# airwire and P5



## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Has anyone tryed to put a P5 with a airwire drop-in?


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## Treeman (Jan 6, 2008)

I have not installed an older Phoenix board with a drop in, but sure that it would work. The DCC output from the drop in would trigger all sounds.


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

I believe that you must use a P-8 with the drop-in boards. The DCC output from the drop-in is not bi-polar like the prior AirWire boards.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

That's interesting data Bill. 

So, your post also seems to imply that the P8 can take "unipolar DCC", but the P5 needs "true" "bipolar DCC". 

Is that correct? 

Thanks, Greg


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## Bill Swindell (Jan 2, 2008)

The difference between the DCC outputs was told to me by CVP. I am assuming that this is the correct scoop. 

If you read the manual for the drop-in boards, they refer to the P-8 sound board exclusively. I also know that there in no additional DCC output connection. That means that you can not connect any auxiliary DCC devices to the drop-in board.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

OK called Phoenix last week and they said i could not use the p5 with drop-in right now, but they are working on away to use it hopefully soon. 
its got to do with the power not dcc signal, p5 gets both on same wires, p8 does not.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Something does not make sense. In DCC, the power and the signal is the same on the tracks. Is it that the drop in cannot supply enough current on it's DCC interface, like the G2? 

oops 

Greg


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Dick413 on 31 Jan 2012 04:58 PM 
OK called Phoenix last week and they said i could not use the p5 with drop-in right now, but they are working on away to use it hopefully soon. 
its got to do with the power not dcc signal, p5 gets both on same wires, p8 does not. Way ta' go, Dick.... Right back to the source for the answers....









Good information.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

I'll take a stab at this,but will not be held legally responsible! The drop in boards do not supply both power and DCC signal on the same leads like the G2. The P8 gets its DCC signal on one set of leads and power on another.

This is from the P8 manual.



Differences from the P5


The P8 uses the same connectors as the P5. However it is not directly plug in compatible. Plugging a P8 into a P5 hookup will not cause damage, it just won't work quite right.


The main difference is that the P8 does not combine speed and power on pins C1:1 and C1:2 as the P5 does. Other changes were to move the expansion signal connections (for the P5T) to C3, as it is on the PB9, and redefine those pins on C2 as trigger inputs.


See the chart on the next page for complete details of the P8 pin out.


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

I'll follow up a little more. These are the P8 and P5 pinouts for power and DCC.

P8 ter C1-1 and C1-2 Power
C1-6 and C1-7 DCC

P5 ter C1-1 and C1-2 Power + DCC
C1-6 and C1-7 Alternate power

It looks to me that plugging a P5 into the drop in harness would result in no DCC signal to the P5.
It will probably take some new kind of harness from Phoenix to make it work.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Yes Paul thats what they [phoenix] said to me and they are working on it,i hope it will be soon.


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