# Airwire G3 not talking to the phoenix P8 sound board



## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi All
Having a problem getting the Airwire G3 to talk to the phoenix P8 sound board.
As per the G3 manual I went with option 2 as I am using a Tenergy Li-Ion 14.8V 4400mAh pack
And don’t want to go over the recommended 16v when it is fully charged.
I have the T5000 and have made sure to set CV 1 to 3 with both the G3 and P8 powered up and used the PC interface to set the recommended settings.
I get the start up sounds but that's it.

But I cannot get any of the sound function to work of the T5000.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

you know you have power to the p8 when you get startup sounds ok. now do you have motor control on the g3 ? double check red wire to g3 
and readdress both. cv1 in service mode. 
dick


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Hi Dick

Yes I have power the motor by the way is a Bachmann 2-8-0 Connie and the G3 is working just fine.Full motor control and lights.I have re-address both in cv1 in service mode.But still nada.
All I have going from the G3 to the P8 is the orange wire as in option two.


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

Since you have the Phoenix software, use the tools they have provided for you. Go to the tolls menu and select show board I/O. When the window opens , is the indicator on the right showing red, or green? If not green, then no communications , even though you have power. 
If you have already successfully linked the decoder and controller, and got the confirmation, then be aware that the new g3 will jump back to channel zero if it does not immediately see a DCC signal from a controller. 
Remember, you are dealing with 2 variables, frequency and address. Both must be correct. If the Phoenix does not hear the address, you will have motion and light control, but no sound control. If you do not have a green light after confirming these points, then perform a reload of the sound file. 

Jonathan 
Electric /Steam modelworks 
www.rctrains.com 
over 23 years of large scale radio control installations


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Ok its is showing a RED light and address 3

On the info page its showing Boot version 12/04/2008 
Firmware version 2.95


Just want to check that just having the orange wire fron the P8 to the G3 as in option 2 is good


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Re loaded the sound file and nada still getting the red in the Boad I/O window.
I would like to try option 1 but i never got the resistor that came with the G3.


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Option 2 is how I wire all the P8's I install with airwire.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

option 2 is what phoenix told me to use. what address did you put in the airwire?
dick


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Oh boy oh tryed option 2 but nada no power to the board!!!!!!!!! No start up sound zip


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Looks like a fault with the G3 with the *
DCC Booster Output jacks as there is no power coming from them as shown in option 2 and i option 1 no signal to the P8
I have check over and over again and have set the CV1 to # and Freq to 0

*


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

I mean set to address 3 and freqency 0


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Yes the locomotve is responding to commands and the address is set to 3 and with the p8 hooked up to the computer it is showing 3 also.I have the frequency set to 0. 
It looks to me like there is no signal coming down the orange wire from the G3 and when i try option 1 with the 2 green wires hooked up to the DCC out put A and B the p8 does not power up.


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## K27_463 (Jan 2, 2008)

Since the 
G3 has a pair of screw terminal of DCC outputs, and the Phoenix harness has both a gray and orange for DCc why not hook them both up per usual. It costs you nothing to try that. DCc has no polarity, and the G3 and Phoenix operate on single ended Dcc signals. So , both wires covers all the bases basically, and has no downside. 

jonathan 
www.rctrains.com 
Specialist in large scale battery R/c


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

I would call CVP and get their advice. They may give you a tip we missed.


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Tryed that but still no luck.My gut is telling me that the ddc part of the board for soung is F...................
Have not had much luck with this new board.Had to get a replacement from CVP as the board heated up and did not work and now that i finally got the P8 to go with it its a no go.


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Thanks for all the help guys will let you know what the out come is.

Martin


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Well Today tried the 2 green wires to the battery and the orange to DCC #1 output A and poof up went the P8!!!!!!!
Called Phoenix and they said ship it back to them.The G3 still responds to commands from the T5000 but still dont know if the G3 had a problem with the DCC output.
This is getting $$$$$$$$$$


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

So three people tell you to wire as option 2 and you try option 1? 

I gotta look at these schematics... 

Greg


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 01 May 2013 10:46 PM 
So three people tell you to wire as option 2 and you try option 1? 

I gotta look at these schematics... 

Greg Got to agree with Greg. Three people tell you to wire as option #2 and Jonathan, who does ALL my Airwire installs makes a suggestion to you AND STILL you use option #1. Unbelievable.


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Let's not get too wound up, gentlemen. Bigreds opened this thread by saying he initially tried "option 2" and it wasn't working for him, hence is inquiry. Given this is an unusual instance where there _are_ two viable options for hooking these two boards together, it stands to reason that if one of the two doesn't work, the logical next step would be to try the other one. Given that option didn't work either, then the issue is most likely hardware-related. The next question would be which of the two pieces? 

If, at this point, the Phoenix board has gone the way of its mythological namesake, then there's not much to do but ship it back and wait for a new one to rise from the ashes. I'd be tempted to test the DCC output of the G3 with an inexpensive lighting decoder like a TCS FL4 or similar. If that is unresponsive, then you know the problem lies with the DCC output of the G3. If it's somehow causing damage to whatever's hooked up to it, at least you can take comfort in that you just bricked a $15 lighting decoder as opposed to a $180 sound board. And if it works just fine, then you have a degree of confidence that when you get the repaired/replaced Phoenix back, it _should_ work as advertised when wired per the diagram. 

When you get the Phoenix back--if possible--test it in another loco that you know to have a properly-working DCC output, be it a G3 or G2 or whatever. That way you know it works properly. The nice thing about the P8s is that everything just unplugs, so you can easily swap out boards to troubleshoot. Once you establish that the Phoenix is working fine, and presuming you've likewise established that the G3 is working fine, then hopefully the two will work fine together. 

Later, 

K


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## oceansidean (Dec 27, 2010)

I have locomotives with t5000, G2, P8's and 14.8 battery. I have had no sound issues with motor control only to find that I had accidentally activated function 8(volume mute). Once I activated function 7 my sound volume came up and all was fine, I do not recall getting a startup sound however. I hope it can be this simple as it seems that you may have had all correctly wired at one time.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

OK, as I said, the conversation intrigued me. 

I went to the CVP site and downloaded the G3 user manual... it was very easy to find it on the site. 

The user manual has very nice pictures and diagrams for what looks like ALL the Phoenix boards... very nice... 

Page 34 shows the two options being discussed. It mentions that you don't need the resistor if you are using 12 to 16 volts, which "bigreds" has properly addressed 

(that's good because a resistor with 4 black bands is not possible ha ha! So who know WHAT the value of the resistor should be? Maybe it's somewhere else in the manual, but that is not good) 

Anyway, so if you hook the orange wire to the "wrong" DCC output of the G3, and you have power into the P8 from battery, can that cause a short? 

It would seem that this would not damage the P8... I'm asking this question of the experienced installers, I've never damaged a Phoenix board so I don't know what happens if you hook the Orange wire to the "wrong" polarity. 

Just curious... Greg


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 02 May 2013 12:44 PM 
_{snip...}_ Page 34 shows the two options being discussed. It mentions that you don't need the resistor if you are using 12 to 16 volts, which "bigreds" has properly addressed 

(that's good because a resistor with 4 black bands is not possible ha ha! *So who know WHAT the value of the resistor should be? Maybe it's somewhere else in the manual*, but that is not good) {snip...}[/i] CVP - AirWire900 - G3 Decoder User Manual (2013r10)
Adobe Page 15 (G3 Manual Page 30)
Using The DCC Booster Output


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yep, see it now... a bit hard to find since it's a "two up" PDF file with pages in order of the paper printed, not consecutive. 

He has the graphic colors correct there and on another page, just not the page I was looking at. Also would be nice to specify the wattage, from his illustration, I would guess a 1 or 2 watt resistor, since they typically have a blue body, but since the surge would not last a long time, it's probably not important, even a 1/4 watt would probably survive. 

If I was looking at the actual manual in my hands, clearly I would have read page 30 before 34 ha ha! 

Greg


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## bigreds (Jan 3, 2008)

Well thanks for all the help.I have to say that Al at CVP has been a real star. The last option I tried was one in a list that he suggested as he helped me to trouble shoot.
The customer service they have is First Class and I will continue to buy there products as well as Phoenix. Both the G3 and the P8 are to be shipped back to there respective manufactures to get checked out.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

What would really help us and others is finding out what was the real problem. 

If you find out, would you kindly post on this thread? 

You won't be the only person encountering this problem, I would wager. 

Thanks and good luck! 

Greg


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## Paul Burch (Jan 2, 2008)

Page 30 in the manual. Two ohm resistor. It's there to prevent a power surge when powering up that might trip the circuit protection in the G3.


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## Dick413 (Jan 7, 2008)

Paul 
if the circuit protection trips how do you reset it? 
thank dick


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

I believe it is just a circuit that "resets" when the overcurrent is removed... 

Greg


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## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 02 May 2013 03:17 PM 
{snip...}[/i] He has the graphic colors correct there and on another page, just not the page I was looking at. *Also would be nice to specify the wattage, from his illustration, I would guess a 1 or 2 watt resistor, since they typically have a blue body, but since the surge would not last a long time, it's probably not important, even a 1/4 watt would probably survive.* {snip...}[/i] CVP - AirWire900 - G3 Decoder User Manual (2013r10)
Adobe Page 1 (G3 Manual Page 1) Bottom-right of page
G3 Decoder Kit - Contents


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

After all that, no feedback on what the problem was.


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## Gary Armitstead (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Greg Elmassian on 29 Jun 2013 02:54 PM 
After all that, no feedback on what the problem was. 


Greg,

Way back on May 2nd, bigreds made some cryptic comment saying that AL had helped him "solve" the problem. BUT, it would have been nice to have his solution posted here for ALL to see!








Again, Forum Etiquette and all that.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Yeah, since it was specifically requested, and we were all somewhat confounded. 

The results might help another person in a similar situation, or allow us to help others, even not on the forum. 

Oh well.


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