to purchase a wall plug transformer for every UP5.

In the middle of the back edge of the PC board, between the two back jacks, there is a single solder pad. This pad has a hole in it that is usually filled with solder. However, you can melt the solder to poke a 22AWG solid core wire through to make good solid connection. Cut that AWG wire to about two inches and connect a heavier wire 18AWG or larger (depending on how far the wire has to go around to all the throttle panels).

By connecting all the UP5 throttle panels together this way, they will all use the power from the single wall plug power supply. Keep in mind, however, that the power the wall plug transformer has is also finite. Therefore, it would be wise to use multiple wall plug power supplies if you have a lot of throttle panels. It depends on how much power your wall plug transformer puts out, but it's safe to say that each one should be able to power five or more throttle panels.

Only one wire is needed to do this because the ground circuit goes through the LocoNet Wires. Only the positive (hot) wire is blocked from the LocoNet, so must be transferred from UP5 to UP5 via that one conductor wire.

Also, UR90 Infrared receivers and UR91 Radio receivers have the same 2MM jack and solder pad. They can be daisy chained together with UP5s using the same power supply. However, remember that the receivers use more power than a UP5, so it would be wise to keep the number of UP5s added to their circuits lower than one with all UP5s.

The last feature of these panels is throttle keep-alive when the system is turned off or in the sleep mode. There is no provision to turn power off on throttles that have batteries. When you turn the system off, the throttles stay alive by using the battery. Doing this, however, will kill a battery in just a couple of days. There are ways though, of keeping the throttle alive without using the battery. Of course, you could always remove the battery after each use.

All of Digitrax's systems currently have a sleep mode. If you're using regular telephone jacks, this sleep mode power will transfer through LocoNet to all jacks. If you leave your throttle plugged into one of them, that sleep power will keep the throttle alive without using the battery. However, if you have UP5s, sleep power can't get through the electronics on the panel to keep the throttle alive. This is where the wall plug transformer comes in. As long as you leave the wall plug transformer plugged into a socket that stays hot, it will keep the throttles plugged into them alive even with the system is turned off completely.

Note: None of this will charge the battery; it only keeps the throttle alive without using the battery.