I am new to DCC but am a bit familiar with electronics. I bought a new NCE Power CAB and a few locos with sound. Genesis F7, BLI steam, others. I use KATO HO track. The system worked great on a test oval on a 4x8' . When I enlarged the oval to a 4x18' and added a passing siding and a yard, BLI is extremely eratic. (chuffs but runs erratically) All other decoder equipped locos work fine. I use a #12 stranded pair with at least 3 twists per foot feeding both sides of the oval. Adding this did not improve the BLI.
Welcome to the Forum!
I suspect your problem is electrical pickup in that engine as the other operate fine. Maybe just the wheels are dirty. The 'twist' is fine, but is not really needed for noise cancellation. As I understand it, you have a 'bus' all around the mainline? How often does the track tap into the bus via feeders?
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
It is not really a bus, just 2 places connect to the power. I eventually plan a 10x30' room with the tains travelling the perimeter. Thus the concern for data propagation. The wheels don't look dirty and the train is brand new out of the box. I onl;y ran it on the oval a few times and the track is also brand new.
What's the wheel configuration of the BLI steamer?
If you've built an oval on a 4x8, and used the traditional 18-inch radius sectional track to do it, you may have built in some bad track connections. More feeders will help, as will soldering the rail joiners. On the other hand, if the other engines work OK, you may not have that problem.
Longer engines like larger radius curves. My BLI Hudson is forgiving. It will work quite nicely on 18-inch curves, but the trackwork has to be perfect - no dipsy doodles, no kinks, no problems.
One thing I had to do was put the loco-tender spacing at the wider of the two available settings. The close-coupled setting looks better and is more prototypical, but it won't work around those 18-inch curves.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Get an electrical Multimeter(VOM) and on the AC scale; check your track voltage at various places around the layout. They shold all be the same. If not the Kato Uni-Track joiners may need to be replaced. Usually the Kato track is 'Bullet-Proof', but I am sure they can wear out. I do not feel you have any 'data propagation' issues here. Since the other engines work fine, the problem is in that engine. From you description, it sure sound like an electrical pickup issue.
I agree with you - soldering that Kato track will be hard!
One easy and common thing to check with BLI steamers (unfortunately, because I have several) is the tether between the tender and the engine cab. It is often the case that the connector has backed itself out due to forces on the wires. This is especially true on tighter curves.
Take a bamboo kabob skewer and jam the connector home. Work it in with a prying motion on both sides of the connector's wire bundle using the flanges to the sides. You may get lucky and find that this, only, is your problem.
I think this is the problem. Exchanged loco. Problem gone.
Thanks all.
I realize this problem is solved, but for future reference...
jrbernier Get an electrical Multimeter(VOM) and on the AC scale; check your track voltage at various places around the layout. They shold all be the same.
Get an electrical Multimeter(VOM) and on the AC scale; check your track voltage at various places around the layout. They shold all be the same.
This is good advice as far as it goes, but.....
For this readings to really be meaningful they need to be taken under a loaded condition. It is pretty likely that even a poor rail connection (whether it is Kato, or fishplate joiners, or whatever) will be able to handle the very small current the VOM draws to make the measurement, and the voltage will appear good everywhere. As soon as there is a real load, however, there will be a significant voltage drop across the bad joint. I've never thought about this, but I think something like a 50 Ohm 4W power resistor might make a good tester for this. Someone can check my math on that, just to make sure I haven't slipped a decimal in my head. I'm thinking of drawing around a quarter amp (like a hefty loco) to check the voltage drop.
Jeff But it's a dry heat!
With 14.5 volts to the track (common HO DCC setting), a 50 ohm resistor will draw a bit over 1/4 amp - .29 amps to be exact. And dissipate about 1.5 watts, so a 4 watt resistor gives you breathing room. If you can;t get a 50, two 100 ohm resistors in parallel would be 50 ohms.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinker With 14.5 volts to the track (common HO DCC setting), a 50 ohm resistor will draw a bit over 1/4 amp - .29 amps to be exact. And dissipate about 1.5 watts, so a 4 watt resistor gives you breathing room. If you can;t get a 50, two 100 ohm resistors in parallel would be 50 ohms. --Randy
It's nice to know the grey matter is still working!