Hi guys, I have a few short DCC locomotives that stall on some of my turnouts. I remember seeing somewhere on the net that some one was able to fix this problem by adding a capacitor to the locomotive and it would not stall. Would some one here know of the web site where this information is located? Thanks for any help.
Take Care & God Bless
First make sure they're not shorting out.
Another thing you can do is joice the Frog if it's metal.
Most loco's don't have a problem as long as there are pick-ups on all wheels.
Springfield PA
That was the first thing I did, and nothing shorted out. Most of my frogs are plastic, and the locomotives aren't much bigger then the frogs. They have pick ups of all 4 wheels. The locomotives are Grandt Line 25 ton switcher and Box cab locomotives.
I checked Wolfgang's web site thinking it would be it but it wasn't. One think I do remember about the first site I was talking about was that they show a Grandt Line 25 tom loco roll over a pieces of tissue paper and not stall out. The tissue was twice the length of the locomotive.
Don.
http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/mainnorth/alive.htm
I found it under sound decoders.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Not the web site I was thinking about but it will work. Thanks a bunch for the help. I didn't think about checking under sound decoders. Thanks again.
Well I contacted the guy about Stay Alive but it would only work with 4 and 6 axle locomotives because the capacitor needs a lot of room. I talked to him about the locomotive that I what to put it in and was told there was now way Stay Alive would fit in the loco I have.
So back to the web site search. Any one have any more suggestion?
Donald
Dunno how else anyoen could have done it, to keep a loco operating when there is no rail contact requires power, and it can either be a large value capacitor or a battery. Or a really big flywheel. There's no magic about it, there has to be an energy storage device of some sort. You can probably fit a reasonable size capacitor in there, at the expense of weight and pulling power. Your choice. Another option for the 25 tonners is run 2 of them together, with jumper wires. Or the second one can be a dummy with pickups, either way the power pickup wheelbase is increased, perhaps enough to span plastic frogs. Or replace with metal frog turnouts and power them. Wolfgang got a SOUND decoder and speaker in there, a motor only decoder plus a capacitor should fit. Might have to use one of the REALLY tiny decoders like CT Elektronik. I've seen that one crammed into a tender drive N scale loco with a slope-back tender - motor and decoder both fit in the tender. Better have a magnifier and a very fine tip soldering iron for those.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
don_csx Any one have any more suggestion?
Any one have any more suggestion?
Well, here's a wild one that probably won't be practical, but what the heck.
If you have a piece of rolling stock that you don't mind towing directly behind that loco most of the time, then put the capacitor in it and connect with mini connectors. Otherwise just switch to steam and put the cap in the tender.
Karl
The mind is like a parachute. It works better when it's open. www.stremy.net
I will have to check on this, but I believe Lenz sells something similar to what you are looking for, I do not remember how small it was, though.....
Randy Vos
"Ever have one of those days where you couldn't hit the ground with your hat??" - Waylon Jennings
"May the Lord take a liking to you and blow you up, real good" - SCTV
LENZ USP uses a 5V 1F (yes one full farad) 'supercap' plus a dc/dc convertor to get 12 volts out of it. I don;t think it's any smaller that the 4700uF caps shown on the web site, but it does store more energy. It's also not a simple circuit to DIY, nor can it easily be connected to anythying other than the intended Lenz decoders.
Wonder what kind of in-rush current those decoders have with a 1f cap.
I could only imagine several loco's with them during start-up.
There's circutry with it, it's not just a 1F cap across the rails, that would likely never work. The site linked a few posts up about installign keep-alives has the circuit that works with 'regular' capacitors to prevent excessive inrush current - the circuit that SHOULD BE part of those sound decoders that have the same problem.
Don,
The problem you are having is why all of my turnouts use live frogs. Probably the best option is to replace the turnouts in question with live frog turnouts. This could be a major undertaking if you have lots of turnouts on a scenically complete layout. If you intend to run lots of small steam, I think you will be happier in the end if you use live frogs.
RE stay alive: I have installed some "big " caps on some Tsunami equipped locos. They work well, but in my experience they are better suited to keeping power hungry sound decoders from re-setting during momentary power glitches. They don't have enough "umphh" to power the loco over dead track. As mentioned earlier, it's hard to get a cap big enough to supply lots of power to fit in a small loco.
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site