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I have been using the DCS Explorer for a few months.  I have found it to be useful.  I am experiencing some issues with it and I wonder if there are any other users on the forum who have experienced the same. 

I have three issues with it.  First, it blows its fuse A LOT.  I guess it's a good thing so maybe it's not really an issue.  But users should buy a bag of 100 5A fuses from Amazon because the thing is super trippy. 

Second issue: after shut down, when I return to my layout and turn the power back on, my engines are shown in the "Inactive" list on the app with no way to make them active.  If I tap on the engine name, the app is unresponsive.  If I beat up on the app a little a bit (tap "Add an Engine", go back and forth between the main screen) usually I can wake it up.  However, sometimes the engine fire up, smokes, and starts going through the crew talk sequence, all while still showing inactive and I have no control over it.  That's annoying. 

And the third issue is the most disturbing.  On more than one occasion, the DCS Explorer app has suddenly hammered the speed dial all the way to 120!  The first time it happened, I wasn't able to catch the engine.  Luckily, it simply flopped on it's side with no damage.  That first time, I thought maybe it was operator error and I somehow did it.  But since then, I've witnessed it two more times and I am 100% certain, I did not do it.  Suddenly, the speedometer pegged all the way to 120 when my fingers weren't near the iphone screen.  In one instance, I simply grabbed the engine and lifted it straight off the layout.  The other time, I hit "shut down" on the app and it stopped.  It's pretty alarming though.  I'm trying to use this with some pretty expensive standard gauge stuff and I don't want to send something to the floor. 

Has anyone experienced any of these issues with the DCS Explorer?

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I don't use the DCS Explorer exclusively but I do own one and played around with it. I will use it on the Christmas layout this year.

The fuse issue is odd, How many engines do you run at one time? How many with smoke on? Do you use track powered turnouts?
I have blown a fuse when running two engines with smoke on, both had 4 (non LED) lit passenger cars in tow and the instant one entered a track powered non-derailing turnout, the fuse popped. You could always replace the 5 amp fuse with a 5 amp ATC circuit breaker with a manual reset. 

With your second issue, I have found that the DCS Explorer doesn't power the track after it is powered on. It only applies track power automatically when you issue a command for the engine to respond to.  When my engines show as inactive as your did, I perform a "READ' which force the Explorer to apply power to the track and Read the engines that are available.

The Speed dial issue, yeah I've had that happen before. Here is a fun one, tap the middle of the speedometer (the spot where the needle pivots) and it will do some interesting things. One of my tablets has a very sensitive screen, and has inadvertently issue unwanted speed commands which ensues into a panic. I'd recommend using the max speed to limit how fast the engine can go. I do this for every engine in my roster as I don't care for how close the PLUS button is to the 120 SMPH setting.  I hope that MTH considers revising the main train control screen in the app in the future for better control and button layout.

H1000, Thanks.

Regarding the fuses, I'm usually running two engines at once.  Yes, smoke and track powered turnouts.  The turnouts are usually the problem.

How do you force the app to perform a read?  Close it out and reopen it?

Speed: okay, I'm glad I'm not going crazy.  I will set the top speed.

Like you, I bought this to use on the Christmas layout.  I don't have DCS so I thought maybe I'd use it on the main layout the rest of the year.  I only want to adjust smoke and sound volume so it seems stupid to spend $ on DCS.  Really wishing MTH would go Bluetooth.

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